science and culture

With Health Humanities on the rise and medical memoirs flooding bookshelves, it's easy to forget that the alliances forged between literary representation and medical discourse are new and fragile. Writers from a multitude of traditions have long squared off against doctors for the right to understand illness and capture the essence of the diseased subject. Their motivations have spanned from the starkly political to the intensely personal.

This panel seeks to explore the formal approaches and theoretical implications of these Anti-Medical Humanities. What drives these writers to resist the assimilation of the literary into the medical, and vice versa?

Potential topics could include, but are not limited to:

NeMLA 2021: Philadelphia, PA. March 11-14, 2021

As we move forward in this new normal, there is an urgent need, at both national and global levels, for critical investigations into the humanistic, scientific, and social scientific impacts of the coronavirus, both societally and in academia. It’s possible, likely even, that your current research and teaching focuses are not directly related to epidemiology. Regardless, your research and/or teaching has undoubtedly been affected by the pandemic. Now is a key moment to lean into the many robust opportunities for teaching developments and enhancements.

Human Cognition in Andreï Makine’s Oeuvre

La cognition humaine chez Andreï Makine

Study days postponed to July 1-2, 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic

Deadline for paper submission extended: January 15, 2021

Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr. Alexandre Gefen (CNRS, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3)

Call for Papers

Medieval animal studies has tended to privilege literary and encyclopedic texts, viewing animals within Aristotelian hierarchies of rationality, while research on animals in medieval medicine has focused on their use as ingredients, rather than their potential status as patients. There have been few discussions of animals and humans in relationships of care, or of animals as the recipients of medical treatment. In this panel, we seek to expand these conversations by centering veterinary medicine, including treatment manuals (e.g., hawking handbooks), literary representations of veterinary practices (e.g., romance heroes caring for horses), and other genres that concern the (un)ethical, (il)legal, or (im)proper treatment, training, or keeping of animals.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic impacts the lives of societies, communities, and individuals deeply. Since the beginning of the pandemic, experts, scholars, journalists, and individuals have testified time and again to the fact that the virus does not impact everyone in the same ways. Identifying factors that heighten vulnerability is an important part of protecting those at risk. However, just as it is vital to recognize that racism and not race translates to higher exposure to and less protection from the virus for people of colour, it is crucial to recognize that ageism and not age is the greatest factor that puts older people at risk.

REVELAR – Journal of Photography and Image Studies is open to works for volume no.5 (2020). This edition, dedicated to the theme Photography-Science-Object, will publish works in the following modalities:
— Scientific papers
— Reviews (on books, essays or photography exhibitions)
— Photo-essays (open to both amateurs and professional photographers)
— Varia

Climate change is an important issue that has become a frequent topic in twentieth as well as twenty-first century literature and film. From science fiction of the past to the present-day speculative fiction, this roundtable presents an opportunity to provide and study examples both past and present regarding climate change issues in literature and film. Dystopias written by international writers reflect the world-wide concern regarding climate change. For example, novelists such as British-born Maggie Gee’s The Flood or French-born Pierre Boulle’s La Planète des singes[The Planet of the Apes] speculate on the possibility of climate changes causing devastating destruction.

Virtual conference on Saturday 7 November, 2020
at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, with Zoom.

Humankind has ever been impressed by, and formed by, the natural world. The world’s beginning and end are a subject in numerous narratives. Ecocriticism addresses large scale concerns about anthropocene changes. In literary tradition there is a multiplicity of understandings, while Biblical religion has stated that God made both heaven and earth. 

Six papers contributed by scholars from the UK, France, Canada, the USA, Poland and Australia will be distributed and then discussed in the video conference on 7 November 2020.  The CLSG interest is in exploring Christian and Biblical themes in Literature.

Call for Papers: 

Jesuits in Science Fiction: The Clash of Reason and Revelation on Other Worlds

Edited by Richard Feist (Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada)

To be published by Vernon Press

https://vernonpress.com/proposal/124/c3ae24073138a8424f53d1810cbfeb36

Vernon Press invites book chapter proposals for a forthcoming scholarly volume on representations of disability in science fiction, a peer-reviewed collection of essays that will examine how disability identity and experience have been shaped through the science fiction genre.

Call for Papers for Special Issue

Animal Futurity: A Speculative Exploration of the Future of Human-Animal Relations

Abstracts Due September 7th, 2020 

“PANDEMICS AND LOCKDOWNS IN POP CULTURE”

Confirmed speakers:

Raz Chen-Morris (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Alexander Honold (University of Basel)
Hania Siebenpfeiffer (University of Marburg)

Philip K. Dick:  His Sources and Inspirations