CALL FOR PROPOSAL 2016

IDENTIFYING THE POLITICAL

Conceptual Analysis: Rhetoric, Poetics and Populist Talk in Contemporary Politics

Appearances of the Political 1/6

Winter Symposium: February 22-23, 2016, University of Latvia (Main Building, Rai?a bulv?ris 19) in collaboration with University of Latvia

Invitation

The Nordic Summer University (NSU) study group Appearances of the Political announces a CFP for its winter symposium. The first session of the group will be organized in cooperation with Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art and Faculty of Theology, the Latvian University in Riga, Latvia.

The topic, Identifying the Political, will address the verbal play and its connection to physical presences of today’s political reality and approach it from the point of view of social, artistic, aesthetic and cultural analysis.

By focusing on the conceptual base of the appearances of the political we wish to articulate clearly the artistic, aesthetic and cultural forces underlying today’s political thinking. We also want to inaugurate a debate on the role of cultural approaches in political analysis. To really discuss the political we need to establish a deeper understanding of the key concepts and their cultural extensions before elaborating on other forms of investigating them.

This could, for example, be related to the impact of concepts like migration / refugee. What cultural significance do these (or any similar politically explosive) concepts anchor to?

We wish to break new paths in connecting the cultural humanities and the political sciences. This symposium thus invites the participants to explore bravely new ways of studying the issue. We believe that experimentation is crucial for rethinking the political.

Our partner in the winter session 2016 is the University of Latvia in Riga and we collaborate closely with Pauls Daija and the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art.

About the Study Group

The intention of Appearances of the Political is to create a platform for future collaborations and applications, and to exchange knowledge and share common interest. It is important for the group to consult a variety of fields as broad as possible including political theory, philosophy, communication, social sciences and cultural studies, and we hope that scholars from all areas of interest would join us.

Participating in this first meeting of the group does not imply any obligation for participating in future meetings. We hope, however, that participants will be involved in building a strong community on this topic for future activities reflecting the diversity of interests in the community. Future seminars will focus on History, Material Culture, Activism, Political Art and Aesthetics in the Everyday, and Communication. The list of sites for the study circle is planned to be, among more, of the following order: Riga, Orivesi (NSU Summer Session), Bratislava, St. Petersburg and Copenhagen. Changes might appear as well as additions. We are open to any propositions concerning collaboration, partners and sites.

We invite proposals for presentations addressing different problems relating to this call. We hope that academicians, artists, students, third sector agents and intellectuals would participate. Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions from the coordinators!

Please bookmark the study circle on NSU’s webpage http://nordic.university/study-circles/2-appearances-of-the-political/

and the blog of the study circle: http://appearancesofthepolitical.blogspot.com

Format of the presentation

Format of presentation can be either:
15 minutes presentation + 15 minutes discussion
or
30 minutes presentation + 10 minutes discussion.

Please indicate your wish in the abstract!

We encourage you to give an oral presentation, i.e. no dry reading of a paper or reading from texts on power points (use power points for pictures, illustration of similar material). What matters is the content and what you have to say, not the rhetorical performance. Any form of experimental presentation is very much welcomed.

To submit a proposal please send via email to the coordinators:

Max Ryynänen: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Carsten Friberg: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

1. A written proposal (300-500 words) with a title and descriptive subtitle. This text should include your presentation proposal, its format its duration, facilities you need (I.e. technical equipment)
2. If you wish to participate without giving a presentation, please write a short (200 words) description of yourself.

The deadline to submit proposals is November 30, 2015.  The preliminary program will be announced on December 15, 2015 on www.nordic.university where you can also find more information about NSU and sign up for the newsletter.

The applications will be viewed ASAP. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance no later than December 15.

Later submission is possible but we will prioritize early submissions.

Registration and fee

Students, unemployed and freelancers: 30 €

Baltic students: 10 €

Those associated with institutions:  50 €

We will use the fees to cover some food and other expenses for the participants.

Participants should apply to their institutions, Art Councils, local foundations or sponsors to have their travel cost covered.

Official website for the CFP: http://nordic.university/study-circles/2-appearances-of-the-political/call-for-proposal-winter-2016-circle-2/

Short presentation of the circle: http://nordic.university/study-circles/2-appearances-of-the-political/

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Beautiful Game: The Poetics and Aesthetics of Soccer in Transnational Perspective

University of Basel

June 30-July 2, 2016

Confirmed Speakers:

Simon Critchley (New School for Social Research)

Eva Lavric (University of Innsbruck)

Emily Ryall (University of Gloucestershire)

This conference, scheduled to take place during the 2016 European Championship and hosted by the University of Basel’s Department of English, takes up soccer with a special focus on its poetics and aesthetics. The conference particularly seeks to scrutinize the poetics and aesthetics of the game in light of comparative as well as transnational, transcontinental, and global perspectives. In doing so, it aims to shed light on the poetics and aesthetics of all aspects of soccer, from the actual game to fan chants and choreographies, from representations in the arts to the aesthetics of media coverage, from the poetics of live commentary to institutional image cultivation (MLS, FIFA, UEFA, etc.), from aspects of design (jerseys, balls) to recent developments in stadium architecture. Given this range and diversity of the forms in which the poetics and aesthetics of soccer manifest themselves, the conference by necessity is interdisciplinary in nature, with possible contributions coming from fields such as literary and cultural studies, philosophy, linguistics, visual studies and the arts, design, and architecture to name but a few.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• the poetics and aesthetics of the game

• “skill,” “creativity,” “intuition,” and “style” in soccer

• soccer and the notions of the beautiful and the sublime

• fan chants

• fan choreographies

• Ultra aesthetics

• the aesthetics (and politics) of institutional image cultivation via the staging of events such as opening ceremonies, fixture draws, player award ceremonies, etc.

• languages of/in soccer

• the poetics and rhetoric of soccer live commentary

• the poetics, rhetoric, and aesthetics of soccer media coverage

• representations of soccer in the arts (including literature and film)

• the aesthetics of stadium architecture

• design in soccer: jerseys, balls, gear, club emblems, etc.

In addition to academic talks, the conference will also include an art event, exhibiting some of the original art that is the basis for tschuttiheftli’s sticker collection they create for every World Cup and European Championship (http://www.tschuttiheft.li/).

Please send your 300-word abstracts and 100-word bios to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The deadline for submissions is December 14, 2015. The conference organizers plan to publish a collection of essays based on selected contributions to the conference.

Conference Organizers:

Dr. phil. des. Ridvan Askin and Dr. Catherine Diederich, Department of English, University of Basel, Nadelberg 6, CH-4051 Basel

European Society for Aesthetics Conference 2016

Barcelona (Spain) 8 – 10 June 2016

Submission deadline: 15th of January 2016

The European Society for Aesthetics would like to invite you to submit a paper for presentation at the ESA Conference 2016. The conference will be co-organised by the ESA, the Department of Philosophy of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Barcelona. 

Confirmed Keynote speakers:     

ï Christoph Menke (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankurt)

ï Elisabeth Schellekens (Uppsala Universitet)

ï Lev Kreft (University of Ljubljana)

We are inviting papers from all traditions and on any topic in philosophical aesthetics, and both systematic and historical presentations are acceptable. 

We encourage the presentation of submissions in English, but submissions in other major European languages will be considered equally. For each talk, there will be time for a 25-minute presentation, with about another 20 minutes designated for discussion. All accepted papers would be eligible for publication in the proceedings of the ESA. (http://proceedings.eurosa.org)

Submissions must be long abstracts, between 800 and 1.200 words in length, presenting not only the main ideas and claims of the paper, but also the chief considerations and arguments in favour of them. Please, notice that full paper submissions will not be accepted and submissions are limited to one per person.

Please use the PDF-file format for submission and render your text completely anonymous, allowing for blind refereeing. To submit your long abstract, please use the EasyChair online submission system (first-time users will be asked to register with EasyChair). 

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=esa2016

We also encourage all submitters to sign up as members of the ESA (which is free): http://www.eurosa.org/

The deadline for submissions of papers is the 15^th of January 2016, and we aim to inform you about the result of our selection process by mid February 2016.  

Further information about the conference will soon be available on ESA website. Please send all your questions to the conference organizers: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.