2nd Global Conference
"Conference Time, Space and the Body"
Sunday 1st September – Tuesday 3rd September 2013
Mansfield College, Oxford
While the categories of space and time have been ways of understanding and analysing humanity, the body has often been an ‘absent presence’ (Shilling, 2003). Moreover, in shaping a ‘natural’ attitude about our existence we have been preoccupied with the role of the mind. We have tended to organise our perception of the world by dividing not only the ability to acquire knowledge away from bodily awareness but also the embodied lived being away from its death. This form of organising knowledge acquisition tends to hide the multi-faceted nature of space, time and the body as it is ‘suspended in webs of significance’ (Geertz, 1973). However, by observing human’s existence and interaction within these ‘webs’ it becomes apparent that societies consist of people who are embodied, ‘enselved’ and constantly participating in interactive rituals in time and space which include, for example, forms of power, inspiration and elimination. These rituals, be they individualised or participatory, can be explored within specific tasks. As Turner (2004:38) argues ‘every society is confronted by four tasks: the reproduction of populations in time, the regulation of bodies in space, the restraint of the interior body through disciplines and the representation of the exterior body in social space.’
This conference project focuses on inter- and multi-disciplinary discussion and seeks to explore these tasks in order to open up a dialogue about the beliefs, representations and socio-political practices, of space, time and the body. We encourage presenters to use their own research interests as the foundation to explore inter-connections between their topic and its relationship(s) with time, space and/or the body. We are not expecting papers from experts in all three areas of space, time and the body, but presenters will be expected to discuss how their research relates to at least two out of the three ways of understanding humanity. We seek submissions from a range of disciplines including social geography and anthropology, literary studies, religious studies, archaeology, media and audience studies, architecture and planning, the visual and creative arts, classics and philosophy, social and natural sciences, business studies and politics.
Recognising that different disciplines express themselves in different mediums, we welcome traditional papers, workshop proposals and other forms of performance (as can be accommodated in the space provided). Submissions are sought on different aspects and/or relationships between any combination of space, time or the body or on how space and time are constructed in order to affect, effect, order and/or control the body or vice versa.
Topics could include, but are not limited to:
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Cyclical, spiral, dreamtime, memory or linear time and its relation to space and the body
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Representations of time, space and the body in popular culture, literature, art and language
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How changing attitudes to time, space or the body effect attitudes toward pain, death, suffering, religion, family, gender, sexuality, disability or fashion
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Non-human bodies in space and time The ‘body politic’ or the political body in space and time
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Time, ‘performativity’ and identity
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Time, space and punishment
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Technology and futurology
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Time and the spatiality of movement
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Monstrosity in space and the body
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Body modification and maintenance: past, present and future.
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Architecture: its adaption to changing attitudes towards the embodiment of time City planning and change over time or terrain
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Time and Space as Everyday
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Life Film, theatre and TV: music and mis-en-scene in relation to time and/or space
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Language and embodied/disembodied characters in novels, films, theatre and TV.
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Working and/or power relations in time and space Space, time and the body in computer games
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Altered consciousness, spirituality and ritual
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Indigenous cultures and cosmologies of space, time and the body
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The impact of space and time upon the body
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Monetising/economics of production between time, space and body
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Legislative/legal constructions as related to time, space, body
We actively encourage participation from practitioners and non-academics with an interest in the topic as well as pre-formed three paper panels.
What to Send:
300 word abstracts or presentation proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs by Friday 10th May 2013; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract.
E-mails should be entitled: TS+B2 Abstract Submission. Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend. Organising Chairs
Shona Hill & Shilinka Smith: shs@inter-disciplinary.net Rob Fisher: punish3@inter-disciplinary.net The conference is part of the making Sense Of: programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
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