Deception

The Deception Project: 2nd Global Meeting

Monday 20th July – Wednesday 22nd July 2015
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations:
We have entered a ‘post-truth era’, in which, historian Daniel J. Boorstin notes, ‘believability’ has become an acceptable substitute for ‘truth’, and ‘manifold deceptions of our culture’ are difficult to separate from ‘its few enduring truths’. In this era, communities and individuals may feel routinely duped, cheated or betrayed. Leaked documents detailing GCHQ’s deception tactics, WikiLeaks and revelations about large-scale deception, contribute to the perception that there exists a culture of lying. Though truth may be considered intrinsically valuable, deception may sometimes be useful or necessary. Sometimes there is pleasure in the spectacle of deception.

Deception is not limited to human activity. It is also practiced by animals, plants, diseases, and machines. It is an issue that transcends disciplines, affecting communities, individuals and objects.

This inter-disciplinary conference will address artefacts and practices that challenge truthfulness, authenticity or reliability. Deception is practiced in many forms, affecting societies and individuals. It may be a vital survival tool, a means of gaining unfair advantage, or a pleasurable spectacle. This conference invites delegates to explore how deception is manifested in their discipline, or how multi-disciplinary notions of deception affect their field. Proposals for papers and presentations are invited on topics related to, but not limited to:

The Science and Philosophy of Lying:
- lie detection
– the ethics of lying
– the politics of lying
– codes of conduct

Spies and Spying:
- undercover operations
– spy fiction
– spycraft, gadgets and toolkits
– British intelligence organisation GCHQ’s leaked documents on ‘The Art of Deception’

False Identities:
- disguises
– costumes and masquerade
– aliases and pseudonyms
– anonymity

The Spectacle of Deception:
- theatrical illusion
– virtual reality
– CGI

Psychological and Medical Deceptions:
- self-deception
– placebos
– diseases in disguise

Fakes and Forgeries:
- false signs of authenticity
– the lives and practices of forgers
– hoaxes
– red herrings and decoys
– false evidence

Betrayal:
- whistleblowers and defectors
– trust and distrust
– infidelity
– fractured expectations

Dishonest Media:
- photo-manipulation and retouching
– ‘black’ propaganda
– plagiarism
– misrepresentation

The Steering Group welcomes the submission of proposals for short workshops, practitioner-based activities, performances, and pre-formed panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings; photographic essays; installations; interactive talks and alternative presentation styles that encourage engagement.

What to Send:
Proposals will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word a proposals should be submitted by Friday 3rd April 2015. If a proposal  is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 12th June 2015. Proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Deception 2 Proposal Submission.

All abstracts will be at least double blind peer reviewed. 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 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:
Barbara Brownie: b.k.1.brownie@herts.ac.uk
Rob Fisher: decep2@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the Violence series of ongoing research and publications projects conferences, run within the Probing the Boundaries domain which aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore innovative and challenging routes of intellectual and academic exploration. All proposals accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook.  Selected proposals may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/hostility-and-violence/deception/call-for-presentations/