Events

Events include paper calls for conferences, workshops, lectures, seminars, and exhibits (listed in chronological order).

Last updated 08/15/2010 by Kathryn de Ridder-Vignone.

The Rightful Place of Science?

May 16 2010 | Tempe, AZ

Updated: March 16 2010

The Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes at Arizona State University invites you to attend The Rightful Place of Science? May 16-19, 2010 in Tempe, AZ. Join your colleagues and friends to frame the future agenda for engaging and shaping science policy. “The Rightful Place of Science?” will address the challenges facing a society that is at once utterly dependent on science and technology and yet equally unprepared to govern the implications of that dependence. In his inaugural address, President Obama promised to “restore science to its rightful place” in U.S. society, but that location is far from obvious. How can we understand this provocative formulation in the context of the complexity, uncertainty, and political, social and cultural diversity that mark our world? At this conference, you will be immersed in a world of rich and generative interaction aimed at fostering ideas, agendas and community at the interfaces of science, technology, politics, media and the arts. For more information, http://www.cspo.org/conference2010/.

First Berlin Forum Innovation in Governance

May 20 2010 | Berlin

Deadline: February 14 2010

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Updated: February 14 2010

The Innovation in Governance Research Group at the Technische Universität Berlin is pleased to publish a Call for Papers for the First Berlin Forum Innovation in Governance, which will take place in Berlin on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 May, 2010. This Forum is the first in an initial series of four, which will take place on an annual basis until 2013.

Entitled "Studying the emergence and development of new forms of governance", the first Forum aims to lay the conceptual and methodological grounds for studying the genesis, dynamics and politics of new forms of
governance.

We therefore invite you to submit proposals for papers that discuss and/or probe particular approaches to conceptualise innovation in governance and trace the development of governance patterns through time and space.

We also invite proposals for poster presentations. A planned poster session will include a concourse with five minutes for each poster to highlight questions, approach and findings.

We will be able to cover travel expenses for a limited number of participants. Please therefore indicate your need for travel funds when submitting your proposal.

The deadline for the submission of all abstracts is Sunday, 14 February 2010. Please submit your proposal via email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Applicants will be notified of the outcome by the end of February.

“Understanding Sustainability: Perspectives from the Humanities”

May 20 2010 | The Portland Center for Public Humanities at Portland State University

Deadline: January 04 2010

www.publichumanities.pdx.edu

Updated: January 13 2010

We hear talk of "sustainability" everywhere—sometimes as an ecological vision, an advertising strategy, a countercultural dream or even a business model. Given the diverse uses of “sustainability,” how might those of us who invoke it most effectively address our ecological,
economic, and social challenges? This conference is an invitation to construct bridges across the diverse terrains of sustainability theory and practice, engaging in productive dialogue and debate that might lead to innovative green frameworks for environmental scholarship,
activism, research, and policy.

Proposal Guidelines:
We welcome proposals both for traditional academic paper presentations as well as other formats, including panel discussions, interviews, workshops, art installations, and media screenings. Presentations that speak broadly to an interdisciplinary audience and that seek to
stimulate broad conversation about the future direction of green or environmental knowledge and practice are especially encouraged.

Please send proposals of 250 words or less by Monday, January 4, 2010 to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Please write “Understanding Sustainability” in the subject line and attach your proposal in the form of a Microsoft Word compatible file. Both the e-mail text and document should include name, affiliation,proposal title, and full contact information (address, phone, e-mail) for all participants. More information about this conference and the sponsoring Humanities Sustainability Research Project may be found at

Fourth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM-10)

May 23 2010 | George Washington University, Washington, DC

Deadline: December 01 2009

http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Author/author.php

Updated: January 13 2010

Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Featuring a keynote by Professor Bob Kraut on "Designing Online Communities from Theory"

The International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media is a unique venue that brings together researchers from the disciplines of NLP, Social Psychology, Data Mining, Sociology and Visualization to increase our understanding of social media in all its incarnations. Research that blends social science and technology is especially encouraged.
SUBMISSION
People interested in participating should submit through the ICWSM-10 website a technical paper (up to 8 pages, not including references), poster or demo description (up to 4 pages) by the deadlines given above (Midnight PST). Papers must be must be formatted in AAAI two-column, camera-ready style (see the AAAI author instructions page at http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Author/author.php). Details for the submission procedure will appear at the conference website: http://icwsm.org
CONFERENCE WEBSITE
http://www.icwsm.org For general information regarding ICWSM-10, please write .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). More details about the CFP and the conference will appear on the website over time.

Biomedical Visualisations and Society: Virtual Reality and its Application to Healthcare

May 24 2010 | University of Warwick

Updated: January 13 2010

An ESRC funded seminar series for early-career researchers interested in the social and political dimensions of biomedical visualisations. Each two-day workshop will combine a lecture from a leading scholar in the field and time for peer discussion with an opportunity to engage with visualisation in practice and ask questions. Attendance is free but places are limited. Some funding is available towards travel and accommodation costs for researchers who have no alternative funding source.
For more information, visit the project website: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/biomedicalvisualisationsandsociety
Or email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Virtual Reality and its Application to Healthcare
24th – 25th May 2010
Keynote Speaker: Rachel Prentice, Cornell University, USA.
Includes a visit to the Digital Lab, University of Warwick, guided by Professor Vinesh Raja.

Identity in the Information Society Workshop (IDIS10)

May 26 2010 | Rome, Italy

Deadline: December 10 2009

http://www.editorialmanager.com/idis/

Updated: January 13 2010

The third IDIS annual workshop provides an opportunity to present leading edge research, exchange ideas, encourage collaboration, andbuild communities across the various research groups working on contemporary identity topics and in the related fields of privacy and
security. Check previous workshops at http://is2.lse.ac.uk/idis/2009/.

Scope

IDIS10 explores the relationship between “Identity and Organizations”, whether public or private sector, local or global, formal or informal, for-profit or not. We welcome contributions ranging across different disciplinary areas, reflecting the broad nature of the study area with
its interwoven concerns of law, technology, and information systems alongside other social, political and management issues.

Topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:
• New identity technologies
• Emerging practices and behaviours enabled with identification
processes
• Changing notions of identity: customers, citizens, and audiences
• Information and identity risks and how they are managed
• Surveillance and privacy issues
• Regulatory and legal issues

Important dates:
Submission of papers to Workshop (4-6000 words): 10 December 2009
Decision and Screening Feedback to authors: 19 February 2010
Presentation of selected papers at IDIS10 Workshop: 26-28 May 2010
Submission to IDIS Journal of revised selected papers: 25 June 2010
Feedback from reviewers to authors: 3 September 2010
Submission of final version papers: 5 November 2010
Publication in IDIS Journal from January 2011

Submit papers to IDIS Journal: http://www.editorialmanager.com/idis/
selecting “IDIS10 Workshop” article type.

2nd Workshop on Architecture + Social Architecture

May 26 2010 | Brussels, Belgium

Deadline: February 01 2010

Updated: January 13 2010

This is the second conference on “Architecture and Social Architecture” which seeks to explore a notion of relationships between organizations and their affiliated architecture. In recent years, organizational scholars have given attention to ways of conceiving space in organizations. However, little attention has been given to the influence of architecture on organizations and social behavior in the context of architectural spaces. Additionally, other disciplines such as, architecture, science and technology studies, and urban design and planning have examined the intersection between physical architecture and the organizations that structure it that may provide new lenses for organizational scholars and vice versa. We are particularly interested in cross-fertilization of disciplines that illuminate new and novel methodological, theoretical and analytical approaches.

Abstract submissions of 400 words should be submitted online by February 1. For more information visit website at:

Ten Years After - Mapping the Societal Genomics Landscape

May 27 2010 | Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam

Deadline: January 08 2010

www.society-genomics.nl/en/conference-2010

Updated: January 13 2010

The Centre for Society and Genomics (CSG, The Netherlands), in collaboration with the UK-EGN network and VALGEN (Canada) will hold its biannual Conference on Society and Genomics on May 27-28 in Amsterdam. We invite submission of abstracts for papers and posters addressing the upcoming conference’s theme: Ten years after - Mapping the societal landscape of genomics.
The basic objective of the conference is to map and assess the emerging societal landscape of genomics. Four zones will be distinguished: the urban, the industrial, the rural and the environmental zone. Within these zones, a range of topics (dealing with innovation, governance, infrastructures and emerging issues) will be addressed in the form of parallel sessions. Besides plenary lectures, the programme includes ~ 50 scholarly presentations in parallel sessions, while participants will also have the opportunity to display posters.
We invite submission of abstracts for presentations or posters no later than January 8, 2010.
Further information about the theme of the conference, the practicalities and the call can be found on CSG’s website: www.society-genomics.nl/en/conference-2010

Venice Summer School on Science and Religion, 2010

May 29 2010 | Venice, Italy

Deadline: November 12 2009

http://www.vssr.info

Updated: January 13 2010

The Venice Summer School on Science and Religion held in Venice, Italy, intends to be a key venue to expand and deepen the work of scholars interested in the interface of two of humanity's most central approaches to the search for truth and meaning. The school is open to all scholars seeking enhanced engagement with central topics in science
and religion.

The theme for the 2010 summer school is "Values & Science." The school will meet 25 May through 29 May 2010. Lecturers include George Ellis, Keith Ward, and David Sloan Wilson. The school's organizing committee includes Karl Giberson, Thomas Jay Oord, William Shea, and Donald Yerxa.

The Venice School on Science and Religion will award scholarships to participants whose proposals are chosen as most relevant for the school's discussion. Interested individuals should submit materials when applying for admission.

All application materials for the school are due 12 November 2009. Notification of acceptance will be 31 January 2010. More information regarding the application and other matters are available on the school website:
http://www.vssr.info

Workshop Ethics on the laboratory floor; explorations for a methodology

June 01 2010 | University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands

Deadline: March 01 2010

http://www.utwente.nl/ceptes/ceptes_activities/deliberation_engineering/

Updated: January 14 2010

These last years there has been a growing interest in the engagement of ethicists in the context of scientific engineering research, with the aim to anticipate the ambiguous impacts that technological innovations have on the quality of human life. In this way ethicists are thought to be able to contribute to the constitution of the technological product, at a stage when it is still malleable.

Several scholars have developed views on how an ethicist in this context should work, but there is not yet a detailed ‘method’. With this workshop we want to contribute to the development of such a method. We want to focus especially on the themes of reflection and deliberation, for the enhancement of ‘reflection’ and the broadening of ‘deliberation’ is often understood to be the primary aim of the work of an ethicist in the scientific research context. Yet it remains unclear what this involves. Questions are raised such as: what is reflection/deliberation? How should ethicists enhance reflection? What are the consequences of such an enhancement of reflection on the deliberation about research choices? How much should this deliberation be broadened? And what is the specific input of an ethicist in this deliberation?

This workshop aims to act as a platform to discuss and critically engage with these questions. Confirmed invited participants are Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Rosalyn Berne, Ulrike Felt, Armin Grunwald, Alfred Nordmann and Arie Rip.

We invite abstracts (500-1000 words) from philosophers and social scientists. Theoretical philosophical papers about deliberation, reflection and moral linguistics are welcome, but also descriptions and analyses of concrete joint deliberation processes on the laboratory floor about ethical issues. Sub-themes are:

* Reflection/deliberation
* Future scenarios
* Ethical language and communication
* The institutional context

For contact or more information, please look at our workshop website http://www.utwente.nl/ceptes/ceptes_activities/deliberation_engineering/

The deadline for submission is March 1, 2010. The authors of selected papers will be notified by email. Abstracts should be sent to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

“Connected Understanding”, Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference, 2010 (CCA)

June 01 2010 | Concordia University, Montreal

Deadline: January 15 2010

http://acc-cca.ca/en/annual_conference

Updated: January 13 2010

“Connected Understanding” is the theme of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS) 2010 Congress within which the Canadian Communication Association (CCA) will hold its Annual Conference from June 1 - 3 at Concordia University. We are calling for proposals that explore, critique and extend this theme as well as for proposals on any other relevant themes to Communication Studies. Please see website for further information on panels, prizes, travel Please note that Masters students interested in taking part in the
conference must submit through the Graduate Masters Sessions. See the GMS terms of reference: http://acc-cca.ca/en/annual_conference

Full details on submission, proposal forms, prizes, accommodation, etc., are included in our Conference FAQ: http://acc-cca.ca/en/annual_conference
.
Submission Details
All proposals must be submitted using the online submissions form. Full details are available at http://www.acc-cca.ca/reg/ . Please follow the directions on this website carefully and review the
Conference FAQ for more details: http://acc-cca.ca/en/ annual_conference . All proposals will be peer-reviewed by the conference organizing committee.
For additional information, please visit the CCA web site :
http://www.acc-cca.ca/, http://www.acc-cca.ca/en/annual_conference, http://acc-cca.ca/en/conference/upcoming_conference

Fourth Conference on the History of Recent Economics

June 03 2010 | École normale supérieure de Cachan

Deadline: September 30 2009

http://www.hisreco.org/

Updated: January 13 2010

The Second World War and its aftermath marked a major stage in the establishment of economics as one of the dominant discourses in contemporary societies. The spread of economic ideas into many areas of social life invites mutually profitable engagements between historians of economics and historians of other social sciences. It also presents great potential for those working on the history of economics to broaden their audience beyond those that they have traditionally addressed.

The past decade has been witness to a surging interest in the history of economics post-WWII. This new scholarship has made good use of newly available source-materials, rehearsed new methodologies for the study of the past and looked across disciplinary boundaries for insights. The first three HISRECO conferences offered wide-ranging samples of this work. For the fourth consecutive year, we are inviting submissions of papers on the post-WWII era. Papers that deal with the period leading up to this may be considered, but only if they shed significant light on subsequent developments. Though all proposals will be carefully considered, our preference is for papers that place post-war economics in a broader context, whether this is parallel developments in other social sciences, politics, culture or economic challenges. To this end, we solicit proposals from scholars trained in history, economics, sociology, or any field that may yield insights. Proposals from doctoral students and junior researchers are actively encouraged.

If you are interested in participating, please submit a proposal containing roughly 500 words and indicating clearly the original contribution of the paper (if you have a draft of the paper, we would be happy to see that as well). The deadline for the submission of paper proposals is 30 September 2009. Notice of acceptance or rejection will be sent by 15 November 2009 and completed papers will be due on 1 March 2010 so that we can provide feedback and then give discussants time to prepare worthwhile comments.

Proposals should be sent electronically to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For further information about the conference please contact Philippe Fontaine.

2010 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society: Social Implications of Emerging Technol

June 07 2010 | Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

Deadline: October 02 2009

www.ieeessit.org or www.uow.edu.au.

Updated: January 13 2010

The IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) is an annual international forum sponsored by the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT). ISTAS`10 in Wollongong, NSW, Australia, will bring together participants sharing research, projects, and ideas about: Automatic Identification, Automatic identification technologies including biometrics (DNA), RFID, Surveillance, dataveillance, sousveillance, anti-surveillance, uberveillance, National security, emergency response, border control, e-tollways, e-passports, Location-Based Services, Geographic information systems, digital mapping, geotagging, street view, CCTV, Location-based services, global positioning systems (GPS), tracking, monitoring, Social Networking, Social networking applications, blogs, glogs, cyberstalking, collaboration, Data collection, data merging, data matching, data mining, disclosure, Mobile comms, wearable computing, ubiquity, context-aware applications, Nanotechnology, Microchip implants, biomedical solutions, diagnostics, drug delivery, Nanotechnology, bionics, transhumanism, artificial intelligence, robots, cyborgs, Privacy, Security & Human Rights, Cyberethics, privacy, data protection, trust, control, consent, transborder flows, Security, law enforcement, covert/overt policing, laws, regulations, public policy, Social implications, registers, human rights, intellectual property, social equity.

Additional papers on other traditional fields of interest to SSIT also are welcome. ISTAS ‘10 will be a multi-disciplinary event for engineers, scientists, researchers in the social sciences, arts/law and humanities, and decision makers in the public and private sectors.
Important Dates: Abstract submission (200 words) October 2, 2009
Full/Short paper submission (5000/2000 words): November 13, 2009
Final camera-ready copy: March 26, 2010
All submissions to Katina Michael at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For more information visit: www.ieeessit.org or www.uow.edu.au.

Risky entanglements? Contemporary research cultures imagined and practised

June 09 2010 | Albert Schweitzer Haus, Vienna

Deadline: January 29 2010

http://sciencestudies.univie.ac.at/events/conference2010/

Updated: January 12 2010

Recent key macro studies agree that scientific research is
increasingly entangled in various societal rationales. On the one
hand, these analyses should be understood within the context of the
growing importance attributed to scientific and technological
innovation for shaping contemporary societies. On the other hand,
society's readiness to contribute to an innovation-friendly climate is
considered a key-asset for materializing this imagined progress. For
both issues, the human side of science, thus researchers and their way
of doing research, their values and their readiness to engage with
both science and society, is perceived as essential.

As this unfolds on a global scale, it is interesting to observe within
research policy and science institutions the convergence of various
discourses that stress and imagine what seem to be the key values or
myths guiding research today: excellence, accountability, mobility,
flexibility, ethical conduct, societal relevance or application
orientation, to mention but a few. However, far too little analytic
attention has been devoted to (1) how these broad and ostensibly
universal notions impinge on different work and knowledge production
cultures, (2) how specific local histories and contingencies play out
in practice, (3) how these global changes get refracted locally and
personally, and (4) how all this re-frames what being a researcher
today actually means. This lack seems astonishing given the importance
the 'human factor' is attributed in current policy discourses around
innovation.

This conference invites contributions that address change and
continuity of work and knowledge production cultures in research, and
ask in which processes ethical, societal and economic rationales shape
these very cultures. Of particular interest are contributions that are
combining more refined empirical analyses with broader theoretical
frameworks of change. By combining works that address different
regional-historical contexts and different scientific fields, the
conference's explicit goal is to open up comparative perspectives,
thus contributing to a broader understanding of contemporary research
cultures.

Risky entanglements?: Contemporary research cultures imagined and practised

June 09 2010 | Albert Schweitzer Haus, Vienna

Deadline: January 29 2010

http://sciencestudies.univie.ac.at/events/conference2010/

Updated: January 13 2010

Recent key macro studies agree that scientific research is increasingly entangled in various societal rationales. On the one hand, these analyses should be understood within the context of the growing importance attributed to scientific and technological innovation for shaping contemporary societies. On the other hand, society's readiness to contribute to an innovation-friendly climate is considered a key-asset for materializing this imagined progress. For both issues, the human side of science, thus researchers and their way of doing research, their values and their readiness to engage with both science and society, is perceived as essential.

As this unfolds on a global scale, it is interesting to observe within research policy and science institutions the convergence of various discourses that stress and imagine what seem to be the key values or myths guiding research today: excellence, accountability, mobility, flexibility, ethical conduct, societal relevance or application orientation, to mention but a few. However, far too little analytic attention has been devoted to (1) how these broad and ostensibly universal notions impinge on different work and knowledge production cultures, (2) how specific local histories and contingencies play out in practice, (3) how these global changes get refracted locally and personally, and (4) how all this re-frames what being a researcher today actually means. This lack seems astonishing given the importance the 'human factor' is attributed in current policy discourses around innovation.

This conference invites contributions that address change and continuity of work and knowledge production cultures in research, and ask in which processes ethical, societal and economic rationales shape these very cultures. Of particular interest are contributions that are combining more refined empirical analyses with broader theoretical frameworks of change. By combining works that address different regional-historical contexts and different scientific fields, the conference's explicit goal is to open up comparative perspectives, thus contributing to a broader understanding of contemporary research cultures.
Please see website for associated details:
http://sciencestudies.univie.ac.at/events/conference2010/

Recycling Textile Technologies

June 14 2010 | University College London

Updated: February 14 2010

This interdisciplinary workshop will bring together researchers who work
on textile recycling, including anthropologists, geographers,
historians, political economists, designers, and materials scientists.
This is with a view to develop a research agenda that explores
innovation in textile recycling technologies in the widest sense, and
how these succeed or fail in becoming socially embedded. Textile
recycling activities, as socio-technical systems, arise in specific
cultural contexts within global trading patterns, and their study may
incorporate the underlying relationships between people and things, raw
materials and technologies and the emergence of entrepreneurs and
innovators in social networks amongst other (f)actors.

We see at least three possible clusters of themes emerging, but welcome
further ideas:

1. Reinventing Old Solutions to New Problems?

Industrial recycling practises are specific, historically situated
socio-technical systems. While pre-industrial papermaking industries
used rags as a source of raw materials, 19th century textile mills
looked to recycled clothing as a cheaper source of raw material for the
wool shoddy industries. In the 21st century, the problem has changed to
what to do with mountains of cast-off clothing, and this drives the
search for technologically solutions appropriate to diverse cultural
contexts. Anthropological understandings of technology embrace
materials, makers, designers, and users in a relational networks
including socio-economic, political, and legal factors. In this broader
context, how are some old technologies being reinvented for the future,
and in what fields are new technologies being successfully developed?

2. The value of knowledge and skills in cultural contexts

As different cultures have developed different somatic skills and
practices, we wish to investigate the importance of tacit knowledges to
recycling. Consideration of these embedded knowledges within the global
perspective raises a number of questions specific to the processing of
waste textiles. How are knowledge and skills valued differently within a
textile waste industry compared to primary production? How intimately do
you need to know used textiles in order to process them effectively, and
how do differing levels of entanglement affect your social status within
a recycling system? For those who are bodily engaged with waste, how
valuable are these tacit knowledges and are they acknowledged by others?
And what are the cultural specificities of the valuing of people and
skills within different textile waste sectors? For example, there are
differences in skills and status between an immigrant rag sorter in a UK
factory, an illiterate migrant woman cutting up rags in an Indian shoddy
factory and the designer creating eco-textiles from recycled materials.
Do these differences come down to a narrowing of knowledge domains? Are
these limitations the only factors affecting personal value ranking
within global systems?

3. Networks of global trade

Since at least the early 19thC rags have been globally traded for reuse
and recycling industries. Many rag businesses are family businesses that
have been trading for generations, and have nurtured valuable networks
of business contacts that span the developed and developing world in
both directions. The movement of second-hand textiles across the globe
both creates social relations and at the same time is enabled by
pre-existing social contacts. Why is it difficult to start up a new rag
trade business? A related question is what can waste do as an actor in
international trade? For example, how does the trade in second-hand
clothing and textile waste facilitate the movement of other goods along
similar networks? To what extent is textile waste trade a conduit for
other licit and illicit goods? How might the degrees of regulatory
frameworks surrounding waste enable or inhibit other flows of goods, and
is this conducive to it becoming the visible front for invisible
commodity exchange? Is this particular to textiles, to waste or raw
materials in general?

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words by Feb 28th to:
Lucy Norris .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) AND Julie Botticello
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Department of Anthropology, UCL.

This workshop is being initiated as part of the ESRC project, the Waste
of the World
www.thewasteoftheworld.org

Objectivity in Science

June 17 2010 | University of British Columbia

Deadline: December 01 2009

Updated: January 13 2010

Over the past two decades questions have arisen regarding the objectivity of specific projects in or fields of science: for example, can we trust medical research when it is funded by pharmaceutical companies? Or, whose research in climate science meets the standards of scientific objectivity? Such questions have become important in framing public debate about science and science policy. At the same time, the objectivity of science has become an increasingly important topic among historians and philosophers of science as well as researchers in other fields in science and technology studies (STS) such as sociology of science, rhetoric of science, and cultural studies of science. This conference seeks to advance scholarly perspectives on the objectivity of science by bringing them into conversation with one another. The conference also asks whether and how such scholarly perspectives on objectivity might or should inform public debate. The conference will investigate, moreover, how the specific concerns of scientists, science policy experts, science journalists, and other groups might be made more salient in the research of the STS community.

The goal of this conference, thus, is to provide a forum for STS researchers of diverse disciplinary backgrounds, practicing scientists, and other researchers to discuss and debate issues concerning the nature of objectivity in science. A particular concern will be to discuss how, when, and why questions of objectivity arise within science, in science policy debates, and in public engagement with science. In addition to conference sessions held during the day, this conference will feature two evening panel discussions, open to the public and focused on particular areas of research wherein the issue of scientific objectivity is particularly salient. The public panel discussions will focus on questions of objectivity in collaborative aboriginal research and in research on harm reduction.
Confirmed keynote speakers include Professor Ian Hacking (University of Toronto and the Collège de France) and Professor Naomi Oreskes (University of California at San Diego).
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
We welcome individual paper and panel submissions related to the theme of scientific objectivity.

Proposals for papers should include author information (including email address), paper title, and an abstract of no more than 500 words. Speakers will have 30 minutes to present and discuss their work.

Proposals for panel sessions should include the name of the panel organizer (including email), a brief description of the panel, author information, paper titles, and abstracts for each paper. Panel sessions will be ninety minutes in duration, including discussion time.

Program Committee: Alan Richardson (UBC), Robert Brain (UBC), Candis Callison (UBC), Lesley Cormack (Simon Fraser University), Flavia Padovani (UBC), and Jonathan Tsou (Iowa State University).

The deadline for paper and panel submissions is December 1, 2009. Please email submissions to Dani Hallet at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Risk, Governance, and Accountability, Society for Risk Analysis

June 21 2010 | King's College London

Deadline: January 11 2010

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/srae2010

Updated: January 13 2010

The 19th SRA-Europe conference in 2010 aims to facilitate an exchange of ideas among all actors in the field of risk: academics from across the disciplines, policy makers, the private sector, NGOs and other interest groups. The conference organisers welcome presentations on all aspects of risk analysis, broadly encompassing risk assessment, risk characterisation, risk perception and communication, risk management, and risk governance.

The special conference theme will be Risk, Governance and Accountability. This theme reflects the increasing centrality of risk analysis to decision-making in a wide range of policy and organisational contexts and the increasing demands by the public for decision-makers to account for outcomes.
The 2010 conference will be held at King's College London and will be co-sponsored by the Environment Agency, the Food Standards Agency and the Health and Safety Executive. King’s College London is one of England’s oldest and most prestigious university institutions, and its central London location is within walking distance of world famous attractions, such as the
Houses of Parliament, St Paul’s Cathedral, Tate Modern, and Covent Garden.

We invite scientists and practitioners wishing to present their work at the conference in the form of an oral presentation, poster, or symposium, to submit an abstract, no later than January 11th 2010.

For more information about the conference and important dates, please visit the website at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/srae2010,
or email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

3rd International Conference on The History of Medicine in Southeast Asia (HOMSEA 2010)

June 22 2010 | Singapore

Deadline: December 30 2009

Updated: January 13 2010

All proposals on the subject of the history of medicine and health in Southeast Asia will be considered, but preference will be given to those on the theme of:

New Medicines, Markets, and the Development of Medical Pluralism

The theme “New Medicines, Markets, and the Development of Medical Pluralism” intends to explore how both local and metropolitan actors in Southeast Asia have contributed historically to the growth and development of medical markets throughout the region, here implying both traditional pharmacopeia as well as the arrival of newer pharmaceuticals in colonial and post-colonial settings. With a time frame preceding formal colonial intervention in the region and ranging up to the present, with the creation of a local infrastructure for biomedical and biotech work, participants are encouraged to submit individual papers and panels with possible themes including:

Women and Health in Southeast Asia
Medical pluralism in Southeast Asia: A Historical Perspective
Medical markets in SEA
Southeast Asian Biopoleis (including the growth of biomedical infrastructure, Science Parks, and Local Production Facilities¬identification of pharmacopoeia, drug development)
New Sources, New Methodologies, New Historiographies

As the HOMSEA meeting will coincide with the IAHA 2010 meeting in Singapore, those interested in expanding the discussion either geographically¬to include North East Asia and South Asia¬chronologically, or methodologically are encouraged to apply to HOMSEA as well as the IAHA meeting to broaden the scope of discussion.

Please see the IAHA website at: http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/hist/iaha/index.htm

Please submit a one-page proposed abstract for a 20-minute talk, and a one-page CV by 30th December 2009 to: Laurence Monnais ( .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

Please note that it may be possible to subsidize some of the costs of participation for scholars from less wealthy countries.

For further information about funding and the general organization of the meeting, please contact: John DiMoia (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

IPA 2010 Grenoble: Discourse and Policy Practices: Politics – Legitimacy - Power

June 23 2010 | Grenoble, France

Deadline: January 31 2010

http://www.ipa2010-grenoble.fr/discursive-practices-and-legitimate-power-in-forest-and-nature-policy/

Updated: February 14 2010

The social sciences are witnessing a 'practice turn', of which traces are also found in the policy sciences. Policy discourses are for example conceptualized as: (1) the result of 'messy practices'; (2) only loosely embedded in democratic practices; (3) hardly related to social practices; and (4) the opposite of 'what is really happening'. This panel wants to identify how the practice turn impacts the field of forest and nature conservation policy, specifically relating it to accounts of politics, legitimacy, and power in general. Conceptually, the relationship between discourse and practice will be particularly key. This relationship can range from discourse as one of the many components of a practice to discourse as constituting practice. Methodologically, we want to discuss whether a practice turn gives primacy to ethnographic techniques, or that other methods retain equal value. To discuss these, and related issues, we call on you to write papers on the following topics:

The relation between forest and nature discourses and management practices. Is policy 'what is happening'? The politics of policy discourse. How do we retrieve the politics and power of policy discourses from policy practices? In forest and nature conservation policy, public participation and transparency are often expected to contribute to democratic legitimacy. Do these also constitute democratic practices? The methodological consequences of a practice turn. How do we research green policy practices and in what ways do we present our findings?
January 31, 2010:
Deadline for paper submission (Abstract; max 500 words)

February 15,
2010 : Notification of acceptance and registration

May 15, 2010 : deadline for full papers

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Politics of Design

June 24 2010 | Manchester, UK

Deadline: March 15 2010

http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/marc/

Updated: February 14 2010

In the last decade numerous STS trained scholars engaged in a venture
of unpacking design practices. Yet, to study the practical course of
design means to be simultaneously involved in the subject of politics
and in the particular sort of politics that is centred on objects
(Latour & Weibel, Making Things Public). Recent studies in political
philosophy and STS have argued that politics is not limited anymore to
citizens, elections, votes, petitions, ideologies and particular
institutionalised conflicts (DeVries, What is Political in Sub-
politics?), and have reformulated the question of politics into one of
cosmopolitics (Stengers, Cosmopolitics; Latour, Politics of Nature)
and ontological politics (Mol, Actor Network Theory and After). The
“political” is not defined as a way of codifying particular forms of
contestation but as opening up new sites and objects of contestation
(Barry, Political Machines).

Looking to assess the multifarious ways design can be “political” and
the various sites of politics of design, this workshop will explore a
range of questions pertaining to theory and methodology:

To what kind of politics can we get access when we strive to unravel
design not through ideology but through the work of designers, their
rich repertoire of actions, their controversies, concerns, puzzles,
risk-taking, and imagination? And likewise, what kinds of politics are
embedded in the objects of design, with their multiple meanings of
materiality, pliability, and obduracy?
How does design’s potential to bring an ever-greater number of non-
humans into politics contribute to the re-composition of the common
world, the cosmos in which everyone lives? What are the politics of
the relations invoked by design practices? Is design “political”
because it brings together land and NGOs, gravity laws and fashions,
preservationists and zoning regulations, architectural languages and
concerned communities, dives and stakeholders, land registers and
modernists, and if so, how?
What are the multiple design sites where political action might be
seeping through? How is politics carried out today in sites often
unrelated to the traditional loci of political action: in building
development companies, planning commissions, building renovation
sites, urban spaces, local communities, architectural offices, public
presentations of designers? And what can we learn from the different,
even unexpected forms of concernedness that we may come across in such
contexts?
How and under which conditions does design become one of the means
through which politics is being carried out? How does design turn the
“public” into a problem - and thus engage and mobilise it -
triggering disagreements and generating issues of public concern? How
do designers and planners make their activities accountable to
citizens?
If the “political” is considered a moment in the complex trajectory of
design projects, processes and objects, what are the methods we use to
account for them? How can we map, track, trace and document
ethnographically and historically these moments of becoming political?

The workshop is expected to attract a diverse group of scholars from
the fields of STS, architecture, geography, political economy,
environmental psychology and planning, design studies, sociology,
cultural studies and political sciences.

8th International Conference on new Directions in the Humanities

June 29 2010 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA

Deadline: August 13 2010

http://www.HumanitiesConference.com/

Updated: January 13 2010

We are very pleased to be holding this year's conference in Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles is one of the most diverse and dynamic cities in the United States, attracting immigrants and visitors from around the world to its wide range of attractions, activities and professional opportunities. Although Los Angeles is perhaps most well recognized as the center of U.S. movie and television production, its cultural role exceeds that of its most famous industry. Its music, literary and visual and performing arts communities, for instance, reflect the diverse perspectives of Angelinos and are internationally influential. The Los Angeles area is home to some of the best galleries and museums in the country and to distinguished centers for humanities research, such as the Getty Center, the Huntington Library and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The city is also a center of higher education, boasting many of the finest colleges and universities in the United States, including the host of this year's International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The Humanities Conference provides a space for dialogue and for the publication of new knowledge that builds on the past traditions of the humanities whilst setting a renewed agenda for their future.

In addition to an impressive line-up of international plenary speakers, the Conference will also include numerous paper, workshop and colloquium presentations by practitioners, teachers and researchers. We would particularly like to invite you to respond to the Conference Call-for-Papers. Presenters may choose to submit written papers for publication in the fully refereed International Journal of the Humanities. If you are unable to attend the Conference in person, virtual registrations are also available which allow you to submit a paper for refereeing and possible publication in this fully refereed academic Journal.

Whether you are a virtual or in-person presenter at this Conference, we also encourage you to present on the Conference YouTube Channel. Please select the Online Sessions link on the Conference website for further details.

The deadline for the next round in the call for papers (a title and short abstract) is 13 August 2009. Future deadlines will be announced on the Conference website after this date. Proposals are reviewed within two weeks of submission. Full details of the Conference, including an online proposal submission form, are to be found at the Conference website - http://www.HumanitiesConference.com/.

The First Annual Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ)

June 30 2010 | VIBE Hotel in Sydney, Australia

Deadline: December 30 2009

Updated: January 13 2010

This interdisciplinary and transnational conference is accepting proposals on ALL aspects of popular culture. We are seeking a strong representative presence for the study of Queer Popular Culture at this conference. Graphic novels, comics, popular romance, television, film and internet are only some aspects of the study of queer popular culture. Creative work is also accepted. Proposals for panels are welcome.

We will also be holding a postgraduate poster evening. All postgrads and undergrads (provided they are working with the guidance of a trained scholar) interested in presenting their would-be or current research are invited to submit an abstract. Please mark your submissions: Poster Session.

Abstracts (300 words max.) should be sent as e-mail attachments to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) The deadline for submissions is 30th December, 2009. Please include your name, affiliation, mailing and e-mail address, and the title of your presentation. E-mails should be entitled: PopCanz Conference. If you do not receive an acknowledgment within one week, please resend your submission. Accepted presenters will be notified via e-mailin January 2010.
A selection of papers from the conference will be solicited for publication.
Additional information is available on the PopCanz blogsite: http://popcanz.blogspot.com/
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) URL: http://www.nobleworld.biz

Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Conference, Emerging Spaces: New Possibilities in Critical Tim

June 30 2010 | Adelaide

Deadline: February 01 2010

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Updated: January 13 2010

In a time of rapid social, economic and political transition this conference calls for consideration of the meaning and possibilities of change for gender in Australia and internationally. We invite papers on themes including (but not limited to):
-Indigenous women and political change, -Global feminisms, -Asian women and women in Asia,
-Feminist activism/politics, -Feminist economics, -Gender in technology & science, -Feminist models of governance, -Gender and Health, -Migration and gender, -Gender and youth cultures
Abstracts for oral presentations of 20 minutes duration should include:

Title of the paper, name and institutional affiliation of author(s), and an abstract of no more than 300 words. Contact details for presenter (postal address, phone, fax and email) and a brief biographical note about author/s -100 words.

Abstracts should be sent as an e-mail attachment to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Further information about the conference can be accessed at:
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/womens-studies/awgsa/conference.php
or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Science and the Public 2010

July 03 2010 | Imperial College, London

Deadline: March 01 2010

http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/687/

Updated: January 15 2010

Now in its fifth year, the Science and the Public conference aims to bring together the various strands of academia which consider science’s relationships with groups generally called ‘the public’. Delegates come from a wide range of disciplines: science and technology studies, history of science, geography, psychology, cultural studies, media studies, sociology, development studies, English literature, science policy studies and more.

The range of topics covered may include (but are not limited to):
* PUS, PEST, PR.
* Surveying public knowledge and attitudes.
* Science and the arts (including science fiction).
* Science, publics and personal identity.
* The role of industry and/ or the third sector in public engagement
and scientific research.
* The challenges of ‘upstream’ engagement.
* Popular science and professionalization.
* Specific public-science issues: e.g. climate change, MMR, energy policy, GMOs.
* Studies of specific media: e.g. film, books, the internet, museums, radio.
* Science, religion and the ‘New Atheism’.
* Politically engaged scientists.
* Churnalism vs. investigative science journalism.
* Edu-tainment.
* Scientific advisers, spin and secrecy.
* Patients and publics in health services.
* Science and the sceptics.
* Amateur science.

Potential contributors should email a 300 word abstract to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 1st March2010. Please include full contact details (name, affiliation, email) of all authors.

Panel proposals should include a panel abstract and individual abstracts for each of the papers on the panel as well as contact information (name, affiliation, email) of the presider (moderator) and all panel members.

All submissions should be emailed to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) 1st March 2010. All other enquires also to this address.

Managing Knowledge in the Techno-sciences, 1850-2000

July 05 2010 | University of Leeds

Deadline: November 30 2009

http://www.philosophy.leeds.ac.uk/Invention/invention.htm

Updated: January 13 2010

An international conference by the collaborative research project ‘Owning and disowning invention: intellectual property, authority, and identity in British science and technology, 1880-1920’ (University of Leeds & University of Bristol) supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the White Rose IPBio Project (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York)
The conference brings together researchers investigating the history of knowledge management since the mid-19th century – a period that saw the rise of the techno-sciences, trans-European controversies over the legitimacy of patenting, and the coining of the term ‘intellectual property’. Contributions are welcome from a variety of perspectives concerning ‘intellectual property’ and the 'intellectual commons' in the techno-sciences e.g. the cultures of monopoly, shared ‘open’ knowledge and of sponsored invention. Participants are encouraged to examine critically the foundations and methodology of historical research on the techno-sciences, including biomedical and agricultural forms.
Abstract Submission Abstracts for individual papers or panel sessions should be submitted by 30 November 2009. Abstracts for individual papers should not exceed 200 words and should be accompanied by the author’s short curriculum vitae (1 page). Proposals for panel sessions should comprise: an outline of the session (200 words), abstracts for the three individual papers (200 words) and CVs (1 page) for each of the contributors. All submissions should be emailed as an MS Word file attachment to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 30 November 2009.
A registration fee may be charged for presenters at this conference. Please indicate in your email if you would like to be considered for assistance in this regard.
Further Information For enquiries about the academic content of the conference please contact: Prof. Graeme Gooday, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) tel. 0113 343 3274 Centre for History & Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, UK For administrative enquiries please contact Dr Stathis Arapostathis, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) tel. 0113 343 8027, Centre for History & Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds For information on the ‘Owning and Disowning Invention’ project, please see http://www.philosophy.leeds.ac.uk/Invention/invention.htm

Biomedical Visualisations and Society: 3D Foetal Ultrasound

July 06 2010 | University of Warwick

Updated: January 13 2010

An ESRC funded seminar series for early-career researchers interested in the social and political dimensions of biomedical visualisations. Each two-day workshop will combine a lecture from a leading scholar in the field and time for peer discussion with an opportunity to engage with visualisation in practice and ask questions. Attendance is free but places are limited. Some funding is available towards travel and accommodation costs for researchers who have no alternative funding source.
For more information, visit the project website:
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/biomedicalvisualisationsandsociety
Or email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
3D Foetal Ultrasound
6th- 7th July 2010
Keynote Speaker: Lisa M. Mitchell, University of Victoria, Canada
Includes a visit to 4D scan provider ‘Babybond’, with company director Jan Steward.

The International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration

July 07 2010 | Gdańsk, Poland.

Deadline: March 07 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

WikiSym, the International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration,
will be held this summer in Gdansk, Poland. Starting this year,
WikiSym aims to explicitly broaden its scope, exploring not only the thriving wiki community, but also other open movements and open collaboration initiatives. This includes related areas such as open online communities, collaborative creation of multimedia content (with or without wikis), and open journalism and publishing, just to list a few examples.
Furthermore, our goal is to establish WikiSym as a venue for the
exchange of information, experiences and practices among an interdisciplinary audience, including researchers, practitioners, industry representatives and experts with a wide variety of different backgrounds.

As a result, WikiSym has established 3 complementary tracks to merge
the contributions from such a diverse community:

* Wiki track: Focused on research in wiki technology,wiki websites, wiki communities, and in general any kind of initiative pivoting around wiki software.

* Industry track: This new track will focus on the specific needs of enterprises and private companies interested in sharing and promoting their experiences around wikis and open collaboration projects/products/initiatives.

* Open collaboration track: This track is a dedicated venue for sharing research results and experiences in initiatives that may not be built specifically on wiki software, but share the "wiki way" of organization. These may include open collaborations, open communities,
and open movements that allow the interchange of ideas and contributions
from participants with a range of interests and motivations.

Research manuscripts may be sent to any of these tracks. However, submitting the same manuscript to more than one track at the same time is not allowed. Therefore, please select the most appropriate track for the topic covered in your manuscript before submitting.

IMPORTANT DATES

* March 7th: Submission deadline for research papers.
* March 21st: Submission deadline for Doctoral Symposium
proposals, posters, demonstrations, workshops, panels, tutorials.
* May 4th: Notification of acceptance for research papers.
* May 11th: Notification of acceptance for Doctoral Symposium
proposals, posters, workshops, tutorials, panels.
* July 7-9: WikiSym 2010!

Given the interdisciplinary nature of wikis and open collaboration initiatives, WikiSym invites contributions in a wide range of fields.

Society for the Social History of Medicine Conference

July 08 2010 | Durhan and Newcastle, UK

Deadline: November 01 2009

www.sshm.org.

Updated: January 13 2010

The Society for the Social History of Medicine invites submissions for its 2010 Conference ‘Knowledge, Ethics and Representations of Medicine and Health: Historical Perspectives’, to be held at Durham and Newcastle (UK), 8-11 July 2010, organised by the Northern Centre for the History of Medicine (NCHM).

Deadline for proposals: 1 November 2009

The organisers welcome proposals for 20-minute papers under the theme ‘Knowledge, Ethics and Representations of Medicine and Health: Historical Perspectives’. We particularly encourage papers addressing questions such as:

* What processes have generated knowledge about the body, illness and health that has become authoritative in different societies?
* How have claims of medical expertise been justified vis à vis claims from other domains of social and cultural authority such as religion and law?
* What did it mean for medical practitioners in different cultural and social contexts to claim to be ethical as well as knowledgeable?
* How did they present themselves to the public?
* What kind of material, visual and textual representations of body, mind, health and disease have gained ‘defining power’ exerting influence on medical practice and research until today?

Submissions covering all periods (from Antiquity to the 21st Century) and all regions of the world are welcome.

In addition to individual papers, we seek proposals for panel sessions (with 3 papers), as well as suggestions for suitable chairpersons.

Abstracts of up to 250 words should include the title of the paper, information concerning the research question examined, the sources used and preliminary results. Please also include on the abstract your contact details (name, affiliation, e-mail-address).

All papers are to represent original work not already published.

Please send your proposal by 1 November 2009 to the NCHM (Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)). Decisions on papers will be made by January 2010.

For more information on the SSHM please see www.sshm.org. For more information on the NCHM, a collaboration of historians of medicine from Durham and Newcastle universities, please see www.nchm.ac.uk.

CFP: AAHPSSS in Sydney, July 2010

July 09 2010 | Sydney, Australia

Deadline: May 31 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

The next conference of AAHPSSS (the Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science) will take place at the University of Sydney, in the Unit for History and Philosophy of Science (New Law School building), on July 9-11, 2010. Information about accommodation and registration is on the AAHPSSS website at http://www.usyd.edu.au/aahpsss/AAHPSSS2010-conference.html . If you need accommodation you are strongly encouraged to book early as the hotels and hostels will fill up.

The conference will take place immediately after the AAP meeting at UNSW in Sydney (more information at http://www.aap-conferences.org.au/) .

Membership in AAHPSSS (now 25 $ yearly, 10 $ for students) allows you to register for the conference at a lower fee. Members register at a cost of 40$ for both days or 20$ / day; non-members register at a cost of 80$ for both days or 40$ /day. Students and unwaged: 20 $ / day or 40 $ / both days. Remember, your membership dues contribute to student bursaries and prizes. Registration information is available on the AAHPSSS website; for further matters concerning payment contact the Treasurer, Dean Rickles, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Student assistance will be available via the Ian Langham Memorial Bursaries, funded by membership fees. Enrolled honours and postgraduate students wishing to apply for an Ian Langham Bursary should submit an abstract as above and indicate that they intend applying for a bursary on the form when submitting their abstract. Bursary applicants will need to provide a full written version of their paper (approx. 3000 words-3500 max.) along with evidence of student status by 31 May 2010 to the Secretary, Charles Wolfe (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)). Criteria for selection of eligible papers include whether they engage scholarly dialogues in the HPS/STS literature, whether they evidence knowledge and appropriate use of HPS/STS methodologies, and that the author is a student enrolled in either an honours or postgraduate program. You must also be able to provide, on request, the written support of your supervisor. Bursaries will be allocated subject to these conditions and the availability of funds (monies are generally distributed according to distance between the home institution and the conference venue).The best student paper will be awarded the Ian Langham Prize at the conference although the AAHPSSS Executive reserves the right not to award the Prize.

Please send electronic submissions either of individual papers, panels (typically 3 speakers, maximum 4), or book sessions to the Secretary, Charles Wolfe, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Mention AAHPSSS 2010 in the email subject heading.

Submissions are due by 31 May 2010; registration must be completed by 15 June 2010; afterwards a late fee of 30$ will be added.

RC 25 Language and Society XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology, Sociology on the Move

July 11 2010 |

Deadline: January 03 2010

Updated: January 13 2010

The Research Committee on Language and Society, RC 25, of the International Sociological Association (ISA) is calling for abstracts for the ISA World Congress on the theme of Sociology on the Move.
RC 25 conceives of studies of language broadly including all varieties of sociological analyses of language/representation. We welcome proposals of on the conference theme that are of specific relevance to language and society. Please submit an abstract of (350 words maximum) by January 3, 2010 directly to the session organizer. The abstract should include your name, organization affiliation, country of residence, and email address. Please do not send your abstract to more than one session.
Hegemonies in Classification Processes
Gianluca Miscione, International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, The Netherlands, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Daniela Landert, University of Zurich, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Classifications serve as shared systems to organize and handle knowledge in any given domain. Classifications depend on language to provide labels for classes and on linguistic practices to establish, apply and reproducing classifications. Successfully established classifications affect thinking and coordination of social activities across different settings and actors. The role of classifications is becoming more evident since organizing processes are increasingly taking place across dispersed individuals, groups, organizations and contexts, a development that is supported by information and communication technologies (ICT). Indeed, when the common understanding and coordination are not facilitated by co-location, classifications are expected to keep patterns of action aligned.
Clear examples for this development can for instance be found in the two empirical fields of health care and of online communities. In the case of health care, information about patients needs to travel with and beyond the patients themselves, in order to allow consequent actions to be performed by a variety of actors. In the case of online communities, classifications are often negotiated collaboratively among globally dispersed laypersons. This leads to shifts in power between these laypersons and the experts of hegemonic classifications.
The mutual dependency of power and classifications raises the question how changes in the roles of the actors who negotiate classifications affect and maybe challenge power relations and hegemonies in a wider sense. Therefore, the “double hermeneutic” between those who are usually termed ‘subjects’ and ‘objects’ has to be revised, mutual dependency between classifications and their objects needs to be highlighted.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORLD CONGRESS GO TO:
http://www.isa-sociology.org/congress2010/
http://www.isa-sociology.org/congress2010/rc/rc25.htm
http://www.language-and-society.org/conferences/index.html

RC 25 Language and Society XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology, Sociology on the Move

July 11 2010 |

Deadline: January 03 2010

Updated: January 13 2010

3rd International Deleuze Studies Conference: Connect, Continue, Create

July 12 2010 | Amsterdam

Deadline: March 01 2010

www.deleuze-amsterdam.nl

Updated: January 13 2010

The third annual International Deleuze Studies Conference will explore how the three ...creative domains of thought - art, science and philosophy - connect, continue and create together. The visionary quality of the profoundly generous and complex philosophy of Gilles Deleuze may provide new and productive ways of understanding connections, in a world that is increasingly globally linked and technologically mediated.
Please send your abstract (max. 200 words) and a short bio to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) before the 1st of March, 2010. Confirmation of acceptance will be emailed before April 15th, 2010. Selections will take place on the basis of the number of
panel presentations. www.deleuze-amsterdam.nl

Everyday Life in the Segmented City

July 22 2010 | Florence, Italy

Deadline: March 15 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

For the first time in human history, a majority of the world's population
lives in urban areas, and by 2050 more than 2/3 will live in metropolitan
regions across the globe. At the same moment metropolitan regions confront
unprecedented economic, social, and political challenges, the meanings of
everyday life are put into question because of the changing structure and
interdependence of urban economies. North American cities register the
largest number of foreign-born persons in their history, while cities in
Europe confront issues of social integration with emergent minority
populations in the suburbs and inner city neighborhoods. The rapidly growing
urban regions in China and India confront the continuing pressures of rural
to urban migration that will produce the largest urban populations in human
history. While the focus on the global city often emphasizes similarities
in the development of metropolitan regions and neo-liberal regimes, we are
interested in better understanding how individuals and groups respond to and
create dynamic change in everyday life within the ever changing urban
environment.

We invite contributions for a conference on everyday life in the segmented
city to be held in Florence this July 22-25, 2010. The presentations will
be grouped into the following subject areas:

Cinematic urbanism: Images and representation of the segmented city;
emergent symbolic economics of consumption and production; tourism and
visual consumption of the city.

Governance and planning: Multicultural cities and ethnic spaces; strategies
to govern the multicultural city; citizenship and participation in the
segmented city.

Suburbanization and the post-urban city: Suburban growth and urban sprawl;
revolt of the banlieues; social exclusion in the inner suburbs; urbanity and
urbanism in the suburban fringe

Appropriations of urban space: Emerging patterns of social exclusion and
personal security; privatization and surveillance of urban space; reclaiming
public space

The right to the city: Migration and immigration in the 21st century
metropolis; social participation in the segmented city; contested urban
spaces.

We invite submissions for papers on these and related topics. Please send
abstract of your paper or presentation by March 15, 2010 to the address
listed below.

Papers on cinematic urbanism: Dr. Lorenzo Tripodi, Berlin
(.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

Papers on governance and planning: Dr. Camilla Perrone, Università degli
Studi di Firenze (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

Papers on Suburbanization and the post-urban city: Dr. Gabriele Manella,
Università degli Studi di Bologna (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

Papers on appropriations of urban space: Dr. Circe Monteiro, Universidade
Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

Papers on the right to the city: Dr. Milan Prodanovic, University of Novi
Sad (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) or Dr. Ray Hutchison University of Wisconsin-Green
Bay (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).

Participants will be contacted with information concerning participation in
the conference by March 15th, 2010. Completed papers will be required by
May 30, 2010.

For other general inquiries concerning Everyday Life in the Segmented City,
contact Ray Hutchison, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

Selected papers from the conference will appear in special edited volume
titled Everyday Life in the Segmented City (a volume in the series Research
in Urban Sociology, published by Emerald Press).

Discounted hotel accommodations in Florence will be available to
participants in the conference. This conference is supported with funding
from the Del Bianco Foundation in Florence.

More information concerning conference location and lodging may be found on
the web at Everyday Life in the Segmented City. This will be updated with
additional information concerning housing and other conference details as it
becomes available.

Eleventh Annual Northeast Historic Film Summer Symposium: Filmic Representations of Indigenous Peopl

July 23 2010 | Maine

Deadline: April 01 2010

Updated: January 13 2010

Scholars, particularly during the last two decades, have sought to understand cultural representations of Indigenous peoples. In Dressing in Feathers: The Construction of the Indian in American Culture, anthropologist Elizabeth Bird explains that when we seek to understand popular constructions of the Native more clearly, we are then better able to counter the mythmaking process and transform those representations. The 2010 Northeast Historic Film Summer Symposium will explore how amateur and noncommercial filmmakers around the world have created a wide range of representations regarding Indigenous peoples and cultures. We are interested in presentations focusing on interpretations of moving images that will improve our historical, cultural, global and critical understanding of how filmmakers working outside of the mainstream have been informed by, contributed to, and countered popular representations of Indigenous peoples.

The NHF Summer Symposium is a multi-disciplinary gathering devoted to the history, theory, and preservation of moving images. NHF is located in Bucksport, a town of 5,000 on the coast of Maine (for more info on NHF, please visit: http://www.oldfilm.org). Typically, presentations are in English, and last 45 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of discussion. The symposium is open to archivists, artists and scholars from all disciplines. NHF houses a 125-seat cinema with 35mm, 16mm, videotape, and DVD projection. We especially encourage presentations that include interesting moving images.

We prefer e-mail submissions. Please send 250-500 word abstracts outlining your paper ideas to the symposium organizers at the address below. We are happy to discuss your presentation ideas with you in advance of a formal submission. The Symposium Program Committee (Snowden Becker, Univ. of Texas; Janna Jones, Northern Arizona University; and Mark Neumann, Northern Arizona University) will begin reviewing proposals on April 1, 2010.

Please email questions and submissions to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Desiree Alliance 2010 Conference for the Academic Track

July 25 2010 | Las Vegas, NV

Deadline: March 01 2010

http://www.desireealliance.org/conference.htm

Updated: February 14 2010

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Working Sex and the Twilight of Liberation

What is the significance of academic research and theory when it comes to sex work practice and policy? Where should academic researchers stand at a time when sex workers are becoming increasingly vocal in both call and response for social justice?—and in this endeavor sex workers are challenging the Academy through interrogation, deconstruction, and reconstruction of academic methods, theory, and praxis. What is the relationship between research and activism? As human rights activists across the globe call for decriminalization, what should our goals be? How can we reevaluate the ways that we write, think, and apply research among diverse sex work communities, especially where questions of sex work policy are of material concern?

The 2010 meetings of the Desiree Alliance, July 25-30 in Las Vegas, Nevada, will provide a critical space to tackle these scholarly, theoretical, and political concerns head-on as we examine our academic and public roles in relation to the most pressing problems confronting sex work policies and sex workers today. We intentionally offer the double meaning of “twilight” (as both a state of promise and uncertainty) in order to focus attention upon academia’s changing relationship with sex workers and publics who remain concerned with a wide array of interrelated exchange networks and practices. An interrogation of our contemporary goals, contributions, and intellectual heritage must critically examine the relationship between social justice and decriminalization in this twilight of hazy anticipation. We hope to generate serious conversation about these issues as we continue to reinvent sex work as a space of study and activism for this new millennium. Themes we hope to explore include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) Global Models and Cross-Cultural Comparison: Global models from Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, and the US are examples of places where an array of policies have been implemented to various degrees of success. But success for whom? We encourage papers that offer a critical engagement and cross-cultural comparison to tease out the intricate meanings of policy from macro-level politics to micro-level personal experiences. Furthermore, while decriminalization has been the primary call to action in terms of social justice for sex workers, it has been under direct attack because the rhetoric and realities of global human trafficking remains the most prominent point of discussion in contemporary public discourse. How can we balance our investment in decriminalization with an understanding of popular public discourse on trafficking? How might we continue to renegotiate (and defend) the fundamental call for decriminalization as a basic human right in such a hostile political environment? This theme seeks to illuminate the relationship between policy, practice, and publics.

(2) The Interrelations Between Violence Against Sex Workers and Legal Policy: Violence against sex workers, and those identified as sex workers by law enforcement authorities, continues to be an area that is under-examined and under-theorized. How do we re-think notions of violence over time, space, and identities as sex workers increasingly articulate experiences with violence from private military contractors, police, military personnel, and other government officials? How do we conceptualize the complex of engagements and negotiations that materialize where legal policy and violence against sex workers meet? How do we develop and disseminate research that effectively addresses such serious concerns? This theme aims to interrogate the interrelationship between violence against sex workers and legal policy.

(3) Health Education and Outreach: Contemporary sex work research has championed sex workers as active partners rather than static subjects in health education and outreach projects. However, we continue to struggle to make sense of complex relationships between identity and power. For example, involving sex workers as active partners may often be met with resistance from colleagues. Funding agencies may be reluctant to fund projects that involve sex workers when laws criminalize sex work. How can sex work researchers challenge these obstacles and continue to further develop and deploy research methods and applications that take seriously sex-worker-as-partner paradigms? This theme seeks to explore historic, contemporary, and envisioned projects that holistically address health education and outreach across diverse sex work populations.
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We encourage submissions from all areas, genders, backgrounds, and ethnicities.
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A PROPOSAL SHOULD INCLUDE:
+ Title for your presentation
+ Affiliation with an organization or university you'd like to have listed (not required)
+ A short paragraph with your background and experience, or interest, in sex work, the adult entertainment industry, or the sex workers rights' movement
+ A bio which will appear in the program and on the website (approx. 200 words)
+ A detailed abstract (the description that will appear in the program and on the website- 500 words or fewer)
+ Technical support needs (e.g., projector, AV, Mac/PC, etc.)

DEADLINE:
Proposals must be submitted by March 1st, 2010 to be considered, and all submissions will be notified of acceptance by March 30th, 2010. Please let us know in advance if you need extra time or if you need to be notified of acceptance earlier. In some cases, panels will be suggested if more than one outstanding proposal on a specific topic is accepted.

CONTACT:
Please submit your proposal to Elizabeth Nanas at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and copy .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), with the subject line, "Academic Proposal". Please also feel welcome to contact her through Skype at enanas72, or by phone at 313-915-4933. You may also contact the Desiree Alliance toll-free at 866-525-7967 or through email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

ABOUT THE DESIREE ALLIANCE:
The Desiree Alliance is a diverse, volunteer-based, sex worker-led network of organizations, communities and individuals across the US working in harm reduction, direct services, political advocacy, and health services for sex workers. We provide leadership and create space for sex workers and supporters to come together to advocate for human, labor and civil rights for all workers in the sex industry. For more information about our organization, please visit us at http://www.desireealliance.org/default.htm

Bringing STS Into Environmental History

August 05 2010 | Trondheim, Norway

Deadline: February 05 2010

http://sts-eh2010.miljohistorie.net/

Updated: January 16 2010

This workshop focuses on the intersection of STS and environmental history, paying particular attention to how conceptual tools, approaches, and insights from science and technology studies might enrich historical studies of interactions between humanity and the natural world. We aim to bring together a variety of international scholars, primarily environmental historians but also historically-minded sociologists, ethnographers, and anthropologists to consider how, for instance, the social construction of science, public understanding of science, actor-network theory, and technological systems can be used in historical studies of human-natural interactions. Participants will present papers that develop specific empirical case studies while also being explicitly reflective about the STS methodological basis and theoretical contributions of that study.

The workshop is limited to 14 participants. Each participant will prepare a draft text that will be pre-circulated to workshop attendees in June 2010. At the workshop, each paper will be briefly presented by the author and then fully discussed by the group in a one-hour session. After the workshop, participants will be asked to revise their papers for possible inclusion in an edited volume to be submitted to an international academic press.

The workshop schedule will be as follows:
Wednesday, 4 August: Arrival, pre-workshop social event.
Thursday, 5 August: Morning and afternoon sessions.
Friday, 6 August: Morning session. Afternoon excursion.
Saturday, 7 August: Morning and afternoon sessions.
Sunday, 8 August: Departure.

Through generous grants from the Research Council of Norway, Norwegian University of Science & Technology, and Cornell University, all participant travel expenses, conference fees, and accommodation and meals during the conference will be paid.

To be considered as a workshop participant, please send an abstract of up to 300 words and a brief CV (2-3 pages) to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 5 February 2010.

We aim to include a range of scholars at various stages of professional development, so advanced Ph.D. students and junior scholars are especially encouraged to apply.

For more information, please visit the workshop web page at http://sts-eh2010.miljohistorie.net

EASA Maynooth, Crisis and Imagination

August 24 2010 | Scotland

Deadline: March 01 2010

http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2010/index.htm

Updated: January 13 2010

Launching ‘Engaging Anthropology in Practice’ a project based in Scotland, this panel will showcase anthropological engagements being carried out in Europe that challenge the division between non-academic/academic audiences, to learn from these experiences and to create possible links of cooperation

The conference theme for the 2010 EASA biennial meeting asks whether at this time of global economic crisis anthropologists should resist the pressure to reframe the discipline in terms of what ‘practical use’ it may have. Rather, we believe that this is a very opportune moment to explore what ‘practical use’ entails. We also ask what imaginative acts are necessary to construe the ‘practical’ as opposed to the ‘theoretical’. It is necessary to trace the theoretical threads of this conceptual opposition in order to avoid reproducing it implicitly in the work we choose to carry out as ‘engaging anthropology’.

During the panel we will launch “Engaging Anthropology in Practice”, a project based within the Scottish Programme of Advanced Training in Social Anthropology (STAR). The project aims to develop a training agenda for postgraduate students and early career anthropologists by creating exchanges with gatekeepers of different forms of media in the UK. The aim of this panel is to showcase this sort of work already being done in Europe, to learn from these and to create possible links of cooperation.

The panel explores what imaginative acts are needed to practice anthropology in a way that reflexively engages in the world without reductionism. We welcome accounts of such engagements and especially ones that identify particular training issues, contributions that challenge the academic/non-academic division of audiences and contributions that are ‘imaginative acts’ in their form as well as content. Non-anthropologists will be invited to present and participate in this panel.

You must supply a paper title, a short 300-character abstract, and a 250-word abstract (NB: the electronic submission software is strict about this and the character count includes spaces).
Call for abstracts will open in mid-December and the deadline for abstracts is 1st March 2010. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either of the panel convenors.
For general information on the conference, see http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2010/index.htm

4S Panel: Portrait of the ARTist: Cross-cultural constructions of ‘woman’ in the context of assiste

August 25 2010 | Tokyo, Japan

Deadline: January 20 2010

Updated: January 13 2010

Category: Biomedicine
Reproductive technologies push the envelope of existing discourse, requiring new definitions of kinship, and new subjectivities to accurately represent the issues at hand. Embedded within this discourse, however, is a larger, long-unresolved paradox in the simultaneous construction of reproductive service users as patient and as consumer; a tension which has been further complicated by the emergence of a globalised “reproductive market” in which gametes, embryos and even wombs are bartered, borrowed and sold. While theorists have wrestled with the meanings and regulatory dilemmas of concepts such as ‘mother’, ‘father’, ‘life’ and ‘choice’, and scientists in the fields of gene therapy and regenerative medicine have become increasingly dependent upon human ova for the technologies they seek to perfect, the discourse of reproductive and genetic technologies relies increasingly on compartmentalization, separating the woman as knowing-subject from her constituent body parts, and leaving her largely outside the frame of debate.

This panel is seeking an international selection of papers which explore similarities and differences in the construction of women within the discourse of assisted reproductive technology (ART) emanating from different political and cultural contexts. By examining these discourses from a more global perspective, we may begin to uncover patterns that can lead to a greater understanding of the differential impact of these technologies upon the bodies of women worldwide, and explore possibilities for returning the woman-subject to the center of the frame. We cordially invite submissions for inclusion on the above panel, particularly from a non-Western perspective.

Possible areas for discussion are (but are not limited to): - construction of the woman user of ART in the popular media, legislative debate, medical literature, etc - self-created support networks for women ART users - rights-based vs other discourses in the regulation of ART services - use of ART on fertile partners of infertile men, or for the production of biologically unrelated children – at what price motherhood? - women ART users’ construction of themselves - motherhood and “desperation” in the context of expected social roles - physical and psychological impact of ART on women’s health

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION Abstracts of 500 words or less should be submitted to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Word or RTF attachments, or in the body of your email. This must include a summary of the paper’s main arguments and methodology, as well as a brief statement on the contribution to the STS literature. You are very welcome to contact us to discuss possibilities for submission in the first instance.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: 20th January, 2010.
Applicants will be notified of the outcome by 25th January.
Further information may be found on the 4S website:
http://www.4sonline.org/meeting.htm

Tokyo 2010: 35th 4S Annual Meeting

August 25 2010 | Komaba I Campus, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo

Deadline: January 15 2010

http://4sonline.org/meeting.htm

Updated: January 13 2010

Call for Papers: “SS in Global Contexts”

EPIC2010 道 Dō / The way of ethnography

August 29 2010 | Midtown Conference Center, Tokyo, Japan

Deadline: March 14 2010

http://www.epiconference.com/epic2010

Updated: February 17 2010

The start of this new decade marks an exciting new departure for EPIC, as we move beyond North America and Europe for the first time – to Tokyo.

EPIC is the premier international forum bringing together artists, computer scientists, designers, social scientists, marketers, academics and advertisers - and others! - to discuss recent developments and future advances around ethnographic praxis.

We seek original, high quality and engaging papers, workshops, artifacts and presentations concerning ethnographic praxis in industry, including case studies on research investigations, methodological & theoretical advances, discussions on outcomes, standards, and new applications of ethnography around this year’s conference theme:

Dō captures the sense of individual mastery that is achieved only with the help of a community and its rich heritage. Dō implies a body of knowledge and tradition with an ethic and an aesthetic.

Dō is the “path” we have travelled and also the way ahead of us.

EPIC 2010 will feature a wide range of ethnographic applications in industry, different “ways” forward. Ethnographic praxis in industry is global in scope, but adapted to different geographies (Asia, Latin America, Middle East, Europe, North America), different contexts (academia, business, NGO’s, government), different industries (technology, healthcare, consumer goods, advertising) and different purposes (product innovation, strategy, interorganizational collaboration, communications, policy making).

Join Epic 2010 and help define Ethnography’s Dō. Show others “the way” of doing ethnography in your context, in your industry, in your geography, for your goals.

Send any inquiry about the conference to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

To receive updates about EPIC2010 Conference, follow us on twitter(epiconference) or join the Linkedin group (EPIC)

“Probing Technoscience” - a track within the EASST conference 2010

September 02 2010 | Trento

Deadline: March 15 2010

Updated: January 13 2010

Track 8: PROBING TECHNOSCIENCE
The term technoscience emphasises the convergence of the scientific and the technological realm within a new technoscience paradigm. After the terms initial coining by the Belgian philosopher Hottois in the late 1970s, it has been re-introduced by Latour and Haraway, elaborating on the specific relationship of natural and artificial objects or, more broadly, nature and culture. In discussing technoscience, both authors not only point at the ontological differences between what they call technoscience and normal science (referring to the relationship of the epistemic realm of science and the constructionist approach of technology), they also focus on the cultural and material dimension, especially within the everyday perceptions and practices prevalent either within science or, more generally, within western society. During the past decade, an increasing number of scholars have begun to adopt the concept of technoscience, drawing on Latour and Haraway as well as on other literature. The concept has been applied in analytical as well as critical approaches. Technoscience has been discussed as a theoretical concept within STS and as an epistemic approach within science. The latter strand also refers to analyses and research on epistemic cultures initiated by Hacking, Pickering, Knorr Cetina and Rheinberger. The main aim of the proposed track is to probe the concept of technoscience in empirical and theoretical terms. The core of the concept is seen in the (proposed) convergence of science and technology, of representing and intervening, of understanding and performing and of the natural and the artificial. The track is open for discussions on the state of the art of the theoretical conceptualisation as well as for empirical analyses of technoscience (s), e.g. in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, biomedicine, systems biology, neuroscience and converging technologies, but also ecotechnologies. Furthermore, reflections on the significance of the concept of technoscience for STS, science and technology governance and society in general are welcome. Contributions should address one or more of the following questions: - Do emerging technosciences differ from traditional sciences (e.g. concerning the relationship between science and technology)? - Or does the concept of technoscience mainly represent an alternative analytical background to be applied to all scientific fields alike? - What does the label “technoscience” bring to light and what does it obscure?- What are the societal implications and governance issues raised by the concept of technoscience?- Is it possible to build upon and further develop the concept of epistemic cultures against the background of technoscience studies? Abstracts of no more than 500 words can be submitted online following website instructions on submission between January 20th and March 15th. We plan to organise for sessions with rather empirically grounded approaches (drawing on technoscience case studies) as well as for sessions starting from rather theoretical discussions - depending upon your submissions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the convenors. Authors will be notified by May 15th.

EASST 010 – Practicing science and technology, Performing the social

September 02 2010 | Trento

Deadline: March 15 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

TRACK 16. BIO-OBJECTS – LIFE IN THE 21st CENTURY

Bio-objects, or concepts, materialities and processes that are related to "life", play a crucial role in the 21st century in which increasing knowledge of life and its components are fundamentally transforming what life means and where its boundaries lie. New developments in the biosciences - especially the molecularisation of life - and their influence on healthcare and other aspects of our society are analysed in a diverse body of literature, looking into ethical, legal
and social implications of these new developments. New bio-objects deserve a special focus, because they are produced by, and in their turn, are producing these developments in special ways.

In our terms "bio-objects" are a new mixture of relations to life, or perhaps more specifically spatio-temporal configurations to which 'life' is attributed. They are new ongoing boundary projects between entities that were once considered 'pure' substances making up particular, discreet forms of living organisms. As a consequence, the boundaries between human and animal, organic and nonorganic, living and suspension of living, time and space, subject and object, agency and effect are questioned, destabilised and in some cases re-established.

Making the study of bio-objects explicit enables us to use it as a heuristic device – to point out and start tracing the new relations that make speaking about life and living as objects possible. However, with the concept we do not intent to reduce life to a thing or an entity - a mute object without agency. Rather, by questioning

life’s status as an 'object' –bio-object – of current technological innovations we want to point out how life is in constant interplay with novel techniques aiming at re-routing, diversifying, collecting and commodifying the vital processes that 'life' consists of. Thus, bio-objects cannot be reduced to any pure form preceding them

- rather, their plane of existence is something that could be seen as a network of unstable ontologies, an ongoing process rather than a stable form of being. As such, bio-objects contest the boundary lines between entities we have accustomed to take for granted, as existing by themselves and for themselves, and open up a new space for thinking what is it that we think is scientifically graspable in ‘life’.

The session on bio-objects traces a variety of contemporary bio-objects in their emergence, stabilisation and circulation through a number of countries. It will consist of diverse empirical investigations that provide new ways of thinking about how novel bio-objects enter our contemporary life and societies. They range
from traditional to advanced configurations of life and living such as artificial hips, cloned animals, embryos, cybrids, genetic resources, biobanks and the forms of governance that surround them.

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent through the abstract submission portal on the conference wbsite (http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010) by 2010 March 15th.

Design, performativity, STS

September 02 2010 | Trento, Italy

Deadline: March 15 2010

www.studioincite.com, www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/staff/

Updated: January 15 2010

This track provides the opportunity to explore the extent to which forms of enactment, rather than description, might allow us to talk about the different material and temporal textures of design, innovation, interventions and STS. It aims to consolidate and push so far dispersed discussions about the relation of concepts of performativity and design through an exchange of ideas and methods from STS and design practice, conceived broadly to include empirical examples and theoretical reflections as well as art-design-STS interventions (Jeremijenko).

There is a longstanding interest amongst STS scholars in the design of new technologies, products and services (e.g. Cockburn & Ormrod, Shove, Suchman, Woolgar), as well as extensive research on design interventions in the fields of science and medicine (e.g. Clarke, Dumit). In addition designers themselves are moving beyond the design of discrete products and have started to look to STS for ways in which open and thus more uncertain challenges may be conceptualized (Kimbell, Whyte). This track encourages papers from those working in a variety of institutional locations, both inside and outside academic research.

There is now a large body of work that explores how realities and representations are enacted simultaneously in user representations, prototypes, concepts and scenarios. A debate about the implications of the performative aspects of these representational and translation devices is long overdue. How does the current developments of non- representation and ‘messy’ approaches relate to process and the performative (Thrift, Law). How does mess relate to the performative? Are designers working in a non-representational way?

The aim of the track is to expand the debates about performativity in relation to processes of enactment and becoming, the material and temporal. These might include papers dealing with scripting, affordance, liveness, ‘performance’ as well as enactments in relation to technical objects, materials and mess.

Presentations might be ethnographic fieldwork reports, synthetic analyses from secondary data or mappings of the field. However following the implication of the conference theme to take seriously the performing of the social, as well as traditional papers we also invite presentation formats which themselves might take on a more experimental or performative mode in relation to design and STS, or are materially ambitious. What kind of materials might perform the social? In this way we recognise that the material and temporal conditions of the EASST conference situation - it’s own liveness in Trento - might themselves be re-designed to explore performativity. We hope this will encourage design practitioners or those working with art, design and STS materials to take up our challenge to intervene and interrogate STS’s own enactments.

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by email (following website instructions) by 2010 March 15th.

Digital Game Play as Sociotechnical Practice

September 02 2010 | Trento, Italy

Deadline: March 15 2010

http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010/abstract-submission

Updated: January 15 2010

The Digital Game industry has become one of the fastest growing, innovative and globalised industries in advanced Western economies and Digital Games have become a key cultural artefact and leisure practice in contemporary societies. Developing out of the American military industrial and academic complex in the 1970s the study of Digital Games design and play is the study of a range of sociotechnical practices and the negotiations between a range of human and non-human actors operating within systems of rules. The complexity of these relationships brings forth a series of questions that can be investigated using Science and Technology Studies approaches. However, to date games studies, with few exceptions, have failed to adopt STS approaches and the STS community has largely ignored this area of study.

This track seeks to develop the relationship between the game studies community and the STS community. Several research questions can be used to guide this: What STS theories can be used to understand Digital Games as sociotechnical phenomenon? Is the concept of practice and the practice-based approach useful to investigate Digital Games? Is there a relationship between power as inscribed and imposed by artefacts and the technical dimensions of Digital Games? What rules are inscribed into Digital Games technologies and what social worlds do these rules describe? What contribution can the study of Digital Games make to the STS discipline at large? And what contribution can an STS approach make to game studies? Can we foresee an after-method approach for Digital Games? We invite papers that tackle the sociotechnical dimensions of Digital Games and address some of the questions outlined above. Contributions might include (but are not restricted to):

• Digital Games as material semiotic artefacts
• Digital Games as sociotechnical assemblages
• The mess of digital games
• Innovation in game design as actor-networking and social shaping
• Digital Game design and/or play as performance and practice
• Disruptive sociotechnical users’ practices (e.g. hacking, modding)
• The scripting of gendered gaming practices
• Governance and regulation of gaming practices

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by email (following website instructions:
http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010/abstract-submission) by 2010 March 15th. Please include also a preliminary references list (up to 4). Contact for inquiries: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Convenors

Aphra Kerr is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Her research focuses on the regulation, production and consumption of digital media and in particular of digital games; she established and runs the industry and community website. (http://www.gamedevelopers.ie)

Helen W. Kennedy is Deputy Head in the Department of Culture, Media and Drama at the University of the West of England (UWE) in the UK. She has been researching and writing about games since 1993 and co-founded and chaired (from 2004 – 2009) the Play Research Group at
UWE.

Jennifer Jenson is Associate Professor of Pedagogy and Technology in the Faculty of Education at York University. Her research interests include gender and gameplay and the design and development of digital games for education.

Stefano De Paoli is postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Stefano has worked in STS since 2004 and recently his research interest has embraced Massive Multiplayer Online Games http://www.nuim.ie/nirsa/people/postdocs/stefano_de_paoli.shtml)

Practices and the Environment: Performing Sustainability and Doing STS

September 02 2010 | Trento, Italy

Deadline: March 15 2010

http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010/abstract-submission

Updated: January 15 2010

This track focuses on sustainability technologies as practices, including the practices of innovation, governing and consumption that underlie sustainable and unsustainable behaviours, and the adoption of behaviours that are held to be more sustainable (for example, lower energy consumption, choosing particular modes of transport and waste reduction). Our interest in sustainability as a practice emerges in part from Elizabeth Shove’s (2003) observation that unsustainable patterns of consumption are inscribed in every day, taken-for-granted human activities. Employing Theodore Schatzki’s notion of practice as a nexus of temporally emerging, tangled, differentiated and dispersed performances, sayings, emotions, technologies, people and things, we ask what kinds of understandings, procedures and engagements (Schatzki, 1996; Warde, 2003) mobilize and stabilize practices of sustainability. Further, rather than bracketing sustainability technologies as discrete entities, we ask how a practice-based approach might help us to understand their social shaping within practices. Finally, we ask what a practice-based approach means for doing STS.

We welcome theoretical and empirical papers. Suggested contributions might include, but are not limited to, the following approaches, topics and questions:
• Advantages and disadvantages of a practice-based approach to sustainability
• Social learning and behaviour change; the evolution and adoption of sustainable practices
• The role of institutions in performing sustainability; governance, policy and planning
• Interactions of lay, expert and professional practices of sustainability
• Practice-based approaches to socio-technical systems of sustainability
• Research methods for STS studies of practices
• Case studies of sustainable technologies
• The role of community in sustainability practices
• Normativity and analytical-distance in STS studies of sustainability practices
• The politics of sustainability practices; public participation and democracy
• Language and discourse of sustainability practices
• The role of technology in the performance of visions and expectations (un)sustainability,
• Sustainable technologies as practices
• Global, cultural and gendered variations in (un)sustainability practices

Gameplay as SocioTechnical Practice

September 02 2010 | Trento, Italy

Deadline: March 20 2010

Updated: March 16 2010

EASST Conference 2010, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology 'Practicing Science and Technology, Performing the Social,' University of Trento, Italy, 2-4 September 2010. Abstract submission deadline: 15 March 2010. http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010 **************************************************************************************************************

TRACK:

DIGITAL GAME PLAY AS SOCIOTECHNICAL PRACTICE

The Digital Game industry has become one of the fastest growing, innovative and globalised industries in advanced Western economies and Digital Games have become a key cultural artefact and leisure practice in contemporary societies. Developing out of the American military industrial and academic complex in the 1970s the study of Digital Games design and play is the study of a range of sociotechnical practices and the negotiations between a range of human and non-human actors operating within systems of rules. The complexity of these relationships brings forth a series of questions that can be investigated using Science and Technology Studies approaches. However, to date games studies, with few exceptions, have failed to adopt STS approaches and the STS community has largely ignored this area of study.

This track seeks to develop the relationship between the game studies community and the STS community. Several research questions can be used to guide this: What STS theories can be used to understand Digital Games as sociotechnical phenomenon? Is the concept of practice and the practice-based approach useful to investigate Digital Games? Is there a relationship between power as inscribed and imposed by artefacts and the technical dimensions of Digital Games? What rules are inscribed into Digital Games technologies and what social worlds do these rules describe? What contribution can the study of Digital Games make to the STS discipline at large? And what contribution can an STS approach make to game studies? Can we foresee an after-method approach for Digital Games?

We invite papers that tackle the sociotechnical dimensions of Digital Games and address some of the questions outlined above. Contributions might include (but are not restricted to):

? Digital Games as material semiotic artefacts ? Digital Games as sociotechnical assemblages ? The mess of digital games ? Innovation in game design as actor-networking and social shaping ? Digital Game design and/or play as performance and practice ? Disruptive sociotechnical users? practices (e.g. hacking, modding) ? The scripting of gendered gaming practices ? Governance and regulation of gaming practices

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by email (following website instructions: http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010/abstract-submission) by 2010 March 20th. Please include also a preliminary references list (up to 4).

EASST Conference 2010, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology

September 02 2010 | Trento, Italy

Deadline: March 22 2010

Updated: March 16 2010

Re-thinking Global Society, The Bauman Institute - International Launch Conference School of Sociolo

September 06 2010 | University of Leeds UK

Deadline: January 31 2010

http://sociology.leeds.ac.uk/bauman

Updated: January 13 2010

We are delighted to announce that the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds will formally launch the Bauman Institute in September 2010, established in honour of Leeds’s Emeritus Professor of Sociology Zygmunt Bauman.

In recognition of the launch, we are holding an International Conference here at the University of Leeds on Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th September 2010. The Conference aims to bring together international expertise amongst scholars, researchers, practitioners, and postgraduate students, working in a variety of fields across the arts, humanities and social sciences. As such, we are delighted to announce amongst our confirmed plenary speakers:
We invite abstracts of not more than 150 words and tied to any of the above themes to be submitted not later than 31st January 2010 to the email address below. All abstracts will be subject to peer-review and should be sent to the Director of the Bauman Institute, Dr Mark Davis: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For further details: http://sociology.leeds.ac.uk/bauman

Terrorism and New Media

September 08 2010 | Dublin City University, Ireland

Deadline: May 17 2010

Updated: May 17 2010

Conference: TERRORISM and NEW MEDIA

Dublin City University, Ireland 8 - 9 September 2010

WEBSITE: http://www.dcu.ie/~cis/TNM/index.html

ORGANISERS

? Conference Chair: Dr. Maura Conway ? Co-Organiser: Lisa McInerney

All queries and conference-related correspondence should be directed to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

PLENARY SPEAKERS

- Dr. Jarret Brachman, North Dakota State University - Dr. John Horgan, International Center for the Study of Terrorism, Pennsylvania State University - Prof. Philip Seib, Annenberg School, University of Southern California

RATIONALE

The purpose of this conference is to bring together academics from a broad range of disciplines with policy-makers and security practitioners that have knowledge and/or expertise that can facilitate advances in the study of Terrorism and New Media, particularly the Internet, in novel ways.

PROGRAMME

This is the first academic conference to subject the relationship between terrorism and new media, particularly the Internet, to truly multi-disciplinary scrutiny. The one-day conference (Wednesday, 8 September) will feature a series of panels and a number of plenary addresses. The conference will be followed on Thursday, 9 September by a workshop devoted to the robust debate and analysis of currently ?hot? topics in the realm of terrorism and the Internet, particularly the question of the role of the Internet in processes of radicalisation.

CALL FOR PAPERS

We welcome papers or panels reporting on innovative research into any aspect of terrorism and new media. We particularly welcome papers or panels that report novel results or describe and employ innovative methodological approaches.

Papers or panels on the following topics will be of particular interest:

? Online radicalisation ? The Internet and recruitment ? Old terrorism and new media ? Methodologies for terrorism-related Internet research ? Terrorism informatics ? Network analysis and online terrorist activity ? New Internet tools/platforms and radicalisation/terrorism (for example, online gaming, video-sharing, photo-sharing, social networking, micro-blogging, online payment mechanisms, etc.) ? Cyberterrorism ? Violent Islamism and the Internet ? The content and functioning of jihadi Internet forums ? Jihadi video producers and content ? Children/youth, terrorism, and new media ? Women/gender, terrorism, and new media ? Case studies of particular groups? use of new media (e.g. al-Qaeda, FARC, Hamas, Hizbollah, dissident Irish Republicans, etc.) ? Policy/legislative responses to terrorists? online presence ? Critical responses to research on, reporting of, and governmental responses to the conjunction of terrorism and the Internet ? Ethical issues surrounding online terrorism-related research

Perspectives from any academic discipline are welcomed, particularly: communications, computer science, cultural studies, information science, international relations, internet studies, law, media studies, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology.

Authors of individual papers should submit a 300-word abstract via the conference website (http://www.dcu.ie/~cis/TNM/index.html) on or before 17 May 2010.

A selection of accepted papers will be considered for publication in a special issue of the journal Media, War & Conflict.

TRAVEL FUNDING FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

The Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School, University of Southern California (USC) will provide US$700 in sponsorship for a graduate student to attend at *and blog* from the conference for the Center. Graduate students wishing to apply for this funding should indicate same when submitting their abstract.

The conference organisers are also in a position to provide a number of travel grants for graduate students. Support may be requested for transportation and accommodation. Students should provide a breakdown of the estimated cost of travel and accommodation upon submitting an application. Graduate students wishing to apply for funding can do so when submitting an abstract. Award decisions will be made by 14 June 2010.

REGISTRATION

The conference will open for registration from 1 June 2010. Registration Fees are as follows:

Standard: ?130 (Late reg., post 8 July: ?195) Graduate Student: ?65 (Late reg., post 8 July: ?110)

Conference fee includes teas/coffees, lunch, welcome reception on the evening of Tuesday September 7 and the conference dinner on the evening of Wednesday September 8.

DEADLINES

? Abstract deadline: 300 words to be submitted by 17 May 2010 ? Registration: from 1 June 2010 ? Decision on abstracts: 14 June 2010 ? Decision on travel funding awards: 14 June 2010 ? Early bird registration deadline: 8 July ? Hotel reservation deadline at conference rate: 19 July 2010

CONVENORS

This conference is convened by the Centre for International Studies, School of Law & Government, Dublin City University in partnership with the International Communication Working Group of the British International Studies Association (BISA).

Envisioning Science, Imagining the Body

September 10 2010 to September 11 2010 | University of Alberta in Edmonton

Updated: August 15 2010

Envisioning Science: Imaging the Body

Visual perception might seem to be a strictly natural process, and yet it has a history. Scholars from a range of disciplines now study visuality, moving beyond biological understandings of vision to examine historically and culturally specific ways of seeing the world. Our goal for the conference is to encourage the investigation of “how we see, how we are able, allowed, or made to see, and how we see this seeing or the unseen therein.” Visuality emphasizes practices of looking as well as concealing, noting how they are informed by conceptions of gender, status, and power. Diverse research has revealed complex `scopic’ regimes or ways of seeing in ancient, medieval, and early modern times, but many recent publications feature modern visuality and consider the scientific modes of looking produced by microscopy, ultrasound and MRI in particular. Much of this research demonstrates how ways of seeing and the technologies that facilitate them become embedded in cultural life, creating new identities, social institutions, ethical questions, or ways of relating. Inspired by this research, the conference “Envisioning Science: Imaging the Body,” to be held at the University of Alberta in Edmonton on September 10th and 11th 2010, addresses issues of seeing, looking, and imaging in relation to scientific and medical practices, both past and present.

The keynote speaker will be Lisa Cartwright (University of California-Sand Diego). Professor Cartwright will speak on the evening of Friday September 10th and there will be paper sessions on Saturday September 11th. Other confirmed speakers include Alex Choby (University of Alberta), Lianne McTavish (University of Alberta), Letitia Meynell (Dalhousie), Cameron Murray (York University), artist Marilene Oliver, and Steven Turner (University of New Brunswick). Principal support for the Workshop has been provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s `Cluster Grant’ on “Situating Science: Science in Human Context.”

For more information, please contact Alex Choby (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).

Health – A new religious awakening in Western Societies?

September 13 2010 | Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School

Deadline: March 01 2010

Updated: January 13 2010

Some scholars claim that health has taken over the role of religion in contemporary Western societies. Health has become synonymous with happiness and the possibility of living a perfect life. Health has become a matter of truth, intertwining norms, human practices and power relations. Today life itself is permeated by different kinds of health strategies, which situates the medicalised body as subject and object of regulation. The individual subject is now expected to experience the inner and outer world, and rebuild its own identity in relationship to a discourse of health and well-being. Speaking in the light of health is, as Monica Greco claims, a very powerful rhetoric. In this conference we have invited some of the most influential scholars working in the fields of sociology, history of medicine and the body, politics of bioethics, critical theory etcetera to discuss the prominent, normative role of health today. They will touch upon questions such as: How does the sociology of the body and the way we reflect upon diseases connect to neoliberal thinking? How do technologies of health differ from other technologies of subjectification? How does health and well being discourse define us as human beings? How does the normal differs from the pathological in these discourses? And are we all becoming somatic individuals?
Email contact information: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Abstracts should be approximately 500 words (ONE page, Word document, single spaced, excluding references).New and young scholars with ‘work in progress’ papers are welcomed. In the case of co-authored papers, ONE person should be identified as the corresponding author. Note that due to restrictions of space, multiple submissions by the same author will not be timetabled. Abstracts should be emailed .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Abstracts should includeFULLcontact details, including your name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address.State the title of the track to which you are submitting your abstract.

Beyond Knowledge Society: Scientific knowledge production, consumption and transformation

September 13 2010 | Inter University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Updated: April 14 2010

We would like to draw your attention on our International Graduate Summer School with the title “Beyond Knowledge Society: Scientific knowledge production, consumption and transformation”. It will take place at the Inter University Centre (IUC) in Dubrovnik (Croatia) from September 13 – 17, 2010. Please find attached our call for paper including information about the program and the course directors.

All information about the International Graduate Summer School can be gathered from our homepage: http://www.itas.fzk.de/v/dubrovnik/

Beyond Knowledge Society: Scientific knowledge production, consumption and transformation

September 13 2010 | Inter University Centre (IUC) in Dubrovnik (Croatia)

Updated: May 16 2010

The importance of scientific knowledge has changed in the past decades. Science's cognition-oriented self-concept as a place for academic contemplation, for the art of experimentation and theory formation, which corresponded to the ideal of classical physics — and from there, set out on its triumphant advance — is now to be found in only some of the sciences. Other sciences, however, are drawn into society's decision-making processes, and are changed by them. The background of this development is that, in decision-making and organizational processes, knowledge is retrieved which is also needed for political opinion formation. Through comprehensive research programs and new forms of organization (like, for example, the Helmholtz Association), new methods of scientific knowledge production are being firmly institutionalized. Science is called for to subject these scientific production methods to a re-evaluation, and to examine them with regard to the question, to which extent basic research should and can be societally relevant. The performance potentials of this "new" form of scientific knowledge must, for that reason, be analyzed with respect to its societal relevance, and be oriented on higher-ranking formulations of problems. Besides (1) the production of scientific knowledge, closer examination of (2) the consumption and (3) the trans- formation of scientific knowledge can provide an analytical framework.

All information about the International Graduate Summer School can be gathered from our homepage: http://www.itas.fzk.de/v/dubrovnik/

Conference on health in a sociological/political/philosophical view Department of Organization, Cope

September 13 2010 | Copenhagen

Deadline: March 01 2010

Updated: January 14 2010

Health – A new religious awakening in Western Societies?
Some scholars claim that health has taken over the role of religion in contemporary Western
societies. Health has become synonymous with happiness and the possibility of living a perfect
life. Health has become a matter of truth, intertwining norms, human practices and power
relations. Today life itself is permeated by different kinds of health strategies, which situates the
medicalised body as subject and object of regulation. The individual subject is now expected to
experience the inner and outer world, and rebuild its own identity in relationship to a discourse
of health and well-being. Speaking in the light of health is, as Monica Greco claims, a very
powerful rhetoric. In this conference we have invited some of the most influential scholars
working in the fields of sociology, history of medicine and the body, politics of bioethics, critical
theory etcetera to discuss the prominent, normative role of health today. They will touch upon
questions such as: How does the sociology of the body and the way we reflect upon diseases
connect to neoliberal thinking? How do technologies of health differ from other technologies of
subjectification? How does health and well being discourse define us as human beings? How
does the normal differs from the pathological in these discourses? And are we all becoming
somatic individuals?

The conference will involve a combination of plenary lectures from four key note speakers, and
the presentation of papers by conference participants in smaller, themed groups. The groups will
be organized in following tracks:
1) Health as religion: the normative role of health in contemporary Western societies
2) The politics of bioethics: bio-medicine, neo-liberalism and health
3) Health care professionals, patients, citizens and the re-organizing of private and public
domains.
4) Identity formation in health discourses: the sick body as object and subject of regulation

Important dates:
March 1 2010: Abstract
March 15 2010: Notification of decision of acceptance
June 15, 2010: Full Paper

Email contact information:
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Abstracts should be approximately 500 words (ONE page, Word document, single spaced,
excluding references). New and young scholars with 'work in progress' papers are welcomed. In the case of co-authored papers, ONE person should be identified as the corresponding author. Note that due to restrictions of space, multiple submissions by the same author will not be timetabled. Abstracts should be emailed .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Abstracts should include FULL contact details, including your name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address. State the title of the track to which you are submitting your abstract.

Price of conference: 100 Euro (including lunch, coffee, conference materials)

Sentient creatures: Transforming biopolitics and life matters

September 15 2010 | Oslo, Norway

Deadline: March 15 2010

http://www.cultrans.uio.no

Updated: January 15 2010

The concepts of biopower and biopolitcs, so eloquently and significantly laid out by Michel Foucault, are quite possibly insufficient to our understanding of past and contemporary living. Just think about zoonoses including the ?swine flue? pandemic, and the ways in which the production of facts about the human body have been and continue to be built upon the observation and manipulation of animals. These and similar examples suggest that two correctives or re-emphases are required. First, studies of life and the living alert us to the fact that biopolitics is not only about humans, in the form of the human individual, or in the form of the human population, it is rather about an assemblage of matters of life. Second, there is neither a self evident or totalising human power over life, nor an unproblematic politics of life. The relation between life and politics needs both theoretical and empirical specificity. To expand slightly on each of these:

First, even a narrow focus on the life of living humans immediately takes in nonhumans and other than human lives. Securing life and making life live is always more than human. Indeed, humans are and always have been conditioned upon non-humans: as in laboratory medicine, in our ways of producing and taking life - for food, and as crucial entities in debates about who ?we? think ?we? are. Animals are objects, but also subjects, symbols and signs.

Second, if lives are practised in many places and with many others, then how do we start to understand the lives that are being and have been made? Past work has tended to underline various practices of control and technologies of knowledge and surveillance. Perhaps rather than an overarching framework we need narratives and ethnographies of the living, taking in the multi-sited, multi-logic and multiple ways in which lives are and have been assembled, disassembled, practised and possibly policed and politicised. Instead of asking only how is and has control and knowledge been extended over life, we should also look at the imperfect living practices which often defy orders, escape detection, fail to produce or only loosely hang together.

An aim of this conference is to bring historically oriented narratives and approaches together with contemporary studies, hence to bring the archive into an exchange with, for instance, ethnographic ways of working. It is to link the ways in which we narrate the past now, with ways of approaching and re-presenting the present. Thus our questions will not only evolve around what´s going on, what are these transformations, but also the question of method; how to do the work ? empirically as well as theoretically.

Possible topics for sessions and papers are: Protecting, caring, conserving, killing, enhancing, ordering, securing, displaying, naming, modeling lives

How do we understand current and past interventions in lives and living processes?

Are current and past attempts to politicize biology,and to biologize politics, or biopolitics, sufficient to understand who and what is at stake?

How are practices as diverse as public health, health care, agriculture, field and laboratory science, politics and war changing lives and altering as those lives change?

The conference will take place at the Thorbjørnrud hotel outside Oslo. The event is a joint venture? with CULTRANS (http://www.cultrans.uio.no) and the projects Newcomers to the farm, Animals as objects and animals as signs standardisation and visualization of animals, Nature and Science in Politics and Everyday Practices and the Research network DRUGS.

If you want to take part in the conference: Send an abstract of about 400 words to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) presenting your research interest and the paper you want to present at the conference. Deadline March 15 2010. Deadline for a short version of the paper will be May 15. There will be a conference fee covering hotel and food expenses.

Medical Anthropology in Global Africa: Current Trends in Scholarship and Practice

September 16 2010 | University of Kansas

Deadline: May 15 2010

Updated: April 13 2010

We are writing to invite you to present your research as part of the conference, Medical Anthropology in Global Africa: Current Trends in Scholarship and Practice to be held at the University of Kansas, September 16 - 18, 2010. This conference aims to bring together Africanist anthropologists and scholars in related disciplines whose research concerns the intersections among cultural anthropology and medicine, public health, psychology, history, population & development, and science & technology studies. Few fields in the social sciences have witnessed such growth over the past decade as that of medical anthropology. Within this seemingly boundless sub-discipline of anthropology, this conference poses the question: What makes Africanist projects unique? What contributions have anthropological or ethnographic studies of Africa made to health sciences? And what, in turn, does contemporary medical anthropology and health science scholarship offer Africanists? When scholars of health in Africa trace their concerns beyond the boundaries of the continent, what lasting impact have their experiences had on the trajectory of their work? Finally, what draws the current generation of medical anthropologists and ethnographically oriented health scientists to pursue research in sub-Saharan Africa? We hope these discussions will reinvigorate the efforts of African Studies Centers to explore these novel intersections through curricular and collaborative research initiatives. Professor Carolyn Sargent of the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis will give the conference’s keynote address. Panel chairs will include: Daniel Smith (Brown University); Claire Wendland (University of Wisconsin); Kristin Peterson (University of California, Irvine); and Ama de Graft-Aikins (University of Ghana). We are looking forward to compiling the papers given at the conference into an edited volume. If you are interested in attending, we ask that you submit an abstract of 250 words by May 15th. Conference panels will include: • Global aid, development, and governance • Technologies, pharmaceuticals, and bioethics • Human development, disability, and chronic disorders • Public health, development and medical professionalization • Violence, trauma, memory, and spirituality • Epidemiology, population, and migration studies • Gender, sexuality and reproductive health • Other Topics The registration fees for full-time faculty will be $60 if submitted before June 30, 2010. ($80 if submitted before September 10th or $100 if registering on-site). The cost for students will be $25. Abstracts should be emailed to Professor Kathryn Rhine, Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). More information can be found on the conference website:http://www.kasc.ku.edu/HC.shtml . We look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely, Kathryn A. Rhine, John M. Janzen, Glenn Adams, and Heather Aldersley Kansas African Studies Center - Medical Anthropology in Global Africa Forum .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Contemporary medical science and technology as a challenge for museums

September 16 2010 | Copenhagen

http://tinyurl.com/ylx5atx

Updated: January 15 2010

The 15th biannual conference of the European Association of Museums for the History of Medical Sciences (EAMHMS) will be held at the University of Copenhagen, 16–19 September, 2010.

This year’s cross-disciplinary conference focuses on the challenge to museums posed by contemporary developments in medical science and technology.

The image of medicine that emerges from most museum galleries and exhibitions is still dominated by pre-modern and modern understandings of an anatomical and physiological body, and by the diagnostic and therapeutical methods and instruments used to intervene with the body at the ‘molar’ and tangible level – limbs, organs, tissues, etc.

The rapid transition in the medical and health sciences and technologies over the last 50 years – towards a molecular understanding of human body in health and disease and the rise of a host of molecular and digital technologies for investigating and intervening with the body – is still largely absent in museum collections and exhibitions.

As a consequence, the public can rarely rely on museums to get an understanding of the development and impact of the medical and health sciences in the last 50 years. Biochemistry and molecular biology have resulted in entirely new diagnostic methods and therapeutic regimes and a flourishing biotech industry. The elucidation of the human genome and the emergence of proteomics has opened up the possibility of personalised molecular medicine. Advances in the material sciences and information technology have given rise to a innovative and highly productive medical device industry, which is radically transforming medical practices. But few museums have so far engaged seriously and in a sustained way with these and similar phenomena in the recent history of medical sciences and technologies.
The contemporary transition in medical and health science and technology towards molecularisation, miniaturisation, mediated visualisation, digitalisation and intangibilisation is a major challenge for the museum world; not only for medical museums, but also for museums of science and technology, and indeed for all kinds of museums with an interest in the human body and the methods for intervening with it, including art museums, natural history museums and museums of cultural history.

Contemporary medicine is not only a challenge to exhibition design practices and public outreach strategies but also to acquisition methodologies, collection management and collection-based research. How do museums today handle the material and visual heritage of contemporary medical and health science and technology? How do curators wield the increasing amount and kinds of intangible scientific and digital objects? Which intellectual, conceptual, and practical questions does this challenge give rise to?

The conference will address questions like (but not limited to):

+ How can an increasingly microanatomical, molecularised, invisible and intangible (mediated) human body be represented in a museum setting? Does the post-anatomical body require new kinds of museum displays?
+ How can museums make sense of contemporary molecular-based and digitalised diagnostic and thereapeutic technologies, instrumentation and investigation practices in their display practices?
+ How can museums make use of their older collections together with new acquisitions from contemporary medicine and health science and technology?
+ What is the role of the visual vs. the non-visual (hearing, smell, taste, touch) senses in curatorial practice and in the public displays of contemporary medical science and technology?
+ What can museums learn from science centers, art-science event venues etc. with respect to the public engagement with contemporary medical science and technology? And, vice versa, what can museums provide that these institutions cannot?
+ How can museums draw on bioart, ‘wet art’ and other art forms to stimulate public engagement with the changing medical and health system?
+ How does physical representations of contemporary medicine in museums spaces relate to textual representations in print and digital representations on the web?
+ How can museums integrate emerging social web technologies (Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) in the build-up of medical and health exhibitions?
+ What kind of acquisition methods and policies are needed for museums to catch up with the development of contemporary medical science and technology, especially the proliferation of molecular and digital artefacts and images?
+ What kind of problems do museum encounter when they expand the acquisition domain from traditional textual, visual and tangible material objects to digital artefacts (including software, audio- and videorecordings, and digitally stored data) and non-tangible scientific objects.
+ How can participatory acquisitioning, crowd-sourcing, wiki-based methods, etc. (‘museum 2.0’) be employed for the preservation and curation of the contemporary medical heritage?
+ How can curatorial work in museums draw on medical research and engineering and on academic scholarship in the humanities and social sciences? And, vice versa, how can museums contribute to medical teaching and research and how can their collections stimulate the use of physical objects in the humanities and social sciences?

The conference will employ a variety of session formats. In addition to keynotes and sessions with individual presentations of current research and curatorial work there will also be discussion panels and object demonstration workshops.

We welcome submissions from a wide range of scholars and specialists – including, for example, curators in medical, science and technology museums; scholars in the history, philosophy and social studies of medicine, science and technology; scholars in science and technology studies, science communication studies, museum studies, material studies and visual culture studies; biomedical scientists and clinical specialists; medical, health and pharma industry specialists with an interest in science communication; engineers and designers in the medical device industry; artists, designers and architects with an interest in museum displays, etc.

We are especially interested in presentations that involve the use of material and visual artefacts and we therefore encourage participants to bring illustrative and evocative (tangible or non-tangible) objects for demonstration.

100-300 word proposals for presentations, demonstrations, discussion panels, etc. shall be sent before 28 February 2010 to the chair of the program committee, Thomas Soderqvist, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

For further information, see http://tinyurl.com/ylx5atx or contact Thomas Soderqvist, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). For practical information about travel, accommodation, etc., please contact Anni Harris, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), after 4 January 2010.

Knowledge on the Move: Conflict, Displacement and Re-Engineering Society—1933 to 1989

September 19 2010 to September 21 2010 | Canada Science and Technology Museum, and Canada Aviation Museum, Ottawa

Deadline: June 11 2010

Updated: June 14 2010

The mass movement of people displaced in Europe was a transformative social phenomenon of the period leading up to and following the Second World War. Many of those immigrants were scientists, engineers, designers and others with technical skills and pent up innovative energies. Their institutions and innovative technologies were left behind or unceremoniously stripped away but their knowledge of science and technology, aesthetic theories and convictions invigorated their new environments and adopted institutions. The result, from the turbulent ‘30s to the end of the Cold War, was a technological and cultural transformation of their – and our -- world. This Artefacts workshop will investigate that transformation and movement of scientific and technological artefacts -- from communications, to computers, art, music, and, of course, science. Deadline for receipt of proposals for sessions and papers is: Friday, June 11th. Proposals should indicate how the selected object(s) will play a critical role in your presentation(s). A decision on proposals accepted for the workshop will be made by early July. Submission of abstracts should be sent to Sharon Babaian at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) For further information contact Danielle Naoufal at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Secure Conference Registration: https://nt8.magma.ca/technomuses.ca/artefact/artefact_e.asp

States of Belonging An Anthropology Graduate Student Conference Call for Papers

September 24 2010 to September 25 2010 | University of Colorado, Boulder

Deadline: June 15 2010

Updated: June 14 2010

States of Belonging is a two-day conference organized by graduate students in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Belonging is at once comforting and painful, a process and performance of separation and fusion. Etienne Balibar describes “a sense of belonging” as “both what it is that makes one belong to oneself and also what makes one belong to other fellow human beings.” Pushing further, Veena Das asks about the consequences involved in social belonging: “If societies hide from themselves the pain which is inflicted upon individuals as prices of belonging, then how do social sciences learn to receive this knowledge?” In this conference on States of Belonging, we hope to tend to experiences, structures, and epistemologies of belonging as involving both sense and consequence. How, for example, do we understand the complexities of what it means to belong? We contend that the concept of belonging is crucial for understanding issues across the humanities and social sciences: from generational shifts and dislocations, questions of migration and (trans)nationality, issues for refugees and citizenship, changing gender roles and identities, and neoliberal transitions and pretenses, to communities formed through postcolonial and postsocialist orders, new media and cyberworlds, styles in fashion or music, new reproductive technologies and shifting notions of kinship, and unexpected disruptions of everyday life through war, violence, or natural disaster. If—as anthropologists have long contended—processes of belonging are as much about exclusion as inclusion, then how are such processes experienced, conceptualized, reproduced or transformed? How might we best understand belonging as both a project of states as well as a state of being? In highlighting the breadth of anthropological research and theorizing on belonging, we welcome papers on any and all topics speaking to our theme.

The conference will be held Friday, September 24 and Saturday, September 25 and will include panels moderated by University of Colorado faculty. Gyanendra Pandey, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of History at Emory University, will give the keynote address. We invite participants to send a 250 word abstract by Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

For further information, please see the States of Belonging Conference website, http://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/statesofbelonging/ or contact Carole McGranahan, Associate Professor of Anthropology, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

************************************************** David M. Hoffman, Ph.D. Dept. of Anthropology & Middle Eastern Cultures Mississippi State University P.O. Box AR Mississippi State, MS 39762

Room 105 Cobb Institute 662-325-7519

Making and Opening: Entangling Design and Social Science

September 24 2010 | Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre Goldsmiths, University of London

Updated: May 16 2010

How might design and social science speak to each other’s practices? How might social science and design remake one another’s objects?

Bringing together a group of leading practitioners and academics, this day conference will explore innovative ways of further entangling Design and Social Science disciplines through a range of open issues: Speculation/Anticipation; Participation/Impact; Discipline/Contamination; Making/Method.

Speakers will include: Bill Gaver, Pelle Ehn, Mike Michael, Bill Moggridge, Harvey Molotch, Michelle Murphy, Lucy Suchman, Nina Wakeford.

Sponsored by: Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process, Interaction Research Studio, INCITE - Incubator for Critical Inquiry into Technology and Ethnography.

For further details see http://www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/events/

Translations between social research and design/innovation: a workshop for PhD students and early ca

September 25 2010 | Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths, University of London

Deadline: June 01 2010

Updated: May 16 2010

Translations between social research and design/innovation: a workshop for PhD students and early career researchers Recent years have seen a burgeoning of creative research practice at the intersection of social science and design. This workshop will explore the ways in which social research is used by those involved in design and innovation processes. It will give the participants the opportunity to think about a variety of ways in which their research might be presented and developed in these contexts, and critically reflect on these translations.

Sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council Research Fellowship Scheme

Applications due 1st June. For details see

http://www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/events/

Transnational Times: Locality, Globality and Mobility in Technology Design and Use

September 26 2010 | Copenhagen, Denmark

Deadline: June 15 2010

Updated: May 17 2010

A workshop at Ubicomp 2010 September 26, 2010 Copenhagen, Denmark Organizers: Irina Shklovski, Silvia Lindtner, Janet Vertesi, Paul Dourish We seek interdisciplinary scholars interested in exploring the role of ubiquitous computing, the use of information and communication technologies and the politics of technological design in transnational settings to participate in our workshop, TRANSNATIONAL TIMES, at Ubicomp 2010. Through this workshop we aim to expand our current scholarly vocabulary for the conceptualization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in addressing the interplay of local and global user interaction. Current work in Ubiquitous computing is already considering the use of technologies in the developing world and marginalized users in the developed world. This workshop extends such an interest to examine interactions with ubiquitous technology in a transnational context. After all, technologies such as mobile phones, social networking applications and the internet writ large complicate the framing of use and culture as bounded by national or geographical borders, as such illuminating diverse user practices and identities. In this analytical frame we take inspiration from theorists of the global in anthropology, sociology, and HCI who focus on flows across boundaries, hybridity and transnationality. Examples of possible papers or research topics of interest include (but are not limited to): the use of pervasive technologies such as multiplayer gaming across borders, studies of the use of social network sites among diaspora communities, use of the internet and other ICTs in censorship state zones, the role of mobile technologies in reconfiguring the local and the global, technology in the context of international migration networks, ubiquitous computing and cross- cultural collaboration, and the role of technology in international politics. Papers that develop theoretical approaches, that examine or report on empirical work, or that design technological artifacts are welcome, and need not be limited to "developing world" sites of interest. We hope to attract submissions from scholars working in a range of fields across computational, social and humanistic studies, such as human computer interaction, anthropology, media studies, sociology, science and technology studies and social and cultural geography. The goal of the workshop is to assemble like minds and projects, to develop a language and toolset appropriate for the study of ubiquitous technologies in transnational spaces, and to engage a wider community of researchers working in this area. We also hope this workshop will interest technology designers and developers currently working in non- western contexts. Full papers may later be solicited for a potential edited volume. TO APPLY: Interested participants should submit a 2-4 page paper in Ubicomp Archival Format describing your current project and its contribution to the workshop topic and themes. As you prepare your paper we suggest you visit our website at for more information. Papers must be emailed to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by JUNE 15, 2010. Decisions will be announced by June 30. All accepted participants should plan to attend at least one full day of Ubicomp 2010 in addition to the workshop. Registration will be handled by Ubicomp 2010's central registration page via

Humanities and Technology Association Annual Meeting: Technology and Development: The Human Benefits

September 28 2010 to October 02 2010 | Bowie, Maryland

Deadline: May 28 2010

Updated: May 16 2010

CFP: Humanities and Technology Association Annual Meeting: 9/28/10 - 10/02/10 http://www.humanitiesandtechnology.org/HTA%202010%20Conference/index.html

The sustainable use of technical and natural resources makes it possible to alleviate world hunger, eliminate illiteracy, deliver basic health care services, and raise living standards worldwide. Yet, we still face significant political, economic, environmental, and social challenges in reaching the United Nations Millennium Development Goals of eliminating extreme poverty in all its forms by 2015. Some of these challenges evoke questions about the use and abuse of technologies with regard to development. What have been the human benefits and burdens of the introduction of new technologies in the past and what are the challenges facing both the developed and developing countries today? Paper submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

1. The response of the arts to the issue of technology and development 2. Technology, development, and the environment, including land and water use, mining, and the burden of mitigating greenhouse gases 3. New technologies and the impact on workforce development 4. Agricultural revolution, industrial revolution, other issues in the history of technology 5. Country studies of the interface between technology and development 6. Theories of economic development in light of new technologies 7. North versus South: the benefits and burdens of development 8. The politics of access to technology: gender, race, and class 9. Hunger, technology, and development 10. Religion, technology, and development 11. Health care, technology, and development 12. Biotechnology and human nature 13. Net neutrality

Submission Guidelines: Papers should be designed for a twenty-minute presentation. Submit a two-to-three page proposal by May 28, 2010 to Dr. George Sochan, Conference Chairman, Department of History and Government, Bowie State University, via MSWord attachment, to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Notification of acceptance or rejection of proposals will be sent by email by June 4, 2010.

The Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies

September 29 2010 | Darmstadt, Germany

Deadline: March 15 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

The Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies
(S.NET) is an international association that promotes open intellectual
exchange towards the ad-vancement of knowledge and understanding of
nanotechnologies in society. S.NET represents diverse communities,
viewpoints, and methodologies in the social sciences and humanities. It
welcomes contributions from scientists and engineers that advance the
critical reflection of nanotechnologies and related developments.

The program committee invites all discussions of anthropological,
cultural, economic, ethical, historical, philosophical, political, and
sociological aspects of nanosciences and emerging technologies. This can
take the form of individual abstracts, proposals for sessions with three
to five presentations, and other formats. 250-word abstracts for
individual papers, up to 1000-word-abstracts for sessions and other
formats can be submitted online until March 15 at www.theSNET.net.
Notifications of acceptance will be mailed by April 30, 2010. Graduate
students are encouraged to submit.

In the spirit of an emerging society that looks at emerging technologies
as an emerging field of inquiry, we welcome all innovative suggestions
about themes and session-formats to foreground critical issues. These
can be submitted informally at any time to the program committee. -
Where needed, we will try to secure travel stipends for speakers. - This
year's plenary speakers include Armin Grunwald, Richard Jones, Bernard
Stiegler, and Jan Youtie.

More information about S.NET, the past meeting in Seattle, and the
upcoming conference in Darmstadt can be found at www.theSNET.net.

Society for the History of Technology (SHOT)

September 30 2010 | Tacoma, Washington

Deadline: March 31 2010

http://www.historyoftechnology.org/

Updated: January 15 2010

The Society for the History of Technology will hold its annual meeting in Tacoma, Washington from September 30 to October 3, 2010. The Program Committee invites paper and panel proposals on any topic in the history of technology, broadly defined. Sessions dealing with non-Western technologies are particularly welcome. Of special interest for 2010 are proposals that engage in themes that resonate with the concerns of the specific locale. These include:

Consumption: In the popular imagination, the Tacoma-Seattle area is associated with several important corporate entities (Boeing, Microsoft, Nintendo, Starbucks, etc.) whose goods and services are deeply embedded in global consumer culture. At a moment in time when consumption, sometimes excessive, sometimes globalized, sometimes exploitative, is of great concern to both the public and policy-makers, Tacoma is an appropriate place for historians to (re)consider technologies of consumption. We are especially interested in papers that see production and consumption as coterminous processes and which historicize consumption as part of broader processes in the history of technology. We define consumption very broadly to include the public's active engagement with technologies and technological systems, which may include environmental, communications, and obsolete technologies.

The Program Committee encourages sessions dealing with topics appropriate to the meeting location, such as aerospace and maritime history, labor history, forest products, information technology, and themes relevant to the Pacific world. We also encourage historians of technology to reach out to scholars in aligned and/or related fields when constructing research proposals as one way to create a more interdisciplinary environment. Finally, we invite papers and panel proposals that emphasize the longue durée, particularly those that problematize demarcations such as modern/premodern, colonial/postcolonial, and preindustrial/industrial. As always, sessions dealing with pre-modern, Medieval, and ancient topics are especially welcome.

The Program Committee's highest priority in evaluating paper and panel proposals is scholarly excellence. The Committee welcomes proposals for individual papers or sessions, as well as works-in-progress from researchers of all stripes (including graduate students, chaired professors, and independent scholars). It welcomes proposals from those new to SHOT, regardless of discipline. Multinational, international, and cross-institutional sessions are also desirable. We especially encourage proposals from non-Western scholars.

For the 2010 meeting the Program Committee continues to encourage unconventional sessions; that is, session formats that vary in useful ways from the typical three/four papers with comment. These might include round-table sessions, workshop-style sessions with papers that are pre-circulated electronically, or "author meets critics" sessions. We also welcome poster proposals for presentation in poster sessions. Please note that in general we discourage panels with more than three papers.

The deadline for proposals is 31 March 2010. Please submit your proposals to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Proposals for individual papers must include:
1. a one-page abstract (maximum 600 words)
2. a one-page curriculum vitae, including current postal and e-mail addresses

Proposals for complete sessions must include:
1. a description of the session that explains how individual papers contribute to an overall theme.
2. the names and paper titles of the presenters
3. for each presenter, a one-page summary (maximum 600 words) of the paper's topic, argument(s), and evidence used
4. for the commentator, chair, and each presenter: one-page c.v., with postal and e-mail addresses

Please indicate if a proposal is sponsored by one of SHOT's special interest groups.

Submission Instructions:
1. Materials should be sent as a single text attachment to an e-mail message to the Program Committee Chair, Asif Siddiqi at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

2. Proposals for complete sessions as well as individual papers should be submitted in one file.
3. Please adhere to the 600-word limit for each paper. Use no unusual fonts or special formatting, and save your attachment either as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) or as a Rich Text Format (.rtf) file. Nearly all word processing programs, including those used on Apple computers can save text in the Rich Text Format. Do not use Adobe Acrobat (pdf).
4. Name your attachment with your last name and the word 'proposal', e.g. 'Smith_proposal.doc'.
5. A session organizer should also deliver a description of the overall session. If you are organizing a session and proposing a paper in that session, you will be delivering both an "abstract" and "proposal", plus your c.v.
6. If you are proposing a non-traditional session you may indicate that in the "abstract." These also require a curriculum vitae.

General information:
While SHOT rules exclude multiple submissions (i.e., submitting more than one individual paper proposal, or proposing both an individual paper and a paper as part of a session), scholars may both propose a paper and serve as a commentator or session chair.

Generally speaking, the Program Committee discourages scholars from presenting papers at two consecutive meetings held in North America. Exceptions can be made for scholars traveling from overseas. Individuals are always welcome to serve as chairs and commentators and are encouraged to let the Program Committee know if they are available.

For more information about the Society for the History of Technology and our annual meeting, please see the SHOT webpage:
http://www.historyoftechnology.org/

For questions, please contact SHOT Secretary Bernie Carlson at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

SIGCIS Workshop 2010: Materiality and Immateriality in the History of Computing

October 03 2010 | Tacoma, Washington

Deadline: July 01 2010

Updated: May 16 2010

SIGCIS Workshop 2010: Materiality and Immateriality in the History of Computing

Sunday October 3 2010,

http://www.sigcis.org/?q=workshop10

DEADLINE: 1 JULY 2010
The Society for the History of Technology’s Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS – http://www.sigcis.org) welcomes submissions for its latest one day scholarly workshop on Materiality and Immateriality in the History of Computing. The workshop will be held in Tacoma Washington all day on Sunday, October 3 2010. This is the final day of the annual SHOT meeting. SHOT has reserved that day for SIG events and therefore the symposium will not overlap scheduled sessions in the main program. For details on the main SHOT meeting see http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting.html.
In keeping with the conference theme contributions that consider material aspects of the history of information technology (people, things, places, physical technologies and their relationship to work, practice, users, standards, and so on), immaterial aspects of the history of computing (logical standards, program code, theory, virtual technologies/environments/communities) or the relationship between the two are particularly welcome. However our practice is to welcome contributions on all topics related to the history of computing whether or not there is an explicit connection with the annual theme. Our membership is interdisciplinary and proposals are expected from the perspectives of business history, labor history, social history, science studies and the history of science as well as from historians of technology.
Proposals for entire sessions and individual presenters are both welcome. We hope to run special sessions featuring dissertations in progress and other works in progress. The workshop is a great opportunity to get helpful feedback on your projects in a relaxed and supportive environment. All proposals will be subject to a peer review process.
All submissions should be made via the web by 1 July, 2010. Limited travel assistance for graduate students is available. For full information including detailed submission requirements please go to http://www.sigcis.org/?q=workshop10.

Questions should be addressed to Jeffrey Tang who is serving as chair of the workshop organizing committee. Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

2010 International Metropolis Conference The Hague

October 04 2010 | The Hague

Updated: February 14 2010

The International Metropolis Project is an international network of
researchers, policy officials and NGOs sharing a common vision of enhancing migration and diversity policy by applying empirical social science research. Now the world's largest such network, it is perhaps best known for its major annual conferences, the next of which takes place in The Hague, 4 - 8 October 2010. Each conference attracts between 800 and 1000 delegates for high-level plenary sessions, a comprehensive study tour programme and more than 60 concurrent workshops. The conferences are an opportunity for delegates - both expert and novice - to discuss critical issues, identify research and policy gaps, compare international experiences and build the Metropolis network. The 2010 International Metropolis Conference will be of interest to policy makers, administrators and representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as academic researchers.

I would like to draw your attention to the Call for Workshop Proposals, and invite you to submit a proposal of your own. The deadline is April 1 for the Workshop proposals. The proposals will be adjudicated according to the strength of the proposal, best fit with conference themes, and representation of a broad range of perspectives from various countries. Workshops must have participation by representatives from more than one sector (academic, government/policy, and NGO/community). Workshops that do not meet this criteria will not be included. Metropolis is actively encouraging participation from Asian and African countries, and encourages workshops that address gender aspects of migration and diversity. Please read the attached calls carefully. Additional information can be found on the conference website (http://www.metropolis2010.org/).
This conference is an excellent opportunity to showcase your own research to a wide and diverse public, to exchange empirical data and theoretical ideas, to extend your network, and to prepare international publications.

Membranes, Surfaces and Boundaries: interstices in the history of science, technology and culture

October 07 2010 | Workshop at the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science, Berlin.

Deadline: January 31 2010

http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/workshops/en/Membranes-Surfaces-Boundaries.html

Updated: January 13 2010

The world, more of than not, is and has been conceived in its compactness, as stuff, things, and objects; far less so, in its interstices. Science, technology and culture, of course, are permeated and traversed by boundary phenomena: From the materialities of life itself, whether cellular membranes, skin, immune-systems or ecological habitats, to surface, separation and purification processes in chemistry and industry to the making, processing and exhibition of photographs and films, things coalesced at surfaces. They are palpable as well in the history of geography and politics, of urban and private spaces, of literature, art, psychology and the self, and certainly enough, as interfaces, in contemporary media theory.
The workshop Membranes, Surfaces and Boundaries aims to recover and bring together these interstices. We wish to attract contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including the natural sciences, that cross, straddle and make permeable these specialist divides, and that interrogate the historical being of surfaces. We wish to focus the workshop on the materialities of membranes, surfaces, and boundaries themselves. Possible anchors are surfaces and membranes as biological entities; chemical and technical phenomena at boundaries such as catalysis, filtration or electrophoresis; or films, photographic and otherwise, as media of projection and material surface processes. We invite contributions engaging with these and other spheres and their manifold intersections. Some illustrative questions include: In the history of science, can we generate cultural histories of the biological cell, a historiographically rather neglected object? Or related, of the similarly neglected but important, huge fields such as electro-chemistry or chemical engineering? Might we re-read through surface-objects disciplinary histories, experimental practices or the ways science is permeable to its social and cultural settings (and vice versa)? In film and media studies, how can attention to the materialities of surfaces incorporate the histories of science, technology or industry? Or again, more philosophically, how can we bring together concepts and materials, the abstract and concrete, metaphors and physical boundaries in re-thinking the histories of interstices? All submitted abstracts showing some relation to our main theme will be given careful consideration. Abstracts of up to 300 words should include your name, institutional affiliation, and email address. These should be submitted by email to Mathias Grote (mgrote@mpiwg- berlin.mpg.de) and Max Stadler (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)). The deadline for abstract submission is 31 January 2010.

Global Conference on Human Rights and Diverse Societies

October 07 2010 to October 09 2010 | Montreal, Canada

Updated: June 12 2010

The McGill University Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism is privileged to host its second major international conference, the Global Conference on Human Rights and Diverse Societies, to be held October 7-9, 2010, in Montreal, Canada. The Conference will bring together from around the world academics, writers, journalists, legislators, diplomats, activists and others who are active in the field of international human rights and who devote their lives to building, supporting and studying diverse societies.

The conference seeks to challenge the mainstream narrative of the universality of human rights. Panelists will address how diverse societies around the world conceptualize human rights and deal with the implementation of human rights policies and norms. The conference also aspires to identify alternative frameworks that can facilitate the conceptualization of and help find solutions to global human rights issues. Some of the core themes of the conference include the power of education to spur and combat hatred; the role of the media in shaping public opinion and public policy on human rights and diversity issues; religious diversity; the manner in which real and perceived security threats have changed the global mindset; the role of human rights institutions.

For more information about our conference and registration, please take a look at our website: http://efchr.mcgill.ca/2010/eng/home.php

“Race-Making and the State: Between Postracial Neoliberalism and Racialized Terrorism”

October 08 2010 | University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Deadline: March 30 2010

http://www.criticalraceconference.arts.ualberta.ca/

Updated: January 13 2010

Despite the ‘wilful forgetting’ evident in much Canadian and international studies scholarship, racial thinking, race-making and racial imaginaries long have served the imperial and colonial designs of empires and states alike. German philosopher Eric Voegelin was among the first to think through the relationship between race-making and the state. In Race and State, he insisted that the racial idea was a fundamental element of the modern state. For Voeglin, it was irrelevant whether race was a biological or genetic fiction; this did not belie its power or its real life political, material or social salience. Hannah Arendt in turn persuasively argued that race thinking has been wide-spread across the west since at least the eighteenth century, and functioned as a political device to differentiate the ‘primitive’, ‘savage’ and ‘barbarian’ from the ‘civilized’. Racism was a powerful ideological weapon in imperialist policies including the ‘scramble for Africa’ and in the dispossession of Indigenous lands. In Society Must Be Defended, the French social theorist Michel Foucault advanced the notion of ‘state racism’ as one expression of the biopower of the modern state, which unleashed governing technologies to ‘make live’ some groups and ‘let die’ others. Other important works on the ‘racial state’, prominent among them, Omni and Winant (1994), Anthony Marx (1998), David Theo Goldberg (2002), Sherene Razack (2008) and Sunera Thobani (2007), have linked imperial and colonial racisms to the conceits of modern liberal states, which purport to be race neutral, colour-blind and even postracial, while masking, reproducing and even reinforcing historical inequities.

The nature of race thinking and race-making are differently configured in two dominant logics of the twenty-first century: neoliberalism’s racial imaginaries of an individualized, atomized person who can leave behind her or his racial, ethnic and gendered self and the racial
imaginaries of 9/11 and the ‘war on terror’, which make clear that ‘outsider groups’ are always already shaped by racial and gendered markers. Arguably neoliberalism has depoliticized race and racism, indeed, all structural inequalities. It has reduced racism to a psychological shortcoming that can be mediated through the promotion of cross-cultural understanding. In this context, we are confronted with the paradoxical claim that while there may be racism, apparently there are no racists and no systemic conditions of racial inequality. This paradox disdains historical memory of institutional and structural racism and ‘forgets’ that racial thinking and race-making have shifted over time, space, and regimes with sometimes devastating effect. What is racism and who if anyone can be called a racist?
Race-making and the ‘racial state’ too often are imagined as cases of exceptions, such as Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa. This too elides the everyday and normalized practices of race-making and racism and obscures meaningful anti-racist practices. In such contexts, what
do anti-racism and decolonization mean? How do they manifest intheories, practices and policies?
Please visit website for details of the organization. CALL FOR PAPERS: The primary purpose of this conference is to explore race-making, anti-racism, decolonization and the state. We encourage papers and panels that take an interlocking analysis with class, gender, sexuality and disabilities. Topics may include but are not limited to: the role of the state in producing racial classifications, hierarchies and imaginaries; racial projects including colonialism,indigenous dispossession, slavery and internments; 9/11, violence and the war on terrorism; state inventions of ‘black sites’ of rendition and torture as well as routinized practices such as photographing, fingerprinting, and surveillance of racial others; race in immigration and refugee policies, detention centres and similar securitized initiatives; the political economy of race in a neoliberal era; science, genetics and race; skin, body and identity; race, fantasy and desire; comedy, satire and race; the evasion and even erasure of race from many disciplinary efforts to understand the constitution of advanced liberal states and markets; colonial encounters and racism that informed dominant relations between indigenous peoples and white settler societies; and that think through anti-racisms, anti-colonialism, decolonization and social justice in theory, policy and practice.

The R.A.C.E. 2010 conference organizer is Dr. Malinda S. Smith, Political Science Department, University of Alberta. Please send a 300 words abstract in Word or RTF with title, keywords, institutional affiliation and contact to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and include a 150 words Bio locating your work in critical race /anti-colonial scholarship by 30 March 2010 to:
Dr. Malinda S Smith, 2010 R.A.C.E. Conference Organizer, University of Alberta, Telephone: 780.492.5380 / Fax: 780.492.2580, Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address),
Web site: http://www.criticalraceconference.arts.ualberta.ca/

Globalizing Beauty: Body Aesthetics

October 14 2010 | German Historical Institute, Washington, DC

Deadline: March 15 2010

Updated: January 13 2010

Beauty matters. That it matters more and more in modern societies can easily be measured in the amount of money people spend on cosmetic surgeries, on fashion, on cosmetics, on looking at beautiful stars, and, since the 1990s in particular, in the number of scholarly articles and books analyzing exactly this phenomenon. Challenging the myth of eternal, unchanging, and cross-cultural beauty ideals, this conference inquires into the rise of powerful and yet ambiguous discourses on and practices of body aesthetics in the 20th century; it explores the interaction of hegemonic and non-hegemonic discourses on body aesthetics; and it tracks the impact of globalization and commodification on the struggle for beauty.

What is considered beautiful depends on time and space, that is, on cultural and social settings. Beauty is linked to other categories of difference—the good, the strong, the wealthy, the healthy people. Beauty is highly gendered, closely affiliated with racial hierarchies, and has
always been a tool of social distinction. Owning beauty and accessing beautiful things are privileges. As with consumerism in general, the acquisition of beauty relies on and reinforces preexisting social hierarchies. At the same time, the modern discourse on beauty is embedded
in ideas—one may say, illusions—of social advancement. Beauty defines identity, and it causes controversy.

Please submit materials via email to both - Hartmut Berghoff, Professor of Economic History, Director, German Historical Institute, Washington, DC, email: Ms. Baerbel Thomas (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) - Thomas Kühne, Professor of History, Strassler Family Chair in the Study of Holocaust History, Clark University, Worcester, MA, email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

University history, university collections and university practices

October 14 2010 | Trondheim, Norway

Deadline: April 15 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

After very successful meetings in Oslo in 2008 and Tromsø/Lofoten in 2009 we are pleased to announce the Third conference on the history of science in Norway, which will take place from 14 to 17 October 2010 at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. The conference is being hosted in collaboration between the Forum for Kunnskapshistorie and the NTNU Anniversary History Project.

The theme of the conference will be “University history, university
collections and university practices”. In 2010 the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the city of Trondheim will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters in 1760 and the 100th anniversary of the Foundation of the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1910. We invite submission of papers and organised sessions related to the theme as well as to the history of science in its broader sense, including the history of social sciences and humanities. Please send proposals of no more than 200 words (word doc or rtf format) to the email address below before 15 April 2010. Please include a short biography highlighting main research interests no more than 50 words. Proposals will be
reviewed by the Programme Committee. Participants will be notified by 31 May.
Presentations are limited to 20 minutes, with additional 10 minutes for
discussion. The conference language will be English.
For submission of abstracts and requests for more information, please
contact:
Ragnhild Green Helgås (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

28th Annual Meeting of the Association for Politics and Life Sciences

October 14 2010 | Bloomington, Indiana (Indiana University)

Deadline: May 31 2010

Updated: May 16 2010

Announcement: In celebration of our 30th birthday, the theme of this year’s Meeting is: “Towards Consilience: Thirty Years of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences." Individual paper presentations, panel, and roundtable proposals are welcome on any topic that pertains to the following broad categories: New directions in politics and the life sciences, biobehavior, life science policies, neurology and politics, bioethics, bioterrorism, genetics and politics, biotechnology, and the environment. We are pleased to announce that 2009 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economic Sciences Elinor Ostrom will present the keynote address at this year’s meeting. Dr. Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, is the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. Her work has examined the use of collective action and the role of trust and cooperation in the management of common pool resources. Her institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework has been used to show how common resources such as forest, fisheries, oil fields and grazing lands can be managed successfully by the people who use them without government regulation or privatization. We are also pleased to announce a series of roundtables with the Founders of Biopolitics, whose actions led to the creation of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences. The Founders, including Odelia Funke, David Goetze, Samuel Hines, Gary Johnson, Roger Masters, John Orbell, Steve Peterson, Al Somit, and Lionel Tiger, will reflect on the origins, current findings and future of Biopolitics.

http://www.aplsnet.org/

Cross-National and Comparative History of Science Education: 4th European Society for the History

October 18 2010 | Barcelona, Spain

Deadline: January 20 2010

http://4eshs.iec.cat/

Updated: January 15 2010

This session assesses the need of further cross-national and comparative work in history of science, medicine and technology prompted by current perceptions of disciplinary crisis, around questions such as "big pictures", European centres and peripheries, the rise of global history, and the integration of non-Western science in the historical canon. It intends to do so, by focusing on the study of science education, and by promoting interdisciplinary communication between two subjects which rarely interact (the history of science and the history of education). Cross-National comparison was a major driving force in the nineteenth-century organization of education. Educationists, scientists and students circulated across national boundaries and compared different educational systems, producing accounts which contributed to inform educational reforms in their own national or local contexts. In the same period, the history of education emerged as a discipline aimed at illuminating contemporary educational research and organization through a historical perspective. Cross-National comparison was a key method, which, in spite of various epistemological challenges has survived up to our days, giving rise to well-established academic fields such as comparative education.

Historians of education have often approached the study of science from the point of view of institutions and curricula, producing in certain cases large scale international comparisons, and mainly focusing on primary education, and (increasingly) on secondary education. In contrast, historians of science have favoured tight accounts of pedagogy and training in local context, and commonly focused on higher education. In the last decade, some major works in this field have produced international pictures on science pedagogy, through the study of circulation of scientists and pedagogical tools. However, approaches are still too often restricted to local or national contexts, as they are in the history of science at large.

The aim of this session is to contribute to the historiographical development of the history of science and the history of education, by presenting papers dealing with more than one national context in comparative fashion, and including historiographical and methodological reflection on the characteristics, advantages, and limitations of this approach. The purpose of this session is neither to break national boundaries, nor to reaffirm them, but to discuss about them and through them and to show how cross-national comparison offers more accurate results than traditional approaches -explicitly or implicitly- restricted to the nation. Papers may not cover a whole country and can instead focus on comparison of regions or more local unities of analysis. Intra-national comparisons will be admitted if justified, although we will favour cross-national comparisons. Papers are invited to deal in comparative and cross-national perspective with the following objects and themes: - Pedagogical practices - Curricula - Pedagogical tools (teaching collections, pedagogical diagrams, pen and paper technologies, etc.) - Institutions - Examination frameworks - Textbooks - Teaching spaces - Teachers - Students - Comparisons by contemporary circulating or transnational actors (teachers, students, educationists) - Interactions between Pedagogy and Research

Abstracts for this session should include justification of What is going to be compared, Why, and How, and arguments explaining how you think that your comparative and cross-national analysis might contribute to change the current historiography of the topic tackled in your paper. Due to the complex nature of producing comparative research on more than one national context, collaboration between scholars from different countries -although not strictly required - is encouraged and always welcomed. Analogously, we seek to promote collaboration between historians of science and historians of education. Please, include name and affiliation, and a 300-word abstract, making clear the objects of your comparative and cross-national study and the relevance to this session (What, Why, How, Historiographical Arguments). Send it as a Word or RTF document to Josep Simon (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)). DEADLINE: 20th January 2010

Contacts previous to the deadline are more than welcome. If you intend to submit a paper for this session and wish to discuss your contribution, do not hesitate to contact Josep Simon (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)). For information on the conference and registration deadlines see: http://4eshs.iec.cat/

Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC 2010), 2nd Call

October 20 2010 to October 22 2010 | Montreal, Canada

Deadline: August 29 2010

Updated: June 15 2010

The Canadian Science Policy Centre invites proposals for presentations at the upcoming Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC 2010) in Montreal, QC, from October 20-22, 2010.* CSPC is an annual event, specifically designed as a multi-sector forum for fostering science policy discourse in Canada. Those who attend, organize, and fund CSPC come from diverse sectors of the Canadian science policy community - from government and industry officials to business people, scientists, and academics - and the hope is that panel presentations will be similarly inclusive of Canada’s diverse interests in national, provincial, and municipal science policy. Thus, we will consider submissions from Canadian science policy stakeholders of quite diverse backgrounds. Abstracts of no more than *300* words will be accepted until *August 10, 2010*. Please note that *all proposals must be submitted under one of the five conference themes*: - Increasing the Productivity of Canada’s Economy using Science and Technology - Global Perspectives on Science and Technology - Creating and Retaining Scientific Talent in Canada - A Glance at BioScience in Canada - Major Issues in Canadian Science Policy *Fifteen minutes* will be allotted for each presentation, and each panel will be followed by a discussion period. If you would like to present, please visit *www.sciencepolicy.ca/abstracts*to submit an abstract. Early bird registration for CSPC 2010 is now open. For more information on science policy in Canada visit www.sciencepolicy.ca Thank you, CSPC Team .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Sustainable Cities? Fifth Biennial Urban History Association Conference

October 20 2010 | Las Vegas, NV

Deadline: February 01 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

The Program Committee seeks submissions for panels, roundtable discussions, and individual papers on all aspects of urban, suburban, and metropolitan history for the Fifth Biennial Urban History Association Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 20-23, 2010. The local host is the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

While “sustainability” has often been defined as planning for the future, we will be investigating the history of urban futures across many time periods in many metropolitan areas and many countries. We encourage submissions on questions of land use, energy, space, place, the built environment, and the natural environment in historical perspective. We would like sessions on the host city, Las Vegas, and its history of rapid, expansive growth. We welcome sessions on the history of urbanization in North America, as well as Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa, in ancient and pre-modern as well as modern periods.

Beyond the theme of the conference, the committee encourages all types of historical analyses, including:

Work on qualitative research methods across urban history and the social sciences

Work on digital humanities, geography, GIS mapping, and photography

Comparative, regional, transnational studies

Work focusing on race, gender, class, and space

Research on architecture, the environment, technology, and science

Presentations on historic preservation including small cities and towns

Sessions that revisit classic works of urban and suburban history

Preference will be given to complete panels. Panel proposals should designate a single person as contact and include a brief explanation of the overall theme as well as one-page abstracts of each paper and a 250-word biography for each participant. Round table proposals follow this format but organizers should submit one page on the theme and a 250-word biography for each presenter. Those submitting an individual paper, please include a one-page abstract and a 250- word biography. Submissions are due February 1, 2010 and should be sent via e-mail to Professor Janet R. Bednarek at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

As part of the conference, the UHA will organize workshops for graduate students writing dissertations in urban and suburban history. Students who have written a prospectus and who wish to participate in a workshop should apply with a 2-4 page letter of interest by February 1, 2010 to Janet.Bednarek @ notes.udayton.edu.

Politics and Practices: The History of Post-war Women’s Health

October 22 2010 to October 23 2010 | Manchester UK

Deadline: June 15 2010

Updated: June 14 2010

This two-day conference will bring together scholars whose research involves the history of post-war women’s health. In contrast to most histories of women’s health which focus on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this conference aims to showcase research on the politics, policy and practice of women’s health after 1945, a much less studied yet dynamic era for women as patients, providers, caregivers, policy-makers, and activists.

We invite proposals for individual papers of 20 minutes in length. We especially look forward to receiving proposals on the following themes, in any national context.

n Women’s formal health care work: medical and nursing professionals, allied health workers

n Women’s informal provision of health care: home care, voluntary work

n Women as makers and objects of health policy in post-war states

n Women’s everyday health practices: self-care, pharmaceuticals, hygiene, prevention

n Sexual health/health and sexuality

n Reproductive health, reproduction, and mothering

n Mental health, institutions, and activism

n Women’s health activism and feminist health politics

n The gendering of self-help and the consumer health movement

n Women and biomedical research: standards, trials, consent practices

n “Female” diseases and their sufferers

n Women and post-war epidemics: AIDS and cancer

n Ageing and women’s health

n Intersections of biomedical and cultural narratives about femininity and womanhood

We particularly welcome submissions from postgraduate researchers. Bursaries to cover transportation and other costs for postgraduates may be available.

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact the conference organisers, Dr Emma Jones (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) and Dr Elizabeth Toon (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).

Please submit paper proposals (300 words) for consideration to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), by 15 June 2010.

http://www.chstm.manchester.ac.uk/newsandevents/conferences/postwarwomenshealth/

Sustenance and Globalization

October 22 2010 to October 24 2010 | College Station, TX

Deadline: July 15 2010

Updated: June 12 2010

The GLOBAL FUSION 2010 Media & Communication Conference will be held at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA, October 22-24, 2010. This year’s conference theme is “Sustenance and Globalization.” We consider the concept of culture in relation to the nature of global communication processes. Those interested in the role of the print, electronic, and digital media might look at their role in sustaining and modifying cultures. For those interested in non-mediated communication, a focus could be brought to bear on the ways in which folklore, traditional cultural practices, and ecology can act to sustain and empower cultures. Researchers exploring the development perspective on international communication might consider addressing community building, sustainability, development, and the roles of communication in changing and sustaining cultures, polities, and societies. Among many other possibilities, this theme also allows for an exploration of the ways in which co mmunication technologies, both as software and hardware, can sustain and/or undermine cultures and environments. > > Submissions on this theme are preferred, but proposals for conference panels and papers may be on any topic related to global media and international communication. > > Panel and individual paper proposals may be submitted in the form of abstracts of 200-250 words, in MS Word or rich text format. Paper abstracts should be submitted anonymously, without the name or other identifying information about the author in the document. > > The Global Fusion conference offers a graduate student competition. Papers submitted for the graduate student paper competition should be full length (about 25 pages in APA format), and clearly marked on the title page as being a submission for the competition. > > The purpose of the Global Fusion conference series is to promote academic excellence in global media and international communication studies. These conferences bring together scholars and professionals interested in media and communication in global contexts. The conference series is sponsored by a consortium of schools including Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin, Ohio University, Temple University and Southern Illinois University. The organizing committee members are Patrick Burkart, Antonio C. La Pastina, Srivi Ramasubramanian, and Marwan Kraidy. > > Submission deadline: Thursday, July 15, 2010 > Email address for submissions: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) > Conference contact: Patrick Burkart, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Commodification, Technoculture, and the Human: Rethinking Technology

October 23 2010 to October 24 2010 | Michigan State University

Updated: June 12 2010

http://www.msu.edu/~lotz/workshop2010/index.htm

Description:

An important connection explored in the humanities concerns the degree to which technological rationality changes our lives, whether in terms of our behavior, our conceptions of who and what human animals and non-human animals are, or the goals we set for ourselves. What are some of the new ways of living brought on by these changes? Are such changes consistent with the precepts of an inclusive democracy? Or have they unacceptably commodified our social, political, and cultural relationships? Do we now live in a world where what is understood as a meaningful life is in peril because technology and commodification are all that remain? This workshop in social and political thought will be dedicated to bringing important contemporary scholarship to MSU to address these questions with keynote addresses, commentaries, and other workshop activities. It demonstrates that philosophy and the humanities are central in understanding the world we live in.

VI Taller Internacional: Cartografías del cuerpo. Biopolíticas de la ciencia y la tecnología

October 27 2010 to October 29 2010 | Madrid, Spain

Deadline: July 15 2010

Updated: July 15 2010

Esta sesión especial del seminario tendrá lugar los días 27-29 de octubre de 2010 en el Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales del CSIC y contará con la participación de Lynda Birke (U. Chester, Inglaterra), Maria Margaret Lopes (UNICAMP, Brasil) y Diana Maffia (U. Buenos Aires, Argentina) Se aceptarán comunicaciones o posters que aporten una reflexión feminista sobre el estatuto que los cuerpos ocupan y desempeñan en las prácticas científico-tecnológicas. En concreto, se aceptarán trabajos que a través del estudio de determinadas tecnologías (tecnologías terapéutico-reproductivas, tecnologías de asignación y reasignación de sexo y tecnologías de mejora y reforzamiento de los cuerpos) planteen cómo se representan los cuerpos sexuados, y en particular los de las mujeres, qué papel desempeñan en la tarea científica, y cómo sus cuerpos se convierten en receptores y proveedores privilegiados de biomateriales para esas tecnologías, a la vez que son producto de los procesos y relaciones promovidos por éstas. Las propuestas tendrán una extensión máxima de 500 palabras, incluyendo 3 ítems bibliográficos. Deberá ir, en hoja a parte: Nombre completo, Título, e-mail e institución o colectivo de pertenencia -Idiomas: español, inglés portugués. Plazo de presentación de propuestas hasta el 15 de julio de 2010. Se comunicará el resultado de la evaluación antes del 25 de julio Las propuestas se enviarán a la dirección de correo electrónico: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) o a la siguiente dirección postal: Seminario Ciencias y Tecnologías del Cuerpo Instituto de Filosofía – Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (CSIC) C / Albasanz 26 – 28, 28037, Madrid, España Para más información, contactar con: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Tel: +34-91602-27-98/ 99

VI International Workshop: Cartographies of the body. Biopolitics of science and technology

October 27 2010 to October 29 2010 | Madrid, Spain

Deadline: July 15 2010

Updated: July 15 2010

The Seminar Science, Technology and Gender, organized by the Research Project FFI2009-07138 funded by the National R + D + I opens a call for papers to participate in the: VI International Workshop: Cartographies of the body. Biopolitics of science and technology This special session of the seminary on Science, Technology and Gender, will take place on 27 - 29th October, 2010 at the Centre of Human and Social Sciences, of the Spanish National Research Council (CCHS, CSIC) in Madrid. We will have the contributions of Lynda Birke (U. Chester, UK), Maria Margaret Lopes (UNICAMP, Brazil) and Diana Maffia (U. Buenos Aires, Argentina). Communications or posters will be accepted to provide a feminist reflection on the status that the bodies play in scientific and technological practices. In particular, there will be specially accepted those who focus on the study of certain technologies (therapeutic-reproductive technologies, technologies of sex allocation and reallocation of technologies and improvement and strengthening of bodies); or those which consider how sexed bodies are represented; how the multiple becoming of women bodies turn in collectors and privileged biomaterials suppliers, as products of the processes and relationships technologicallly promoted. Proposals should be no longer than 500 words, including three bibliographic items. They also must provide in a separate sheet: full name, title, e-mail and institution or group membership. Language: English, Spanish, Portuguese. Deadline for submission of proposals by 15th July, 2010. We will communicate the outcome of the assessment before 25th July. Please send the proposals to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Or to the following postal address: Seminario Ciencias y Tecnologías del Cuerpo Instituto de Filosofía – Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (CSIC) C / Albasanz 26 – 28, 28037, Madrid, Spain For more info, contact: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Tel: +34-91602-27-98/ 99

Tentative Governance in Emerging Science and Technology - Actor Constellations, Institutional Arrang

October 28 2010 | Twente University, The Netherlands

Deadline: March 16 2010

Updated: March 16 2010

The conference is organized by the Institute of Innovation and Governance Studies (IGS) of the University of Twente (http://www.universiteittwente.nl/research/igs). Internationally, the conference will be run as a key event of the European Forum for ‘Studies into Policies for Research and Innovation’ (Eu-SPRI Forum; succeeding the PRIME Network of Excellence; http://www.euspri-forum.eu/).

Theme

For emerging science and technology (EST) governance becomes tentative when it is designed as a dynamic process to manage interdependencies and contingencies. Tentative governance aims at creating spaces of openness, probing and learning instead of trying to limit options for actors, institutions and processes. It answers political and organizational complexities with explorative strategies, instead of relying only on orthodox or preservative means.

Tentative governance is a particularly pertinent issue for EST such as nanotechnology, life sciences, genomics and other emerging fields of innovations with the potential to radically transform domains and sectors,. These fields are subject to a broad array of inherent uncertainties related to technological shape, configurations and applications and the resulting societal benefits and risks. At the same time, actor constellations and practices related to knowledge production, innovation and societal appropriation are in the process of emerging and largely differ from established technologies. This poses specific challenges to the governance of these fields, which has to address ill-defined and sometimes ‘moving targets’. Simultaneously, promises and expectations abound. Many actors from government, academia, industry, and civil society expect that EST will constitute “key technologies of the future” and that some may even lead to a “next industrial revolution”. Thus, developing appropriate governance modes seems all the more important. However, modes of governance are usually attuned to established technologies. Innovative modes of governance under headings such as ‘reflexive governance’, ‘transition management’, ‘Constructive Technology Assessment’, ‘Ethical, Legal and Societal Issues (ELSI) Studies’, or ‘Real-Time Technology Assessment’ are only now emerging. What we are seeing, in other words, is a co-evolutionary growth of innovative modes of governance and constellations, practices and technologies in EST. Hence, it can be argued that governance modes, be they regulatory approaches, institutional arrangements or modes of coordination among various actor constellations turn out – and probably even need – to be tentative in order to respond to the uncertainties and to be prepared for further dynamics. We assume that tentative governance is neither a particularly desirable or worrisome approach, but rather an empirical phenomenon.

The aim of the conference is to identify and elaborate the specific governance challenges of EST and to discuss ways of responding to them. Papers may address these issues conceptually or empirically for EST in general or for a specific innovation. We invite interdisciplinary contributions from policy and regulatory governance studies, legal studies, higher education studies, science and technology studies, technology assessment and innovation studies.

The International Programme Committee includes: Prof. Arie Rip, Prof. Stefan Kuhlmann, Dr. Bärbel Dorbeck-Jung, Prof. Jürgen Enders (University of Twente), Prof. Philippe Larédo (ENPC Paris, Manchester University); Prof. Susan Cozzens (Georgia Institute of Technology), Prof. Charles Edquist (Lund University) and Prof. Susana Borrás (Copenhagen Business School).

The Programme Committee is calling for proposals for papers, sessions or posters presenting research on the Governance of EST. The following gives a non-exhaustive list of topics the papers may address:

· Governance of Innovation Networks and Systems: Which constellations of innovation “enactors” and “selectors” in industry, public research organizations, policy, NGOs, users, consumer organizations and intermediary organizations are emerging; what are their particularities; how do they interact and which institutional arrangements are structuring these interactions? What is the role of public policies in this process? How do new socio-technical spaces and platforms for organized interaction between actors who, until now, have belonged to largely separate fields, open up and evolve? How do rules, institutional arrangements and informal prerequisites of coordination such as trust emerge?

· Governance of Science and Research Organizations: What is the interrelation between external and internal governance practices and research practices in public research organisations? What are appropriate governance models for cooperative knowledge production among universities, research institutes and industry? What are the specific governance challenges of emerging fields of research in science and technology, the humanities and social sciences?

· Regulatory Governance: Which regulatory problems does the governance of emerging technologies have to face? Which innovative governance approaches and methods are emerging to cope with these problems? What are the specific problems of legitimacy and effectiveness of certain governance arrangements? What can be learned from successes and failures in the regulation of other technologies?

· Governance of Promises and Risks: How can promising applications be explored and supported while taking risk concerns into account? How to assess promises and visions and how to identify and respond to hype? What are the generating processes, structures and institutions of expectation-building and how do they relate to the societal perception and dynamics of promises and risks? In the face of uncertain benefits and risks, what are the possibilities to avoid premature lock-ins and maintain reversibility while at the same time attaining a sufficient degree of stability?

· Governance Approaches to Emerging Science and Technology in long-term perspective: How have governance approaches and the emergence of new scientific and technology fields interacted in the past? How have governance approaches changed over time? To what extent are EST we observe today either similar or fundamentally different from former emerging science and technology fields?

· Methods, Measures, and Data for the Analysis of Governance Issues: How are existing methods being applied in new ways, including visualizing science and innovation dynamics? What analytic techniques and models are emerging, both quantitative and qualitative?

· Reflection on Concepts: Finally, we also encourage contributions reflecting on the underlying concepts and appropriate methods for investigating emerging science & technologies, such as the concepts of ‘emergence’, ‘innovation’, and ‘governance’.

Submission Guidelines and Additional Information

The Conference will extend over two days, with plenary and parallel sessions. The conference will convene internationally leading experts and scholars studying issues of the governance of EST. At the same time, early career researchers are welcome as well.

We invite proposals for presentations of papers, sessions or posters. Poster sessions are particularly targeted at PhD students, but PhD students may submit proposals for papers as well. Please indicate which of the above mentioned topics your paper addresses.

▪ The deadline for submission of proposals for papers, sessions or posters is March 16, 2010.

▪ Decisions on acceptance will be made by mid May, 2010, based on advice from the international programme committee (see above).

▪ Please submit all paper, session and poster proposals at http://www.igs.utwente.nl/international_conference_tenta/.

▪ Paper proposals should include an abstract of max. 400 words, describing the research question, methods, and preliminary results.

▪ Session proposals should include a max. 250 words description of the session and an abstract for each paper.

▪ Extended Abstracts for papers and posters can be submitted until September 30, 2010. These will be circulated at the Conference in the form of a booklet.

▪ Papers will be considered for post-conference edited volumes and special issues.

”Africa for Sale” Analysing and Theorizing Foreign Land Claims and Acquisitions

October 28 2010 | Groningen University, Netherlands

Deadline: May 15 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

While foreign land acquisitions in Africa are no recent phenomenon, the last several decades have witnessed an unprecedented level of large-scale land acquisitions all over the continent;
millions of hectares of land in Africa are increasingly claimed by and leased out to transnational entities, government businesses, multinational corporations, and international organisations.
Sometimes referred to as “neo-colonialism” due to their resemblance to colonial land exploits, these acquisitions have been largely driven by a global “scramble” for food security and access to natural resources. Foreign actors gain access to land in part by employing discursive tools and media to portray African farmland as “unused” or “unproductive” while the local farmers are portrayed as “backwards”, underdeveloped, environmentally destructive, and desperately poor.
Access is also secured through the market capitalist economy and often legitimized as “economic growth” or “sustainable development”. Indeed, proponents argue that land deals bring new technologies, improved agricultural practices, poverty alleviation, and modernisation to
developing countries.

However, the presence of foreign stakeholders in local territories also involves an encounter of often contradictory cultural paradigms, leading to pervasive social, economic and cultural changes and/or conflicts. In practice, these new land deals often result in the forced eviction of subsistence farmers from land which is simultaneously viewed as their “cultural heritage”, thereby severing them from their cultural and socio-economic attachments to past, present and
future.

While the nature and scope of large-scale, foreign land acquisitions has been taken up by the non-governmental arena (e.g. NGOs) very little academic scholarship has addressed these deals both analytically and theoretically, from [comparative] historical and contemporary perspectives. In turn, several important questions remain unanswered: What are the implications of foreign land leases for local populations? How are these deals mediated, structured and legitimized?
What is the role of multinational corporations in the economic, political, social, and environmental governance of developing countries in Africa?

Submissions addressing historical and contemporary aspects of foreign land acquisitions are welcome. We also encourage papers that offer methodological tools and theoretical models to analyse these land acquisitions. Due to the multifaceted theme of the conference, we seek and welcome abstracts from a variety of disciplines.

Contributions addressing the following four fields are particularly welcome:
1.) Food security: Foreign (government or company) investments in “unused,” arable land for large-scale agricultural production.
2.) Large-Scale Mining: Multinational claims to land for mineral exploitation.
3.) Conservation Projects: International environmental NGO acquisition or control of land for biodiversity conservation and/or protected area management.
4.) Tourism: Land acquisitions for purposes of tourism development.

The following thematic list is provided to help orient potential submissions:
Cultural Implications; Poverty and “Sustainable Development”; Food and Human Security; Neoliberalism; Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); China's Engagement in Africa; Environmental, Social and Cultural
Impacts; Socio-cultural dimensions of “compensation”; Multinational Mining; Land Tenure Conflict; Food and Financial Crisis; Bio-engineering; Corporate Governance; Offshore Food Production;
Debt-for-Nature Swaps; REDD (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation); Carbon Trades; Biopiracy; Ecotourism; Mining-Conservation Partnerships; Biodiversity Offsetting;
Climate Change; Land as Cultural Heritage; Cultural Change; Resettlement; Indigenous Environmental Knowledge; World Bank “Growth Poles” Project; Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

Important dates:
- 15 May 2010: deadline for abstract submission of individual papers (max. 400 words) including
brief biography of the author(s) (max. 100 words)
- 15 June 2010: selection of papers by the Conference Organising Committee and designing of the
final programme
- 1 September: deadline for submission of selected papers (max. 8.000 words)
Abstracts and papers should be written in English. The conference language is English. Please forward your submission to:
Conference Organising Committee: Michel Doortmont (Groningen University), Sandra Evers (VU University Amsterdam),
Froukje Krijtenburg (Institute of Historical Justice and Reconciliation), Caroline Seagle (VU)

Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

“Producing Knowledge, Producing Bodies:Cross Currents in the Sociologies of Sport and Physical Cultu

November 03 2010 to November 06 2010 | San Diego, CA

Deadline: June 25 2010

Updated: June 12 2010

We encourage those interested in organizing a session to send their proposal in the following format: Type of session. [Here, specify whether the session is one of the following 3 types: (a) paper presentations session (usually includes 3 or 4 papers that are presented orally); (b) a panel or round table session (usually allows for a session organizer to invite 3 or more participants to discuss a specific theme – such participants do not present a paper per se and do not submit an abstract); or (c) workshop session (these sessions are designed to incorporate a lot of interaction around a particular topic that may be more practically oriented). Title of the session (maximum of 20 words) A short description of the proposed session (maximum of 200 words) The name, affiliation (university or institution) and email address of the organiser(s). TO BE CONSIDERED, SESSION PROPOSALS MUST BE SUBMITTED NO LATER THAN JUNE 25, 2010 Please submit your proposal in the body of your e-mail (no attachments please). Please submit your email message to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) All those who submit their session proposals by the deadline (June 25th, 2010) will be contacted in early July 2010. We will then let them know whether their proposal has been accepted and provide them with information about the next steps leading to the conference.

(un)disciplined encounters: science as terrain of postcolonial interaction between Africa and Europe

November 05 2010 to November 06 2010 | Brussels, Belgiam

Deadline: August 31 2010

Updated: June 12 2010

Looking at science as a terrain of postcolonial interaction between Africa and Europe adds a vital dimension to the many commemorative and celebratory events related to the fiftieth anniversary of seventeen African countries. Although scholars often play a large part in these events, as experts, eyewitnesses, activists, or otherwise, they rarely or marginally seize these occasions to put their own positions — the vicissitudes of science and scientists throughout the postcolonial period — to academic and public scrutiny. One could object that such is perhaps easier done for the colonial period. After all, it is now widely acknowledged that scientific work — its practices and infrastructure as much as its insights and findings — in many different disciplines, ranging from the humanities and social sciences, to geography and the life sciences, were vital for the mise en valeur, the exploitation of human and natural resources, of the African colonies. But much the same can be said of the postcolonial period although it is clear that science and scientists now operate in knowledge/power configurations that differ considerably from the colonial ones and that have been variously identified as developmentalism, neoliberal governmentality, therapeutic domination, etc. But there are more (dis)continuities to reckon with in these matters. From the time when the mostly young African universities tried to turn their backs on the former metropolis through programmes of Africanisation until the present when the Bologna reforms or the World Bank's 'green' expertise are contested as undermining national scientific institutions and local expertise, the blame of 'colonisation' of knowledge/science, is never far away. The question is if, how and to what extent scientists themselves have been assessing their stances and interventions in connection with Africa in terms of decolonisation. This general question is not meant to be the licence for a navel-gazing retrospective but the starting point of an open-minded combination of historical reconstruction and reflexive prognosis on science as site of collaboration and distinction, antagonism and complicity between Africa and Europe. Without for that matter essentialising either the colonial vs. the postcolonial, science vs. 'non-science', or Africa vs. Europe, this conference is a transgressive as much as an interdisciplinary endeavour which addresses the overall theme in three different registers. 1. Postcolonial science: beyond the many limits of Postcolonial Theory 2. Science in the postcolony: states, institutions, and networks 3. Objects and subjects: processes of objectification and subjectification in heritage, conflict, and advocacy *Paper submission* The organising committee invites interested participants to submit proposals for inclusion in the conference programme. Submissions should include: - Paper title - Name(s) and affiliation(s) of paper proposer(s) - A 250 word (maximum) abstract Submissions should be made in pdf-format to secretariat-at-science2010-af-eu.com The official conference languages are English and French. The deadline for paper proposals is 31 August 2010 *Download:* full CFP (pdf) *Info:* http://www.science2010-af-eu.com

Reimagining the Archive: Remapping and Remixing Traditional Models in the Digital Era

November 12 2010 to November 14 2010 | UCLA

Deadline: August 01 2010

Updated: July 15 2010

Reimaging the Archive will explore the changing role of archives and cultural heritage institutions, and the new opportunities presented by the remapping and remixing of traditional, cherished, and seemingly immutable
institutional models and practices.

Deadline for 500-word abstracts is August 1, 2010

More information:
http://is.gseis.ucla.edu/events/fliers/archives_symposium_2010.pdf

DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media International Conference

November 12 2010 | University of Toronto

Deadline: May 20 2010

Updated: April 13 2010

http://diycitizenship.com/

A renewed emphasis on participatory forms of digitally-mediated production is transforming our social landscape. ‘Making’ has become the dominant metaphor for a variety of digital and digitally-mediated practices. The web is exploding with independently produced digital ‘content’ such as video diaries, conversations, stories, software, music, video games—all of which are further transformed and morphed by “modders,” “hackers,” artists and activists who redeploy and repurpose corporately-produced content. Equally, communities of self-organized crafters, hackers, and enthusiasts are increasingly to be found online exchanging sewing and knitting patterns, technical guides, circuit layouts, detailed electronics tutorials and other forms of instruction and support. Many of these individuals and collaborators understand their work to be socially interventionist. Through practices of design, development, and exchange they challenge traditional divides between production and consumption and to redress the power differentials built into technologically-mediated societies.

“DIY Citizenship” invokes the participatory nature of these diverse “do-it-yourself” modes of engagement, community, networks, and tools—all of which arguably replace traditional with remediated notions of citizenship. The term “critical making” refers to the increasing role ‘making’ plays in critical forms of social reflection and engagement.

This interactive conference seeks to extend conversations about new modes of engaged DIY citizenship and politics evidenced by the exponential increase of DIY media, “user-generators”, “prosumers,” “hacktivists,” tactical media interventionists, and other ‘maker’ identities. We invite scholars, activists, artists, designers, programmers and others interested in the social and participatory dimensions of digitally-mediated practices, to engage in dialogue across disciplinary and professional divides. All methodological and theoretical approaches are welcomed. Submissions may include paper proposals, works of art and/or design, short video or audio segments, performances, video games, digital media, or other genres and forms. Potential topics include: the relation between social media and the ‘making’ of new forms of citizenship engagement—thus, for example, making movements; making community; making news; making play; making bodies; making health; making public; making education; making networks.

Plenary speakers include:

Suzanne de Castell, Professor (media, educational technologies) Faculty of Education Simon Fraser University, Vancouver: educational media theory, research, design and development, Founded Canadian Game Studies Association, co-editor of Loading…

Ron Deibert, Professor (Political Science), University of Toronto, Director of the Citizen Lab; a co-founder and a principal investigator of the OpenNet Initiative and Information Warfare Monitor projects; co-founder and VP of global policy and outreach for Psiphon Inc.

Paul Dourish, Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, co-conspirator in the Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction, and author of Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction, MIT Press.

Jennifer Jenson, Professor of Pedagogy and Technology, York University, Toronto: video game designer, co-editor of Loading…: The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association

Natalie Jeremijenko, artist whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. Jeremijenko’s projects which explore socio-technical change have been exhibited by several museums and galleries, including the MASSMoCA, the Whitney, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt. Jeremijenko is the director of the environmental health clinic at NYU, assistant professor in Art, and affiliated with the Computer Science Dept.

Trebor Scholz, Professor of Culture and Media Study, The New School, New York: media activist and artist, founder of the Institute for Distributed Creativity

Conference organizers: Prof. Megan Boler, University of Toronto; Prof. Matt Ratto, University of Toronto. Sponsored by: Center for the Study of the U.S., Munk Centre, iSchool. and Knowledge Media Design, University of Toronto.

Please submit a 250-word proposal or description of work/presentation and a one-page artist or scholarly CV to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by May 20, 2010. Please include up to five images of work to be shown/discussed or a web URL if appropriate. Notifications will take place by June 15, 2010. For more information, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit our website at http://www.diycitizenship.com

Presenters will be invited to submit completed papers for an edited collection with a university press and/or a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal.

NACBS Roundtable Proposal: The “Object” of Early Modern Science

November 12 2010 | Baltimore, MD

Deadline: January 31 2010

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Updated: January 15 2010

This roundtable (4 papers) will treat the question of early modern scientific methods and instruments, particularly uses of a technology by which an object is examined, rendered, or recognized as scientifically significant. For example, papers might consider microscopes, medical instruments, or measuring devices. But the paper should also be focused on the particular object of study. Does the object under examination change through different technologies? Do different technologies yield different understandings of the same object? Are these understandings politically, ideologically, culturally inflected? How does that inflection temper our understandings of “science?” But papers could also “object” to the ways that early modern science is currently framed in the discipline. What do we need to consider now in order to understand science then? Are there helpful (or less helpful) ways of considering the idea of “objectivity?” (“Early Modern” here is broadly defined; papers pre-1800 or so will be considered) Please send a 300-word abstract and brief CV by January 31, 2010 to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

CINESONIKA: The First International Film and Video Festival of Innovative Sound Design

November 12 2010 to November 21 2010 | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Deadline: September 06 2010

Updated: May 16 2010

Second Call for Papers, Presentations and Works: CINESONIKA 2010

Venue: Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia

Keynote Speaker: Don Ihde

CINESONIKA: The First International Film and Video Festival of Sound Design is extending its deadline for the conference component to Sept 6th.

We are seeking interdisciplinary contributions on sound in relation to the moving image. Media thinkers, film scholars, art historians, performance theorists, composers, filmmakers, sound practitioners, multimedia semioticians, philosophers of perception - we invite these and others to submit proposals for 20 minute panel presentations. All accepted submissions will be considered for inclusion in a special issue of The Soundtrack journal (Intellect books), 1000-3000 words for short articles, 5000-6000 for long papers.

Submitting to the Conference:

Please write "Cinesonika - Paper Submission" in the subject heading.

EXTENDED Deadline for Abstracts (under 500 words): Sept 6th, 2010.

Please submit your abstract and short bio both as an attachment (.doc or .pdf) and also pasted into the body of your email submission, to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

For information on submitting audiovisual work to the festival, please visit:

http://www.cinesonika.com/pg.php?s=submit

Important Dates:

Festival Dates: Nov. 12th-21st, 2010. Conference Dates: Nov. 12th-14th, 2010.

Conference Organizers:

Michael Filimowicz (School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University) Dr. Lisa Coulthard (University of British Columbia) Dr. Diane Gromala (Canada Research Chair, Simon Fraser University)

Sound and the Moving Image

November 13 2010 to November 14 2010 | Simon Fraser University- Surrey Campus (Vancouver, British Columbia)

Deadline: July 31 2010

Updated: June 29 2010

CINESONIKA: The First International Film and Video Festival of Innovative Sound Design is adding a conference component. We are seeking interdisciplinary contributions on sound in relation to the moving image. Film scholars, art historians, performance theorists, composers, filmmakers, sound practitioners – we invite these and others to submit proposals for 20 minute panel presentations. All accepted submissions will be considered for inclusion in an edited volume (papers should be expandable to 3000-5000 words if selected for final essay publication).

Website: www.cinesonika.com

Submitting:

Please write “Cinesonika- Paper Submission” in the subject heading.

Deadline for Abstracts (under 500 words): July 31st 2010.

Deadline for Papers (for 20 minute panel presentations): September 15th 2010.

Please submit your abstract and short bio both as an attachment (.doc or .pdf) and also pasted into the body of your email submission, to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Festival Dates: Nov. 12th-21st 2010. Conference Dates: Nov. 13th-14th 2010.

Location: Simon Fraser University- Surrey Campus (Vancouver, British Columbia)

Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology annual seminar

November 13 2010 | San Francisco, CA

Deadline: June 15 2010

Updated: May 16 2010

(held as a pre-conference preceding the National Communication Association convention)

The Association for Rhetoric of Science and Technology is again hosting its annual pre-conference prior to NCA. We invite scholars to submit works in various stages of progress. One of the strengths of the pre-conference is that it is a fairly intense day-long set of interactions, ideal for non-traditional presentations or projects in relatively early stages. Presentations addressing any aspect of the ways in which communication impacts the production, dissemination, and utilization of scientific knowledge are invited, using any methodological or theoretical approach. Our goal for this year’s pre-conference is to begin with a wide variety of brief scholarly presentations, and then build on those insights to address some of the perennial tensions in rhetoric of science. Conversation last year focused on several topics that we are looking to develop further, including:

* Risk communication and assessment * Public engagement * Negotiation of expertise * Private/public boundary * Health as scientific rhetoric * Governance in science/policy * Other issues as appropriate

Another traditional element of the pre-conference has been at least one interactive event. This year we will have an afternoon workshop in which groups will draft first attempts at “position papers” for the key problem-areas listed above. We will begin the day with an invited guest speaker who will address issues of governance, with some prepared responses and open questions afterward. After the conference we can use some of the new information technologies available to refine those drafts if the groups find it productive. As always, we especially invite interdisciplinary work, and student submissions are welcome.

To submit either a paper, an extended abstract (1-2 pages), or a proposal for a non-traditional presentation, please send a Word-formatted document to Dr. Karen Taylor via e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or feel free to contact her with any questions by e-mail or phone at 907-474-6818. We look forward to your joining us for what should be an enjoyable pre-conference.

Circulation, Obstruction, and Decay in the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Medicine

November 17 2010 | New Orleans, LA

Deadline: February 01 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

American Anthropological Association Meetings
New Orleans, LA, Nov. 17-21, 2010

Sponsored by the Science, Technology, and Medicine Interest Group of the
Society for Medical Anthropology
Organizers: Betsey Brada, Lara Braff, and Ian Whitmarsh

This session explores circulation in the anthropological study of science, medicine and technology. How might flow and obstruction, movement and stasis be constitutive of the circulation of bodies, medical systems, pharmaceuticals, or scientific techniques and ideas?

The movement, uptake, re-imagination, and reshaping of medical and scientific regimes have long been central themes in the social study of
science and technology. The circulation of medical and scientific models creates not merely new flows of pharmaceuticals and new modes of
treatment, but also different visions of the person and the body, and
new relations among patients and practitioners. Circulation relies on
infrastructures and regimes, often made invisible or masked in the
discourse of flow. Our focus on circulation leads us to consider not
only the structure of movement but also its viscosity or quality of
flow: What is allowed to travel and how? How might the regimes that
makes circulation within science and medicine possible be said to decay,
or dissolve? In addition to conceptualizing circulation as ordered
spatial distribution, we welcome explorations of temporal circulation,
of the future and past in constituting the present.

Circulation also draws attention to blockage, and to the central role of
constrictions and clogs. Indeed, flows might be said to rely on
constraints that obstruct or redirect previously active flows. For
example, the transnational movement of medicine relying on legislation
and regulation that constrains its distribution, while the institutional
configuration of NGOs, commerce, and research may redirect the movement
of scientific expertise. We also want to explore how occlusions may be
productive and important in and of themselves, not merely representing
the absence of flow or its precondition. How might anthropological
ideas of flow and circulation be productively troubled by explorations
of clogs, blockage, or decay?

We welcome abstracts based upon ethnographic work in the area of
science, technology, and medicine that challenge our understandings of
spatial or temporal circulation as flows and/or obstructions. Please
submit an abstract of 250 words to Betsey Brada at
by Feb 1, 2010. This panel will be submitted
early for consideration as an SMA invited panel.

Language as a Scientific Tool. Managing Language as a Variable of Practice and Presentation

November 29 2010 | Vienna, Austria

Deadline: March 01 2010

Updated: January 15 2010

Language has played an important and extended role in the history and philosophy of sciences, with language itself also becoming the subject of scholarship. Linguistic environments of scientists have unavoidably affected scientific research at various levels by, for instance, imposing cultural constraints and preconceptions, and by affecting the bounds of communication that structure science as social engagement. Despite the relevance of this phenomenon, insufficient historiographical and philosophical consideration has been paid to scientists' own thoughts on language as the essential medium of their practice, and as a malleable element that can be shaped to suit their goals.

The aim of this conference is, thus, to consider the history of language as an object of scientific concern, whether for epistemological or semantic reasons, stemming from scientists' understanding of language as a tool for conceptualising the world, from concerns on successfully communicating within the scientific community among specialists or merely between scientists and the general public. In either case the examination of the historical circumstances that have motivated such reflection appear paramount.

Language can also be considered as a consciously modelled tool for achieving definite scientific and political goals. Indeed, Bacon began his natural philosophy explicitly criticising scholastic ideas on language, which for him obscured nature instead of clarifying it. Therefore, it seemed to him that language had to be reformed and properly redefined to serve in the natural philosophic endeavour. Locke gave specific attention to language as a prior question to setting an epistemological basis to natural philosophy, in turn enforcing a separation between word and meaning that put natural philosophers in direct control over their language. This revolution in language was also one of the key points of the new science hailed by members of Royal Society such as John Wilkins, who was appointed a treatise on a new philosophical and universal language. Other voices argued that gaining explicit control over language was the only way to free it from past misconceptions. The claim that science needed to formulate a theory of language able to underwrite scientists' epistemic activity recurs right up until logical positivism. At the same time, the Renaissance witnessed the struggle between Latin and the vernacular languages as means for the written codification of knowledge. From a dominant and hegemonic position, Latin gradually ceased being the only appropriate means for learned discourse, the vernaculars taking its place. Then, language critics displayed diverse arguments intertwining language with politics. In Germany, for instance, the main argument in linguistic change at the universities was the need of the introduction of a "new science" requiring a language distinct from scholastic Latin (Christian Wolff, Christian Thomasius), and thus not pervaded with scholastic ideas. This conference focuses on the question of how the process of linguistic change was effected, perceived, and conducted by scientists. From the field of philosophical discussions, to the field of "language in use", it is possible to pose crucial questions such as the following: . How has science sought to manage language through philosophical conceptions or rhetorical techniques to obtain particular goals, epistemic or otherwise? To what extent have scientists engaged in linguistic argumentation to criticize competing paradigms? . Has language been considered to be perfectly manageable? How have influences from e.g. other languages been coped with? Can it be said that linguistic purism relates only to alien words, or also to changing reality such as technology or geographical discoveries? . How has the communication of science been discussed in relation to both the "existing world" and the learned community? Has science been seen as corresponding more accurately with the "reality" (following Herder) if written in the national language of a community? How has the communication of discoveries with other scientists been perceived if this was the case? Which were the points of conflict between perfect translatability and innate and unique features of natural languages in this respect? . In what contexts have issues of language been raised and to what ends? Is it a purely philosophically-driven debate for the purpose of articulating science, or are political and social factors (co)responsible for the crises of languages commonly used in the past? . Who were the actors of linguistic change? Did scientists/natural philosophers play only a minor role, or did the impulses and crises of used languages come from other sources? . Did scientists try to develop their own definitions of language as competing with philosophical ones? How did the endeavors for perfection of language differ among different groups?

Postgraduates are particularly encouraged to submit proposals for twenty-minute papers. The language of the conference is English. The organizers plan to publish a selection of papers from this conference. Please e-mail 300-word abstracts or proposals with a brief CV to Rocío Sumillera: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by Monday, March 1st 2010.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION Abstracts of 500 words or less should be submitted to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Word or RTF attachments, or in the body of your email. This must include a summary of the paper’s main arguments and methodology, as well as a brief statement on the contribution to the STS literature. You are very welcome to contact us to discuss possibilities for submission in the first instance. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: 20th January, 2010. Applicants will be notified of the outcome by 25th January.

Travelling Languages: Culture, Communication and Translation in a Mobile World

December 03 2010 to December 05 2010 | Leeds, UK

Deadline: July 15 2010

Updated: July 15 2010

10th Annual Conference of the International Association of Languages and Intercultural Communication

In association with the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds Metropolitan University

03-05 December 2010, Leeds, United Kingdom

The world is ever 'on the move'. The opportunities and challenges of both real and virtual travel are very much at the heart of the emergent interdisciplinary field of 'mobilities', which deals with the movement of peoples, objects, capital, information and cultures across an increasingly globalised and apparently borderless world. In the practices, processes and performances of moving - whether for voluntary leisure, forced migration or economic pragmatism - we are faced with the negotiation and re-negotiation of identities and meaning relating to places and pasts.

Within the increasing complexities of global flows and encounters, intercultural skills and competencies are being challenged and and re-imagined. The vital role of languages and the intricacies of intercultural dialogue have largely remained implicit in the discourses surrounding mobilities. This Conference seeks to interrogate the role of intercultural communication and of languages in the inevitable moments of encounter which arise from all forms of 'motion'.

This international and interdisciplinary event is the 10th anniversary conference of the International Association of Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC) and is being organised in association with the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change. Through this event we aim to bring together many of the sub-themes of previous IALIC conferences and focus upon the issues of culture, communication and translation in a mobile world, including: languages and intercultural communication in local and global education, tourism, hospitality, migration, translation, real and virtual border-crossings.

CALL FOR PAPERS We are pleased to receive 20 -minute research papers or descriptions of pedagogical practice which address or go beyond the following themes: · Moving languages - continuities and change; · Real and virtual border crossings; · Tourist encounters and communicating with the 'other'; · Tourism's role in inter-cultural dialogue; · The languages of diasporas and diasporic languages; · Dealing with dialects and the evolution/dissolution of communities; · Hospitality and languages of welcome; · Learning the languages of migration; · Lingusitic boundaries and socio-cultural inclusions and exclusions; · 'Located' and 'dislocated' languages and identities; · Practices and performances of translation. Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words including title and full contact details as an electronic file to Jane Wilkinson at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). You may submit your abstract as soon as possible but no later than 15th July 2010. For further details on the conference please visit: www.leeds.ac.uk/german/ialic_conference_2010.htm or contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or via emailing to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

e-Science 2010

December 07 2010 to December 10 2010 | Brisbane, Australia

Deadline: July 16 2010

Updated: July 15 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS E-SCIENCE 2010

http://www.escience2010.org/

Scientific research is increasingly carried out by communities of researchers that span disciplines, laboratories, organizations, and national boundaries. The e-Science 2010 conference is designed to bring together leading international and interdisciplinary research communities, developers, and users of e-Science applications and enabling IT technologies. The conference serves as a forum to present the results of the latest research and product/tool developments and to highlight related activities from around the world.

Building on last year's emphasis, we are particularly interested in advances in the application of technology in a particular discipline. Accordingly, significant advances in practice will be considered as important as the development of new technologies themselves. Further, we welcome contributions in educational activities under any of these disciplines.

As a result, the conference will be structured around a number of e-Science themes, shown below:

Arts, Humanities and e-Social Science Bioinformatics and Health Physical Sciences and Engineering Climate & Earth Sciences Research Tools, Workflow and systems, novel infrastructure Digital Repositories and Data Management Education and e-Science practice It is expected that the proceedings will be published by the IEEE Computer Society Press, USA and will be made available online through the IEEE Digital Library.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

Authors are invited to submit papers with unpublished, original work of not more than 8 pages of double column text using single spaced 10 point size on 8.5 x 11 inch pages, as per IEEE 8.5 x 11 manuscript guidelines.

Templates are available from here: http://www.ieee.org/web/publications/pubservices/confpub/AuthorTools/conferenceTemplates.html.

Authors should submit a PDF or PostScript (level 2) file that will print on a PostScript printer. Papers conforming to the above guidelines can be submitted through the e-Science 2010 paper submission system.

It is expected that the proceedings will be published by the IEEE CS Press, USA and will be made available online through the IEEE Digital Library.

It is a requirement that at least one author of each accepted paper attend the conference.

Papers should be submitted to: https://cmt2.research.microsoft.com/ESCIENCE10/

IMPORTANT DATES :

Papers Due: Friday 16th July 2010

Notification of Acceptance: 3rd September 2010

Neurosociety and Neuroeconomics

December 07 2010 to December 08 2010 | University of Oxford, UK

Deadline: July 01 2010

Updated: June 12 2010

The Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS), and the European Neuroscience and Society Network (ENSN) are jointly organising an international conference on 7-8 December 2010 at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK. Keynote speakers include Professor Steve Woolgar (Oxford); Professor Nikolas Rose (London School of Economics), Professor Nigel Thrift (Warwick University) and Professor Gemma Calvert (Warwick University; Neurosense). The topic of the conference is the rise of the brain and the emergence of the brain industry or ‘neuro markets’. The aim is to explore how, why, and in what ways has the figure of the brain come to permeate so many different areas of thinking and practice in academic and commercial life. What are the consequences for academia, business, commerce and policy? The last twenty years have seen unprecedented advances in the neurosciences, in fields such as psychopharmacology, neurology and behavioural genetics. A growing number of ethicists, social scientists, legal scholars and philosophers have begun to analyze the social, legal and ethical implications of these advances, from the use of fMRI imaging in legal cases, to the medical benefits and risks of the increasing prescription of psychotropic drugs such as Prozac and Ritalin. Some attention has been paid to the economic questions raised by the commercial development and application of new technologies, and the extent to which subfields such as neuroeconomics and neuromarketing are generating commercially and clinically valuable findings. The conference aims to bring together academics and practitioners from this wide range of disciplines to attempt a critical evaluation of the current state and future prospects for neuro thinking. The Organising Committee welcomes proposals for individual papers which seek to make empirically based and conceptually innovative contributions to the analysis of the persuasive power of neuroscience in and outside academia. We particularly welcome papers that relate to the themes below, however we are also happy to consider contributions which address the general topic of the conference but do not align directly with these themes. 1) The rise and current configuration of the international neuroindustry The conference seeks to map the diffusion of neuroscientific technology and knowledge by examining in which disciplines and which business practices the figure of the brain has become prominent and why in other disciplines or practices this is not the case. We are particularly interested in historical research that explores how the prominence of the brain has come about. Can we also anticipate the demise of the brain and what will supplant it? After eyes, skin and brain - what will be the next site of human bodies and behaviour which will be exploited commercially? In addition to mapping the diffusion of the figure of the brain and exploring its historical specificity this conference seeks to address how the brain as a trope organises scholarly and commercial thinking in different disciplines and business fields. What then are the current and potential commercial application of the brain sciences, which companies are taking the lead in bringing new technologies to market, and how are policymakers and industry groups lobbying to change regulatory barriers toward the use of new technologies? 2) The economic and social value of the new brain sciences As neurological and psychiatric disorders place a significant economic and social toll on the health of populations internationally, much optimism surrounds the hope that developments in the neurosciences will help to find treatments for disorders such as depression, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and autism spectrum disorders. To what extent is this optimism warranted? Scholars have pointed out that a) in the past, the development of novel biomedical technologies has often tended to increase societal inequalities because access to them has been available only to a minority, and b) often the expectation surrounding new biomedical treatments exceeds the reality of their clinical usefulness. This theme will address whether, much like the optimism surrounding the benefit of advances in pharmacogenomics and gene therapy, the clinical usefulness of advances in the neurosciences has been exaggerated. In addition, we welcome papers that critically address the commercialisation of the new brain sciences and its implications for research priorities. 3) The ethical and social implications of biomarkets and neuromarketing Neuroeconomics - combining psychology, economics and neuroscience in order to understand the neural and social impulses behind decision- making – and neuromarketing - the study of the brain’s response to advertising techniques - are promising to revolutionize the fields of marketing and consumer choice. What are the likely consequences of this? What are the implications for consumer autonomy, the rise and pervasiveness of brand and advertising cultures, and the increasing adoption of reductive and/or deterministic models of human behaviour and decision-making? This theme will address the social, economic and political implications of new developments in neuroeconomics and neuromarketing, through drawing on the insights of ethicists, clinicians and industry representatives. There is no cost for the event, but accommodation and travel expenses are not provided. Please send abstracts (300 – 600 words) to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Deadline for submission of abstracts is July 1, 2010. For any queries, please contact co-convenor of the meeting, Dr. Tanja Schneider: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

IASTE 2010 The Utopia of Tradition 12th Conference of the International Association for the Study

December 15 2010 | Beirut, Lebanon

Deadline: February 12 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

In recent years IASTE scholars have examined traditions and their multitude of built forms in an increasingly interconnected global landscape. To advance this effort, this conference seeks to study how tradition inspires and informs changing concepts of Utopia in theory and space. Utopian theories and plans emerge from a complex symbiotic relationship with traditions that are based on notions of the ideal. Indeed, utopias cannot be understood without understanding the traditions from which they develop.

At its etymological root, utopia embodies both the theoretical paradox of an ideal place, eu-topia, and a non-place, ou-topia, rendering it an impossibility. As an ideal place, utopia relies on tradition, but as a non-place it attempts to negate it. Although most utopias have spatial manifestations, they often attempt to harness and make static the traditions used to create these spaces. The geographies of utopia physically ground tradition, but tradition simultaneously controls these very same geographies. This contemporary moment of economic crisis necessitates a re-examination of this dynamic.

The word ‘utopia’ is no longer as commonly referenced in professional practice as it was a few decades ago. However, architects, planners, and politicians continue to look for and disseminate notions of ideal forms. Regulated by ethnicity, religion, or race, the identity enclaves of many modern nations use territory to perpetuate the vision of a perfect community based on specific traditions. The continuation and strengthening of tradition, cloaked in the language of utopia, may thus be seen to provide the focus for new gated communities in the developing world, the dreamscapes in cities around the Persian Gulf and the Pacific Rim, and the faux-colonial homes in American suburbs. On the other hand, there is an emerging discourse that reconceptualizes utopia itself, not as a product but as an open process aimed at transforming, rather than transcending, the existing condition.

Perhaps the relationship between utopia and tradition can best be understood by examining dystopia, utopia’s twin other. Dystopia finds its clearest manifestation in literary and filmic representations, such as 1984 and Blade Runner, which embody complex imageries of terror, control, and urban anxiety. Tradition, in these brave new worlds, has often been explicitly rejected, and new forms are introduced as alternatives.

The historical development of utopia both draws upon and creates anew certain traditions of space, citizenship, and government. Those engaged with the idea of utopia have always come back to its physical realization within space, however elusive and/or illusory. In writing his Republic, Plato drew heavily on Greek traditions of warfare, civic engagement, and physical form, while Augustine of Hippo’s City of God was a response to a particular moment of empire and decadence. Thomas More created a sketchy ideological geography of ‘no place’ as a mythical island with a-spatial intonations. Since the Renaissance, when architects and artists such as Vitruvius searched for the citte felice, practitioners have tried to create physical spaces that would provide Eden-like environments for humankind. In more recent times, the modernist schemes of Ebenezer Howard and Le Corbusier envisioned ideal spaces that claimed to erase difference. This IASTE conference will focus on the theme of utopia and tradition in the twenty-first century.

The conference will attract an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners from around the world working in the disciplines of anthropology, architecture, art and architectural history, city and regional planning, cultural studies, geography, history, landscape studies, sociology, and urban studies. They will present papers related to the following three themes:

Track 1. Utopian Ideals versus Traditional Physical Realities
Central to the conference theme is the main tenet that utopias use tradition in their formulation and perpetuation of the ideal. Inquiries regarding attributes of utopia that may be rooted in certain traditional practices are encouraged in this line of inquiry. This track seeks to explore the convergence of ideals and realities as well as the underlying concepts of utopia and how they relate to a given traditional context or are manifested in space.

Track 2. The Practices of Utopia and the Politics of Tradition
The deployment of tradition demands a certain selectivity that negates some forms of the past while celebrating others, making this exercise inherently political. In constructing utopias, practitioners also draw upon traditional discourses, practices, and forms, thus politicizing the quest for ideal communities. A key component in interrogating utopia and tradition is the political backdrop against which they occur. Examining the linkages between utopias, politics, and tradition, papers in this track are encouraged to investigate how tradition is deployed within the political sphere, and the role the state plays in formulating notions of community and governance.

Track 3. Utopia and the Space of Difference
By the end of the twentieth century, the crisis within modernism and the critical opposition to authoritarianism had caused a retreat from the idea of utopia as an ideal and perfected spatial form. This track seeks to examine new concepts of utopia that have risen to question its previous incarnations and established traditions. Papers in this track are encouraged to explore how the latest utopias have become more of an open process that engages both the present condition and the forbidden, the unseen and the marginalized, straying from the imagined idyllic landscapes towards a new politics of difference.

ubmission requirements
Please refer to our website http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/iaste for detailed instructions on abstract submissions. A one page abstract of 500 words and a one page C.V. are required. For further inquiries, please email IASTE Coordinator Sophie Gonick at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Proposals for complete panels are welcome. All papers must be written and presented in English. Following a blind peer-review process, papers may be accepted for presentation in the conference and/or publication in the Working Paper Series.

Contributors whose abstracts are accepted must pre-register for the conference, pay registration fees of $400 (which includes a special discounted $25 IASTE membership fee), and prepare a full-length paper of 20-25 double-spaced pages. Registered students may qualify for a reduced registration fee of $200 (which includes a special discounted $25 IASTE membership fee). All participants must be IASTE members. Please note that expenses associated with hotel accommodations, travel, and additional excursions are not covered by the registration fees and have to be paid directly to the designated travel agent. Registration fees cover the conference program, conference abstracts, and access to all conference activities including receptions, keynote panels, and a tour of the Beirut Central District.

conference schedulE
February 12
Deadline for receipt of abstracts and CVs

May 5
Notification of accepted abstracts for presentation

July 15
Deadline for pre-registration and full paper submissions for possible publication in the Working Paper Series.

October 5
Notification of accepted papers for the Working Paper Series

December 15-18
Conference program

December 19, 20, 22, & 21
Optional trips

Conference Site & accommodations

The conference will be held at American University of Beirut’s West Hall with accommodation at nearby hotels. In order to be able to obtain special room rates, reservations should be made online, over the phone, or through email at the conference hotel:

Gefinor Rotana Hotel, Hamra, Beirut, http://www.rotana.com/property-.htm, E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Other accommodations with a special IASTE discount:

Casa d'Or Hotel, Hamra, Beirut, http://www.casadorhotel.com/, E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

POST-CONFERENCE TRIPS

Two optional one day trips are offered at participant’s expense to Byblos and Tripoli, or to Baalbek and Anjar, on Sunday, December 19, 2010.

A two day/two night trip to Damascus, Syria, is also available on Monday, December 20-Wednesday, December 22, 2010.

To participate in any of the three additional trips, please contact Mr. Charbel Salem, Nakhal Travel, http://www.nakhal.com, E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Note: An additional visa may be necessary for travel to Syria. Please check with your local consulate.

Inquiries
Please use the following information when making inquiries regarding the conference.

Mailing address:
IASTE 2008
Center for Environmental Design Research
390 Wurster Hall #1839
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1839
Phone: 510.642.6801
Fax: 510.643.5571
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Website: http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/iaste

MeCCSA 2011 Conference

January 12 2011 to January 14 2011 | The Lowry, Salford Quays, Salford, Greater Manchester

Deadline: September 22 2010

http://www.meccsa2011.org.uk

Updated: August 15 2010

The Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA) is the UK subject association for those researching and teaching in the area, whether in arts, humanities or social sciences departments.

In 2011 the conference will be hosted by the Communication, Cultural and Media Studies Research Centre which is situated within the School of Media, Music and Performance at the University of Salford.

The conference is to be held at the award-winning theatre and arts complex The Lowry, at Salford Quays in the city of Salford. This is adjacent to MediaCityUK, where the BBC, the University of Salford, and other media and creative organisations have new facilities and buildings.

As is usual, the conference will include papers, presentations of practice, posters and panels across the range of interests represented by the Association and its networks. Papers, posters and panels will cover all areas of media, communication and cultural studies.

*Instructions for Authors:*

Abstracts of papers, presentations of practice and posters, no longer than 250 words, should be submitted at http://www.meccsa2011.org.uk by 22 September in order for peer review to take place.

For panels, we require a short description and rationale for the whole (200 words), abstracts for each of the papers (250 words each) and the name of the person chairing. For practice proposals please ensure that you send DVD preview material (not the whole item) with the abstract via post (details to be provided on the conference website). Alternatively, include in your abstract a URL which points us to somewhere on the web where we can see preview material.

*Poster Competition*

There will be a poster competition with a prize of ?100, to be judged by members of the MeCCSA Executive Committee. The academic poster is highly valued by MeCCSA as an indicator of current research and there will be a space set aside at the 2011 conference for this activity.

*Important Dates:*

Submission of Abstracts, Posters and Panels: 22 September 2010

Notification of acceptance: 4 October 2010

*What's Next? *In the next few weeks we will be announcing our Plenary and Keynote speakers. In the meantime, get your submissions ready and do sign up for news via our RSS feed. You'll also be able to follow the conference on Twitter. Ben Light will be tweeting updates as we go along - his username is doggyb and the conference hashtag is #meccsa2011

For further information please contact Deborah Woodman -- .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or indeed myself

CFP: iConf 2011, Poster and demo session

February 08 2011 to February 11 2011 | Seattle, Washington, USA

Deadline: August 23 2010

Updated: August 15 2010

CFP: iConf 2011, Poster and demo session, Design methods for the iSchool curriculum Organizers: Jean-François Blanchette, IS, UCLA; Matt Ratto, FI, Toronto; Amelia Acker, IS, UCLA; Lysanne Lessard, FI, Toronto. In an era of ubiquitous and pervasive information technologies and services, information professionals are increasingly tasked with the creation and implementation of novel, innovative and effective information infrastructures and practices. Such innovation involves intimate knowledge of the social context of activities and relationships within which new devices and services will be deployed, as well as an enhanced understanding of the constraints and possibilities of software and hardware platforms, infrastructure, and design methodologies. This session reports on experiments with the integration of design-based research methods in the iSchool curriculum aimed at providing the knowledge and experiences necessary for information professionals to act as innovators within this space. We propose a two-part event: first, a round-table on the role of design in information school teaching and research; secondly, a show-and-tell interactive poster and demo session of design-related work by students and faculty. This is a call for submission for the interactive posters and demos session. Graduate students and faculty will present interactive posters and demonstrate current projects, prototypes, videos, applications, and research that feature issues of design and usability in information technology. The interactive maker space will provide conference attendees with opportunities to engage and experience a variety of show-and-tell projects while unpacking and discussing design practices with the creators/designers/technologists/info professionals during demonstrations and as they experience/use the projects. The iConf 2011 will take place in Seattle, February 8-11, 2011: http://www.ischools.org/iConference11/2011index/ Please submit proposals to the demo and interactive poster session directly to Amelia Acker < aacker[at]ucla[dot]edu > by Monday 23 August 2010 at 9:00 am. Requirements for interactive presentation proposal: - Contact info - 50 word bio/statement of research interests - 250-500 description of your proposed demonstration, video, prototype, application, interactive or printed poster; and how it relates to, incorporates, or features design methods - Special requirements (wireless, easels, projectors) You will be notified of acceptance to the session by 30 August 2010. The organizers of the session will be responsible for applying directly to the iConference and will inform you of the session’s acceptance early November 2010. If you have any questions regarding submission guidelines please feel free to contact me at aacker[at]ucla[dot]edu. Sincerely, Amelia Acker

iConference 2011

February 08 2011 to February 11 2011 | Seattle, Washington, USA

Deadline: August 30 2010

Updated: June 14 2010

Seattle, Washington, USA February 8 - 11, 2011 http://www.ischools.org/iConference11/2011index/ ***PAPER SUBMISSION DEADLINE: August 30, 2010*** Greetings to everyone interested in HCI and Information! Please forward to your colleagues! We invite you to participate in the sixth annual conference sponsored by the iCaucus, a growing association of over 25 Schools, Faculties, and Colleges in North America, Europe and Asia that focus on Information. The iConference gathers researchers and professionals who share the goal of making a difference through the study of people, information, and technology. Under the banner "Inspiration - Integrity - Intrepidity" we seek to showcase diversity in research interests and approaches, and demonstrate how the field creates leadership and impact on a global scale. The four days will include peer-reviewed papers, posters, and alternative events. Also being organized is a Doctoral Student Colloquium and a Junior Faculty & Postdoc Colloquium, popular venues at past iConferences. Papers and poster abstracts will be published in the ACM Digital Library. The aim is to build community and promote and share excellence in research on information challenges and opportunities. We have identified cross-cutting themes: social inclusion, context, materiality, personalization, memory. The 2011 iConference should be an exceptional venue for sharing insights and collaborating with others who share your passion and research interests. For more information on the range of topics visit the iConference web site, which includes more detail and paths to past iConferences. But do not feel constrained, this is a dynamic field that you will help shape! The conference will be held at Seattle's Renaissance Hotel. The local host is the University of Washington Information School. Timeline: August 30, 2010: Papers, Poster Abstracts, Alternative Event proposals, Preconference Workshops November 1: Authors notified December 1: Final versions submitted Links and Contact Information: * CFP: http://www.ischools.org/iConference11/participation/ * Conference: http://www.ischools.org/iConference11/2011index/ * iCaucus: http://www.ischools.org/site/

AAAS Graduate Student Travel grants

February 17 2011 to February 21 2011 | Washington, D.C.

Deadline: October 25 2010

Updated: August 15 2010

Travel Grants for Graduate Students to Attend 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting

Thanks to a generous donation from a member, Section L (History & Philosophy of Science) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will offer a limited number of travel grants to assist graduate students studying history or philosophy of science presenting posters at the Association's next Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, February 17-21, 2011 (http://www.aaas.org/meetings/).

The submission information for posters is at http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2011/poster/cfp.cgi/ and October 25 is the submission deadline. The grant is to defray costs of travel, lodging, and registration, to a maximum of $500. Highest preference will be given to graduate students who are presenting posters or otherwise on the program; secondary preference will be given to those who serve as session aides at the meeting (see http://meeting2011.aaas.org/sessionaide/default.aspx).

To apply, send a CV, a statement of support from your advisor, and a brief statement why attending this meeting would benefit your program of study, to Jonathan Coopersmith, Secretary, Section L, AAAS, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). The deadline for application is December 1. Notification of awards will be made by December 15.

Science without Borders

February 17 2011 | Washington, D.C.

Deadline: April 27 2010

Updated: March 16 2010

The History and Philosophy of Science Section (L) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s main science association, is seeking symposium proposals for the 2011 annual meeting in Washington, Held February 17-21, the meeting will attract thousands of participants and a thousand media. It is an excellent opportunity for historians and philosophers to work with scientists and engineers and to reach a wider audience.

The meeting theme is“Science Without Borders” with a submission deadline of April 27. For more information, go to www.aaas.org/meetings/2010/program/symposia/submit/. Historically, the acceptance rate is 50%. You do not need to be an AAAS member to propose or participate in a symposium. The Section may be able to offer some travel support.

Section L is coordinating the development of several symposia, including
Bridging the disciplines: Philosophy & biology
Escaping the gravity well: Increasing access to space exploration and exploitation
History of chemistry (2011 is the international year of chemistry honoring the 100th anniversary of Madame Curie)
Moral borders in science
Science with and without borders
Conceptions of data
Development of digital HST
Nanotech worries
Standards (or lack thereof) in doing science (especially biotech)
Peer review

In addition, poster sessions offer graduate students the opportunity to showcase their research. More information will be available later this year. If accepted, the Section may be able to provide some travel support.

To learn more about Section L or to participate in one of the proposed symposia, visit our webpage at www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/organization/sections/history/ or contact the Section Secretary, Jonathan Coopersmith at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (fax: 979 862-4314)

The Stimulated Body and the Arts: The Nervous System and Nervousness in the History of Aesthetics

February 17 2011 | Durham, UK

Deadline: July 31 2010

Updated: February 14 2010

International Interdisciplinary Conference
17-18 February 2011
Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease, Durham University, UK
Venue: Hatfield College, Durham, UK
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 July 2010

This conference will discuss the history of the relationship between
aesthetics and medical understandings of the body. Today's vogue for
neurological accounts of artistic emotions has a long pedigree. Since
G.S. Rousseau's pioneering work underlined the importance of models of
the nervous system in eighteenth-century aesthetics, the examination of
physiological explanations in aesthetics has become a highly productive
field of interdisciplinary research. Drawing on this background, the
conference aims to illuminate the influence that different medical
models of physiology and the nervous system have had on theories of
aesthetic experience. How have aesthetic concepts (for instance,
imagination or genius) be grounded medically? What effect did the shift
from animal spirits to modern neurophysiology have on aesthetics?
The medical effects of culture were not always regarded as positive. The
second focus of the conference will be the supposed ability of excessive
reading, music and so on to 'over-stimulate' nerves and cause
nervousness, mental and physical illness, homosexuality and even death.
It will consider questions regarding the effects of various theories of
neuropathology and psychopathology on the concept of pathological
culture. What kinds of culture could lead to such over-stimulation? How
was this medical critique of culture related to moral objections and
changes in gender relations, politics and society? How was it linked to
medical concern about lack of attention and willpower?
This interdisciplinary conference brings together scholars working in a
wide range of fields, including not only the history of medicine but
also in subjects such as art history, languages and musicology.
Abstracts for 20-minute papers (maximum 250 words) should be submitted
electronically to the organisers by 31 July 2010 at the following
address:
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Organisers
Dr James Kennaway
Professor Holger Maehle
Dr Lutz Sauerteig

http://www.dur.ac.uk/chmd/

Urban Affairs Association Conference

March 16 2011 to March 19 2011 | New Orleans, LA

Deadline: August 15 2010

Updated: July 15 2010

Call for Papers: Urban Affairs Association Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana; March 16-19, 2011

Session Title: Risk, Reward, and Real Estate: Doing Development in an Uncertain World

Organizers: Liza Weinstein and Shelley Kimelberg (Northeastern University)

Session Description: Drawing from the pioneering works of Luhman, Giddens, and Beck in the early 1990s, many social scientists have characterized post-industrial society as “risk society,” in which economic growth and increased productivity have unleashed a series of manufactured risks, from environmental disasters to financial crises. Meanwhile, recent external (or “natural”) risks are deepening existing inequalities, as the associated dangers are unevenly distributed and the heaviest burdens fall on society’s most vulnerable members. Yet while theories of risk society have influenced many fields in the social sciences, urban sociologists, geographers, and political theorists have only modestly engaged with this perspective. This panel explores the degree to which theories of risk can provide a useful framework for examining the politics of urban development in the context of real estate bubbles, financial crises, and large-scale disasters – natural or otherwise.

While theories of risk society have proven fruitful in examinations of decision making around environmental and technological matters, the primary focus of this panel will be on the financial risks associated with urban development. The panel organizers seek papers exploring how these risks are perceived, anticipated, constructed, framed, avoided, or mitigated by development professionals, business and political leaders, and the city residents impacted by urban development efforts. For example, have rising and falling fortunes in real estate over the past decade affected how various stakeholders engage in the politics of urban development? Who assumes these risks and who reaps the rewards? How have these relationships changed in an era of mortgage defaults and Wall Street bailouts? Given that real estate investment, property development, and infrastructure construction require significant outlays of financial resources, time, and political capital, how different actors conceptualize risks, and the steps they take to mitigate them, are critical questions for urban researchers. This panel aims to bring together empirically grounded papers that explore the application of risk society theories to studies of urban development. We encourage papers based on research conducted in various parts of the world and employing a variety of methodological approaches.

Please send abstracts (250-500 words) to Liza Weinstein .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or Shelley Kimelberg .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by AUGUST 15, 2010.

CSA’s Annual Conference, NEW DIRECTIONS IN CULTURAL STUDIES

March 24 2011 to March 26 2011 | Columbia College Chicago, Illinois

Deadline: September 17 2010

Updated: August 15 2010

Call for Proposals Cultural Studies Association Ninth Annual Conference

NEW DIRECTIONS IN CULTURAL STUDIES Columbia College Chicago Chicago, Illinois 24-26 March, 2011

Deadline for Proposals: 17 September 2010 Website for Submissions Opens: 21 July 2010 http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/

Conference Theme and Location

The Cultural Studies Association (CSA) invites participation in its ninth annual conference. The theme of this year's conference, New Directions in Cultural Studies, encourages the submission of proposals that reflect on the past(s) and present(s) of the field of cultural studies and endeavor to lay the groundwork of its future(s). We are particularly interested in work that addresses the current historical conjuncture, one characterized by crises and uncertainties of all kinds: social, economic, political, cultural, institutional, and intellectual. As at past CSA conferences, we welcome proposals from all areas and on all topics of relevance to cultural studies, including but not limited to literature, history, sociology, geography, politics, anthropology, communications, popular culture, cultural theory, queer studies, critical race studies, feminist studies, postcolonial studies, legal studies, science studies, media and film studies, material culture studies, visual art and performance studies.

This year's conference is hosted by Columbia College Chicago, the largest arts and media school in the United States with over 13,500 students pursuing degrees within over 120 undergraduate and graduate programs, including a well-established undergraduate program in Cultural Studies. Founded in 1890, the College houses a Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Center for Black Music Research, the International Latino Cultural Center, and the Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in Arts and Media, and is located in downtown Chicago, blocks from the Symphony Center of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Museum Campus and the Theater District. The city is also home to over a dozen independent film festivals, around 200 theatre groups and venues, more than 88 colleges, several internationally recognized research libraries, over 35 radio stations (in several languages), and more than 25 magazines and newspapers, just to name a few cultural and media institutions.

We particularly invite proposals that engage with this conference location and its many resources.

Conference Formats: Papers, Panels, Roundtables, Workshops, Seminars, and Division Sessions

Conference formats are intended to encourage the presentation and discussion of projects at different stages of development and to foster intellectual exchange and collaboration. Please feel free to adapt the suggested formats or propose others in order to suit your session's goals. If you have any questions, please address them to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

All of the conference session formats listed below will be 105 minutes in length.

The conference has a finite set of resources available in terms of space and technology. In your proposal, you can request specific space and technical accommodations, including audio-visual equipment such as video/data projectors and DVD/VCR combo players. You will be asked to provide a short justification for your request in terms of the goals and format of your session. Requests will be evaluated in terms of these justifications and available resources.

1. INDIVIDUAL PAPERS

Successful papers will reach several constituencies of the organization and will connect analysis to social, political, economic, or ethical questions.

Proposals for papers should include: the title of the paper; the name, title, affiliation, and email address of the author; and an abstract of the 20 minute paper (<500 words).

2. PRE-CONSTITUTED PANELS

Pre-constituted panels allow a team of 3-4 individuals to present their research, work, and/or experiences, leaving 30-45 minutes of the session for questions and discussion. Panels should include 3-4 participants.

Proposals for pre-constituted panels should include: the title of the panel; the name, title, affiliation, and contact information of the panel organizer; the names, titles, affiliations, and email addresses of all panelists, and a chair and/or discussant; a description of the panel's topic (<500 words); and abstracts for each presentation (<150 words).

3. ROUNDTABLES

Roundtables allow a group of participants to convene with the goal of generating discussion around a shared concern. In contrast to panels, roundtables typically involve shorter position or dialogue statements (5-10 minutes) in response to questions distributed in advance by the organizer. The majority of roundtable sessions should be devoted to discussion. Roundtables are limited to no more than five participants, including the organizer. We encourage roundtables involving participants from different institutions, centers, and organizations.

Proposals for roundtables should include: the title of the roundtable; the name, title, affiliation, and contact information of the roundtable organizer; the names, titles, affiliations, and email addresses of the proposed roundtable participants; and a description of the position statements, questions, or debates that will be under discussion (<500 words).

4. WORKSHOPS

Workshops allow a facilitator or facilitating team to set an agenda, pose opening questions, and/or organize hands-on participant activities. The facilitator or team is responsible for gathering responses and results from participants and helping everyone digest them.

Proposals for workshops should include: the title of the workshop; the name, title, affiliation, and contact information of the (lead) facilitator and of any co-facilitators; a description of the activities to be undertaken (<500 words). Please also include a description of space requirements, if appropriate

5. SEMINARS

Seminars are small-group (maximum 15 individuals) discussion sessions for which participants prepare in advance of the conference. In previous years, preparation has involved shared readings, pre-circulated ''position papers'' by seminar leaders and/or participants, and other forms of pre-conference collaboration. We particularly invite proposals for seminars designed to advance emerging lines of inquiry and research/teaching initiatives within cultural studies broadly construed. We also invite seminars designed to generate future collaborations among conference attendees. Once a limited number of seminar topics and leaders are chosen, the seminars will be announced through the CSA's various public e-mail lists. Participants will contact the seminar leader(s) directly who will then inform the Program Committee who will participate in the seminar. Seminars will be marked in the conference programs as either closed to non-participants or open to other conference attendees as auditors (or in other roles).

A limited number of seminars will be selected by the program committee, with a call for participation announced on the CSA webpage and listserv no later than 4 October 2010. Interested parties will apply directly to the seminar leader(s) for admission to the session by 12 November 2010. Seminar leader(s) will be responsible for providing the program committee with a confirmed list of participants (names, titles, affiliations, and email addresses required) for inclusion in the conference program no later than 22 November 2010. Please note: To run at the conference, seminars must garner a minimum of 8 participants, in addition to the seminar leader(s).

Proposals for seminars should include: the title of the seminar; the name, title, affiliation, and contact information of the seminar leader/team members; and a description of the issues and questions that will be raised in discussion, along with a description of the work to be completed by participants in advance of the seminar (<500 words). Examples of successful seminar descriptions are available on the conference website.

Individuals interested in participating in (rather than leading) a seminar should consult the list of seminars and the instructions for signing up for them, available at conference website after 4 October 2010. Please direct questions about seminars to S. Charusheela: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

6. DIVISION SESSIONS

A list of CSA divisions is available at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu . All divisions have two sessions at their command. Divisions may elect to post calls on the CSA site for papers and procedures for submission to division sessions or handle the creation of their two division sessions by other means. Division chairs will submit their two sessions, including the appropriate information as listed above, to the conference website. They should also email their two sessions directly to the CSA's "division wrangler" - Sora Han: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) - by 17 September 2010.

Submission Deadline and Process

The CSA administers submissions electronically. Please prepare all the materials required to propose your session according to the given directions before you begin electronic submission. We recommend saving a copy of this information in a Word document. Then go to: http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/. You will be asked to enter the information into the fields provided (you may choose to cut and paste).

The Program Committee will send final notifications regarding session proposals no later than 1 December 2010.

In order to be listed in the program, conference registration - which includes membership in the CSA - must be completed online before 10 March 2010. All program information - names, presentation titles, and institutional affiliations - will be based on initial conference submissions.

Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting

March 30 2011 to April 02 2011 | Seattle, Washington, USA

Updated: July 15 2010

Call for Papers: Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting Seattle, Washington (March 30 - April 2, 2011)

Session Title: Purposive Economies in the Neoliberal Era

Brian J. Burke (University of Arizona) and Andrew Gardner (University of Puget Sound)

Nation-states and grassroots groups have adopted a number of responses to the pressures of capitalism and neoliberalism, including “exceptional spaces” that bound the spatial and social impacts of global economic processes (Ong) and “intentional economies” that seek to imbue economic processes with non-capitalist socio-political and ethical meanings (Gibson-Graham). This session seeks ethnographically informed papers that explore the purposive construction and maintenance of non-capitalist economies in the contemporary era. How, in various cultural contexts and geographical places, have people gone about building, reviving or preserving diverse/alternative systems of economic relations?

We hope to establish and apply a common analytical framework to each of the ethnographic case studies, thereby allowing us to clearly stake out the commonalities and discrepancies among ethnographic sites. We encourage each panelist to contribute analytical referents for this process of critical reflection, and we offer the work of Aihwa Ong and J.K. Gibson-Graham as starting points. Ong’s work on zoning technologies and graduated sovereignty suggests that nation-states have strategically configured exceptional spaces (e.g. free economic zones) to accommodate the neoliberal economy, a tactic that simultaneously insulates them from its deleterious impact. Her work encourages us to consider the careful construction of boundaries and articulations between capitalist and non-capitalist spaces. Gibson-Graham’s conceptualization of the diverse economy urges us to examine the nature of transactions in these purposive economies, the details of the labor process, the logic by which these systems and the surpluses they produce are organized and distributed, and the production of non-capitalist subjectivities.

Relevant questions that may arise through this encounter among experiences and theorists include: • What role does ideology play in establishing and maintaining these non-capitalist economies? • What sort of subjectivities do they produce? • How might we describe these economies’ relations with other (and often predominant) economic assemblages? • What are the mechanisms and processes through which capitalism asserts its power in both everyday experience and broader social/political affairs? • What social and cultural factors effectively generate and sustain resistance to capitalist hegemonic processes?

We intend to organize these papers into a session for the upcoming Society for Applied Anthropology meeting in Seattle, Washington (March 30 - April 2, 2011) and, eventually, carry this project to publication. If you are interested, please send a brief summary of your proposed contribution to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Special Joint Conference of the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) and Association for

March 31 2011 to April 03 2011 | Honolulu, Hawaii

Deadline: August 01 2010

Updated: July 15 2010

Special Joint Conference of the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) and Association for Asian Studies (AAS) – 70 years of Asian Studies

Honolulu, Hawaii, 31 March–3 April 2011

PANEL – Asian border-crossing mobilities: On the road to (self)development

Conveners:

Pál Nyíri (Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands): .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Noel B. Salazar (University of Leuven, Belgium): .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Discussant:

Biao Xiang (University of Oxford, UK)

Panel abstract

Various forms of geographical mobility have long been linked to self-improvement. Today, boundary-crossing travels in particular are widely accepted as a desirable (not to say normative) path towards success, be it educational or scientific (student, faculty or staff exchange), occupational and financial (work experience abroad), religious (pilgrimage), or higher social status (tourism or lifestyle migration). Mobility is also often framed as serving the development of the places one travels to, or their people. Volunteers, missionaries, investors, doctors, teachers, engineers and “responsible tourists” all claim to be contributing to this noble goal. While cross-border mobilities in Asia have been associated with self-betterment since colonial times, mobility as the betterment of others, traditionally a preserve of the First and the now-defunct Second World, is becoming an increasingly common discourse, accompanying an expanding practice and span of mobilities. The ranks of Asian investors, missionaries, volunteers and eco-minded tourists abroad are growing rapidly and adding to the ranks of workers and students. Sometimes, a combination of entrepreneurial zeal and religious devotion coalesces into a discourse of mission that appears to parallel “the white man’s burden” from a century ago. This panel explores how voluntary mobility has become linked with various forms of self-improvement and the development of others – economic, social, cultural, environmental or soteriological – across Asian societies. Where do the currently dominant imaginaries of success-through-mobility and help-through-migration come from and which mechanisms and institutional regimes ensure their circulation? How are other- and self-improvement linked, and in which situations do both come into conflict?

Submission of abstracts:

Apart from contact details, paper proposers are asked to supply a paper title and a 250-word abstract.

Deadline for receipt of all proposals is 1 August 2010

General information on the conference:

http://www.asian-studies.org/annual-meeting/

Important:

- No individual is to be on the formal program of the conference in more than one session

- The Program Committee will expect strict compliance with the December 2 deadline for participant registration

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either of the panel conveners.

What is New About ?Neo-Liberal? Urbanism? Middle Eastern Cities in Comparative Perspective

April 06 2011 to April 08 2011 | Florence, Italy

Deadline: July 15 2010

Updated: June 12 2010

Since the 1980s, Middle Eastern cities have hosted several experiments in market-driven, or ?neo-liberal? urbanism, yet they remain off Urban Studies? disciplinary map. This workshop seeks to place regional cities squarely within contemporary debates about the nature of neo-liberal urbanism through historical and comparative studies of urban transformation.

We seek to evaluate two dominant approaches to urban transformations ? that derived from ?structuralist? accounts of the shift from state to market in the management of urban affairs, and the account rooted in the growing literature on ?governmentality? ? through historically-grounded case studies of transformations of Middle Eastern cities. How has market urbanism been adapted and adopted in the region? What local, regional and global structures facilitated or imposed the process? How have they reconfigured politico-economic institutions and practices, and so, the urban structure and fabric of regional cities? How does the region?s urban experience confirm, re-orient or undermine these currently dominant theorizations of market urbanism as drawn from western accounts?

Participants will evaluate dominant paradigms through a contemporary or historical episode of structural transformation or governmentalization of a regional city. In addition to contemporary cases, we suggest three historical moments that provide fertile terrain for the evaluation of dominant paradigms: a) late Ottoman modernization of urban administration and economy, b) colonial state formation, and c) the shift to Keynesianism and economic nationalism in the era of independence. Through concrete case studies, authors are asked to attend to the structures, institutions, technologies and strategies introduced, the problems they meant to address and the politico-economic forces that benefited from, resisted or were produced by them. The organizers hope that, in evaluating how the cases or comparisons confirm, redirect or contradict either or both of the dominant formulations discussed above, the panel will not only develop more rigorous understandings of neo-liberal urbanism in the Middle East, but to do so in such a way as to ensure the Middle East has a central place in the production of urban theory.

The complete workshop description can be viewed at:
http://www.eui.eu/RSCAS/Med/mrm2011/
Please find below important deadlines:

15 July 2010: Paper Proposals Due
Applications must be submitted on-line. The electronic application form is available at http://www.eui.eu/RSCAS/Med/mrm2011/
1 September 2010: Announcement of selected workshop participants.
15 February 2011: Final versions of papers due.

New Forms of Difference/ New Forms of Connection

April 15 2011 to April 19 2011 | TBA

Updated: June 12 2010

Perception, Reception and Deception: The role of the media in society

April 19 2011 to April 21 2011 | Dublin, Ireland

Deadline: September 30 2010

Updated: June 14 2010

The 4th biennial Media History conference will focus on the ways in which people have understood the social, cultural and political roles of the media over the past five centuries. The concept of 'the media' will be interpreted broadly, so as to include newspapers, magazines and one-off publications which included news and information, as well as manuscript, aural, visual, and broadcast and other electronic sources. A great deal of work has been done by scholars on the institutional, political and cultural history of various forms of media. 'Perception, Reception and Deception' will build on this literature to explore the ways in which print, manuscript, visual representations and the broadcast media have been understood, conceptualised, and imaginatively represented in the societies in which they were produced. It will, in other words, focus not on media production but on the reception, depiction and perception of the media by individuals and groups of individuals in a variety of different contexts over time. How have readers, consumers, and the industry itself framed arguments about the media as a force for good (or evil) at different points in time? Have contemporaries always seen the media as an agent of change, or is there a counter-history of the media to be written in terms of promoting conservatism, deference and order? How have people understood and represented the media in terms of concepts of personal and geographical space, time and changing belief systems? Can we think 'internationally' about the similarities and differences between perceptions of the media in different states and nations over time, or is the media still best understood and examined in largely local or regional contexts? How, in short, have men and women answered in different contexts the apparently simple questions, 'what is the media, and what is it for?' Abstracts, of no more than 200 words for papers of between 20 to 25 minutes duration, should be sent by close of business on 30 September 2010 to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) We welcome proposals from a range of chronological, geographical and methodological backgrounds. 'Perception, Reception and Deception' is jointly organised by the Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, the Centre For Media History, Aberystwyth University, and the journal Media History. Additional enquiries can be directed to one or more of the following: Dr. Jason McElligott, Dr Sian Nicholas or Professor Tom O'Malley..

*Call for papers Fifth Annual Conference on the History of Recent Economics (HISRECO)

April 29 2011 to April 30 2011 | Duke University, Durham, NC

Deadline: September 30 2010

Updated: August 15 2010

*Call for papers Fifth Annual Conference on the History of Recent Economics (HISRECO) 29-30 April 2011, Duke University, North Carolina, USA* The Second World War and its aftermath marked a major stage in the establishment of economics as one of the dominant discourses in contemporary societies. The spread of economic ideas into many areas of social life invites mutually profitable engagements between historians of economics and historians of other social sciences. It also presents great potential for those working on the history of economics to broaden their audience beyond those that they have traditionally addressed. The past decade has been witness to a surging interest in the history of economics post-WWII. This new scholarship has made good use of newly available source-materials, rehearsed new methodologies for the study of the past and looked across disciplinary boundaries for insights. In its fifth consecutive year, the HISRECO conference offers a venue for review and development of this work. We are inviting submissions of papers that deal with the post-WWII era. Though all proposals will be carefully considered, our preference is for papers that place post-war economics in a broader context, whether this is parallel developments in other social sciences, politics, culture or economic challenges. To this end, we solicit proposals from scholars trained in history, economics, sociology, or any field that may yield insights. Proposals from doctoral students and junior researchers are actively encouraged. If you are interested in participating, please submit a proposal containing roughly 500 words and indicating clearly the original contribution of the paper (if you have a draft of the paper, we would be happy to see that as well). The deadline for the submission of paper proposals is 30 September 2010. Notice of acceptance or rejection will be sent by 1 November 2010 and completed papers will be due on 15 February 2011 so that we can provide feedback and then give discussants time to prepare comments. Proposals should be sent to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). The organizing committee consists of Roger Backhouse (University of Birmingham) Bruce Caldwell (Duke University) Philippe Fontaine (École normale supérieure de Cachan and Institut universitaire de France) Yann Giraud (Université de Cergy-Pontoise) Tiago Mata (University of Amsterdam).

Cyber-Surveillance in Everyday Life: An international workshop

May 12 2011 to May 15 2011 | University of Toronto

Deadline: October 01 2010

Updated: August 15 2010

Cyber-Surveillance in Everyday Life: An international workshop May 12-15, 2011, University of Toronto, Canada Digitally mediated surveillance (DMS) is an increasingly prevalent, but still largely invisible, aspect of daily life. As we work, play and negotiate public and private spaces, on-line and off, we produce a growing stream of personal digital data of interest to unseen others. CCTV cameras hosted by private and public actors survey and record our movements in public space, as well as in the workplace. Corporate interests track our behaviour as we navigate both social and transactional cyberspaces, data mining our digital doubles and packaging users as commodities for sale to the highest bidder. Governments continue to collect personal information on-line with unclear guidelines for retention and use, while law enforcement increasingly use internet technology to monitor not only criminals but activists and political dissidents as well, with worrisome implications for democracy. This international workshop brings together researchers, advocates, activists and artists working on the many aspects of cyber- surveillance, particularly as it pervades and mediates social life. This workshop will appeal to those interested in the surveillance aspects of topics such as the following, especially as they raise broader themes and issues that characterize the cyber-surveillance terrain more widely: * social networking (practices & platforms) * search engines *behavioural advertising/targeted marketing *monitoring and analysis techniques (facial recognition, RFID, video analytics, data mining) *Internet surveillance (deep packet inspection, backbone intercepts) *resistance (actors, practices, technologies) A central concern is to better understand DMS practices, making them more publicly visible and democratically accountable. To do so, we must comprehend what constitutes DMS, delineating parameters for research and analysis. We must further explore the way citizens and consumers experience, engage with and respond to digitally mediated surveillance. Finally, we must develop alliances, responses and counterstrategies to deal with the ongoing creep of digitally mediated surveillance in everyday life. The workshop adopts a novel structure, mainly comprising a series of themed panels organized to address compelling questions arising around digitally mediated surveillance that cut across the topics listed above. Some illustrative examples: 1. We regularly hear about ‘cyber-surveillance’, ‘cyber-security’, and ‘cyber-threats’. What constitutes cyber-surveillance, and what are the empirical and theoretical difficulties in establishing a practical understanding of cyber-surveillance? Is the enterprise of developing a definition useful, or condemned to analytic confusion? 2.What are the motives and strategies of key DMS actors (e.g. surveillance equipment/systems/ strategy/”solutions” providers; police/ law enforcement/security agencies; data aggregation brokers; digital infrastructure providers); oversight/regulatory/data protection agencies; civil society organizations, and user/citizens? 3.What are the relationships among key DMS actors (e.g. between social networking site providers)? Between marketers (e.g. Facebook and DoubleClick)? Between digital infrastructure providers and law enforcement (e.g. lawful access)? 4.What business models are enterprises pursuing that promote DMS in a variety of areas, including social networking, location tracking, ID’d transactions etc. What can we expect of DMS in the coming years? What new risks and opportunities are likely? 5.What do people know about the DMS practices and risks they are exposed to in everyday life? What are people’s attitudes to these practices and risks? 6.What are the politics of DMS; who is active? What are their primary interests, what are the possible lines of contention and prospective alliances? What are the promising intervention points and alliances that can promote a more democratically accountable surveillance? 7.What is the relationship between DMS and privacy? Are privacy policies legitimating DMS? Is a re-evaluation of traditional information privacy principles required in light of new and emergent online practices, such as social networking and others? 8.Do deep packet inspection and other surveillance techniques and practices of internet service providers (ISP) threaten personal privacy? 9. How do new technical configurations promote surveillance and challenge privacy? For example, do cloud computing applications pose a greater threat to personal privacy than the client/server model? How do mobile devices and geo-location promote surveillance of individuals? 10.How do the multiple jurisdictions of internet data storage and exchange affect the application of national/international data protection laws? 11.What is the role of advocacy/activist movements in challenging cyber-surveillance? In conjunction with the workshop there will be a combination of public events on the theme of cyber-surveillance in everyday life: *poster session, for presenting and discussing provocative ideas and works in progress *public lecture or debate *art exhibition/installation(s) We invite 500 word abstracts of research papers, position statements, short presentations, works in progress, posters, demonstrations, installations. Each abstract should: *address explicitly one or more “burning questions” related to digitally-mediated surveillance in everyday life, such as those mentioned above. *indicate the form of intended contribution (i.e. research paper, position statement, short presentation, work in progress, poster, demonstration, installation) The workshop will consist of about 40 participants, at least half of whom will be presenters listed on the published program. Funds will be available to support the participation of representatives of civil society organizations. Accepted research paper authors will be invited to submit a full paper (~6000 words) for presentation and discussion in a multi-party panel session. All accepted submissions will be posted publicly. A selection of papers will be invited for revision and academic publication in a special issue of an open-access, refereed journal such as Surveillance and Society. In order to facilitate a more holistic conversation, one that reaches beyond academia, we also invite critical position statements, short presentations, works-in-progress, interactive demonstrations, and artistic interpretations of the meaning and import of cyber- surveillance in everyday life. These will be included in the panel sessions or grouped by theme in concurrent ‘birds-of-a-feather’ sessions designed to tease out, more interactively and informally, emergent questions, problems, ideas and future directions. This BoF track is meant to be flexible and contemporary, welcoming a variety of genres. Instructions for making submissions will be available on the workshop website by Sept 1: http://cybersurveillanceworkshop.wordpress.com/ See also an accompanying Call for Annotated Bibliographies, aimed at providing background materials useful to workshop participants as well as more widely; http://cybersurveillanceworkshop.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/call-for-annotated-bibliographies/ Timeline: 2010: Oct. 1: Abstracts (500 words) for research papers, position statements, and other ‘birds-of-a-feather’ submissions Nov. 15: Notification to authors of accepted research papers, position statements, etc. Abstracts posted to web. 2011: Feb. 1: Abstracts (500 words) for posters Mar. 1: Notification to authors of accepted posters. Apr. 1: Full research papers (5-6000 words) due, and posted to web. May 12-15 Workshop Sponsored by: The New Transparency – Surveillance and Social Sorting: http://www.sscqueens.org/projects/the-new-transparency/about

Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP) CFP

June 22 2011 to June 24 2011 | University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

Deadline: December 01 2010

Updated: June 14 2010

For registration and further information on the conference, please visit our website at http://www.genomicsnetwork.ac.uk/egenis/events/conferences/title,23552,en.html

For general information on SPSP, please see http://www.gw.utwente.nl/spsp/

Deadline for submission: 1 December 2010

Email paper proposals by attachment (word document preferred) to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Notification of acceptance: 1 February 2011

The Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP) aims to create an interdisciplinary community of scholars who approach the philosophy of science with a focus on scientific practice and the practical uses of scientific knowledge. For further details on our objectives, see our mission statement on our website (URL above).

The SPSP biennial conferences provide a broad forum for scholars committed to making detailed and systematic studies of scientific practices — neither dismissing concerns about truth and rationality, nor ignoring contextual and pragmatic factors. The conferences aim at cutting through traditional disciplinary barriers and developing novel approaches. We welcome contributions from not only philosophers of science, but also philosophers working in epistemology and ethics, as well as the philosophy of engineering, medicine, agriculture, and other practical fields. Additionally, we welcome contributions from historians and sociologists of science, pure and applied scientists, and any others with an interest in philosophical questions regarding scientific practice.

In addition to keynote lectures by invited speakers, who will include Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent (Université Paris-X Nanterre), Philip Kitcher (Columbia University), and Sandra Mitchell (University of Pittsburgh), the conference will feature parallel sessions with contributed papers. For the 2011 conference, we encourage submissions on any topic related to the organization’s objectives. For examples of previous topics, please consult our webpage for programs from our past two conferences.

We welcome both individual papers, and also strongly encourage proposals for whole, thematic sessions with coordinated papers, particularly those which include multiple disciplinary perspectives and/or input from scientific practitioners. You may wish to involve other members of SPSP (a listing is available on our website) or post a notice to the SPSP listserv describing your area of interest and seeking other possible participants for a session proposal.

Individual paper proposals: must include a title and an abstract of 500 words, and full contact information for the speaker(s).

Session proposals: must include an overall title for the session, a title and 500-word abstract for each paper (or an equivalent amount of depth and detail, if the format of the proposed session is a less traditional one), and full contact information for each contributor. Session proposals should be submitted as a group by the organizer of the session.

Multiple submissions of any form by the same person will not be allowed. Please direct all queries to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

To receive updates about this conference, please become a member of the SPSP mailing list at http://www.gw.utwente.nl/spsp/membership/Membership%20Mailinglist.doc/ and also check the SPSP website at http://www.gw.utwente.nl/spsp/events/Third_Biennial_SPSP_Conference/

5th International Conference on Communities & Technologies ? C&T 2011

June 29 2011 to July 02 2011 | Brisbane, Australia

Updated: July 15 2010

5th International Conference on Communities & Technologies ? C&T 2011

29 June ? 2 July 2011, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

http://ct2011.urbaninformatics.net/

The biennial Communities and Technologies (C&T) conference is the premier international forum for stimulating scholarly debate and disseminating research on the complex connections between communities ? both physical and virtual ? and information and communication technologies.

C&T 2011 welcomes participation from researchers, designers, educators, industry, and students from the many disciplines and perspectives bearing on the interaction between community and technology, including architecture, arts, business, design, economics, education, engineering, ergonomics, information technology, geography, health, humanities, law, media and communication studies, and social sciences. The conference program will include competitively selected, peer-reviewed papers, as well as pre-conference workshops, a doctoral consortium, and invited keynote and panel speakers.

We look forward to welcoming you to an exciting conference in Brisbane, Australia's new world city.

Marcus Foth Conference Chair

IMPORTANT DATES

10 December 2010: Full papers and workshop proposals due 24 January 2011: Review reports due 18 February 2011: Notification of acceptances sent to authors 4 March 2011: Camera ready papers due 30 April 2011: Workshop papers, Doctoral Consortium and Student Volunteer applications due 29 June 2011: Pre-conference workshops and Doctoral Consortium 30 June ? 2 July 2011: C&T 2011 conference at QUT, Brisbane, Australia

CONFERENCE TOPICS

C&T 2011 welcomes contributions in all areas of community and technology research, design and development. In addition, we particularly invite authors to address any of the following topics:

Augmented Reality Civic Intelligence Context and Location Awareness Community-centred Design and Evaluation Methodologies Community Engagement E-research with Communities E-government and E-governance Participation Smart Community Services Sustainability Universal Usability and Accessibility Urban Informatics Tangible Interfaces for Community Interaction Technologies of Scale Making Visualisation Techniques Working across Cultures

PAPER SUBMISSIONS

All submissions must be written in English. Papers must be no longer than 10 pages, including all additional material such as references, appendices, and figures. Please format papers using the ACM SIGCHI two column layout available at http://www.sigchi.org/chipubform. Full papers must include a title, sufficient space for the author name(s) to appear on the paper, contact information and affiliations, abstract, keywords, body, and references. Papers submitted by the due date will undergo a double blind peer review process by an international panel and evaluated on the basis of their significance, innovation, academic rigour, and clarity of writing. Accepted papers will be included in the published conference proceedings if at least one author of any accepted submission has registered and attends the conference. Papers are submitted via an online submission system that will be opened in September 2010.

Please send any questions to Jesper Kjeldskov, Technical Program Chair: jesper AT cs.aau.dk

WORKSHOP PROPOSALS

Workshops are half day or full day sessions prior to the main conference program on 29 June 2011. Workshop proposals (max of 2 pages, using the ACM SIGCHI two column layout available at http://www.sigchi.org/chipubform) should be aimed at a community with a common interest. If you are working in an emerging area of Communities and Technologies, consider organising a workshop as an opportunity to advance the field and build momentum. C&T workshops might address basic or applied research and practice, new methodologies, emerging application areas, design innovations, management and organisational issues, or education. Each workshop should generate ideas that give the C&T community a new, organised way of thinking about the topic, or ideas that suggest promising directions for future research. Some workshops result in edited books or special issues of journals; you may consider including this goal in your workshop proposal.

Please send proposals to Jaz Choi, Workshop Chair: h.choi AT qut.edu.au

DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM

The Doctoral Consortium is scheduled prior to the main conference program on 29 June 2011. The Doctoral Consortium offers research students a special forum where they can present, discuss and progress their research plans with peers and established senior researchers. Research students wishing to attend the consortium should submit 4 pages, using the ACM SIGCHI two column layout available at http://www.sigchi.org/chipubform, addressing 4 headings: Aims and Background; Significance and Innovation; Methodology; Questions and Issues (that is, identify those areas you seek feedback on). Places at the consortium will be offered based on a review of the submitted proposals.

Please send applications to Christine Satchell, Doctoral Consortium Chair: christine.satchell AT qut.edu.au

VOLUNTEERS

C&T actively encourages students to volunteer at the conference. Being a student volunteer is a great way to support the research community, meet other students in the field, and attend an international ACM conference. You will help the conference organisers with the running of the conference and support the setting-up of presentations and workshops. You will see the latest in C&T research and development, and have fun while learning about running the conference. In return, you will get free registration. To apply, email us your contact details (email, phone, university), an abstract of your research project, a CV, and the reasons why you would like to be a student volunteer. Applications close on 30 April 2011.

Please send applications to Ronald Schroeter, Volunteers Chair: r.schroeter AT qut.edu.au

ISHPSSB Call for Papers

July 10 2011 to July 16 2011 | Salt Lake City, Utah

Deadline: February 28 2011

Updated: August 15 2010

Our 2011 meeting will be in Salt Lake City (Utah, USA) July 10th-16th 2011

Preliminary Call for papers

The deadline for the final call for papers will be February 28, 2011.

ISHPSSB Program Co-Chairs Chris Young and Mark Largent hope you are already thinking about papers and sessions for the 2011 meeting in Salt Lake City. To be sure you are getting the most up-to-date information about the meeting, subscribe to the ISHPSSB listserv by clicking on the "Listserv" link at http://www.ishpssb.org

In the coming months, we will be setting up a bulletin board where you can suggest a session, or review sessions that have been proposed so far. For now, only members can post on this bulletin board, so you might check on your membership status and then start sharing ideas. The bulletin board link is http://ishpssb.onefireplace.com/

Now, a few comments on audience, posters, and themes:

Our expectation for the Salt Lake City meeting is that we will have more cross-disciplinary sessions than ever before. In addition, we expect that all sessions will be geared toward wider audiences. This was a major thrust of the discussions that came out of the Brisbane meeting in 2009. Every scholar has numerous meetings in which to present work to her or his peers: historians speaking to historians, philosophers speaking to philosophers, sociologists speaking to sociologists, and biologists from across the spectrum speaking to biologists within their specialty. ISHPSSB is uniquely situated to provide us the opportunity to talk to each other, across disciplinary boundaries, about biology studies. In order for this to happen, we need to think broadly about each other as an audience. We hope you will begin now to look for ways of collaborating.

A new feature of the program for 2011 will be the creation of a poster session. This is intended as a dynamic setting for scholars to present their work in progress as well as expanding on the implications of work completed in an interactive setting. The program co-chairs intend to solicit posters from a wide range of scholars, providing for interaction among all participants. We expect that this setting will engage biologists, historians, sociologists, and philosophers alike. Our local arrangements team is working to make this happen in a comfortable setting with refreshments readily available.

As we begin planning for how sessions will be organized, we ask that presenters think about ways their work will potentially connect to other sessions throughout the meeting. We hope this can be accomplished by thinking about the larger themes that are illuminated by your work. These themes are meant to be broad and overlapping, but will help to provide benchmarks for organizing sessions as well as signposts for people at the conference seeking out areas of inquiry. Some themes we have identified include: Civic engagement; Race; Policy, science funding, and scientific progress; Sustainability, environment, energy, and economics; Gender and LGBT; Genetic testing; Evo-Devo; and Education. Please note that not all papers and sessions are expected to fit into one of the themes, and we hope that as we see work that pushes beyond these categories we can all be more aware of the new directions scholars and members of ISHPSSB are taking.

It is still too early to submit a freestanding paper proposal, in part because we are not yet to that stage in the planning, but primarily because there is still plenty of time for you to be looking for colleagues throughout the world who will complement your work in a session. We would like the next six months to be a productive time for identifying collaborators.

During this time, we will also be soliciting scholars to take up leadership in addressing specific themes as described above. If you are in a position to provide leadership in coordinating a theme, or if you would like to suggest a theme that will strengthen our multi-disciplinary and cross-session collaboration, please contact Chris Young and Mark Largent at

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The deadline for the final call for papers will be February 28, 2011. We hope you will be checking back regularly on the bulletin board http://ishpssb.onefireplace.com/ to identify how your work may connect with other potential proposals.

Please also keep in mind the ISHPSSB policy on multiple participation: no one may present in more than one session; exceptions are made for those who organize another session, comment in another session, or give a short plenary address. Individuals may serve more than one function in a given session, e.g., chair and presenter. If you have questions about your session or paper idea, or about procedures, please contact the Program Co-Chairs, Chris Young and Mark Largent: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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