call for papers

Power & Knowledge
The 2nd International Conference, Tampere, September 6-8, 2010
Call for Papers

Inspired by the great success of the first conference (Power: Forms, Dynamics and Consequences, September 22-24, 2008), we carry on probing questions of power. This time the conference concentrates on the links between power and knowledge. As is well known, Michel Foucault argued that power and knowledge are like two sides of the same coin. There are however many other approaches and research traditions that tackle the role of knowledge production in affecting and constituting power relations. What are the roles of science, research and research-based knowledge production in promoting policy models? Does scientific research or evidence-based consultancy save the world and lead us to a better future? What effects does the key role of knowledge production in contemporary societies have on power and politics? How are the established databases and statistical classifications of the public and private organizations constructed and reproduced? What is the role of everyday knowledge in society? What is the relationship between knowledge and resistance? By bringing together scholars who approach these questions from different angles this conference will advance our understanding about power relations in social reality.

Keynote speakers will include:
- Patrick Carroll (University of California, Davis, US)
- Gili S. Drori (Stanford University, US)
- Susan Haack (University of Miami, US)
- Sandra Harding (University of California, Los Angeles, US)
- Sakari Hänninen (National Institute for Health and Welfare, THL, FI)
- Michael Mann (University of California, Los Angeles, US)
- Yuval Millo (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)
- Soile Veijola (University of Lapland, FI)

Sessions

• Authority, Experience & Power
• Bourdieuan Elaborations of Power, Knowledge, Body and Emotions
• Capitalizing Culture. Articulations of Culture, Knowledge and Economy
• Dynamics of Knowledge Creation in Wikis
• Knowledge About the Economy
• Knowledge Production and the Power of the Academic Profession
• Knowledge, Power and the Environment
• Language and Power
• Leadership for Change in Sub-National Governments
• Meaning and the Power/Knowledge of the Social Sciences
• Motives and Powerbases in Group Relations, Strategies and International Economic Relations
• Post-Colonial Theory, Power and the Uses of Knowledge
• Power in Social Work
• Power of Attraction
• The Fall and Rise of Efficiency as a (Restored) Politics of Truth
• The Local-Global Interfaces and Domestification of Transnational Models
• The Politics of Higher Education and Research
• The Power of/over the past: re-politicizing the classics
• The Power of Visual Discourse

If you would like to present a paper, please send an abstract (150-200 words) by May 15, 2010. To send an abstract and to get more information about the conference and session details, please visit our web pages at http://www.uta.fi/power2010 or contact the organisers by email: power2010(at)uta.fi.
 

24th International Baltic Conference on the History of Science
8-9 October 2010
Tallinn University of Technology
Akadeemia tee 3 12618
Tallinn, Estonia
http://bchs10.ttu.ee/

The 24th International Baltic Conference on the History of Science is the first meeting of Baltic historians of science that takes place in Tallinn and the first hosted by Tallinn University of Technology. The conference will take place in the new building of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration on the main campus of Tallinn University of Technology at Mustamäe.

Compared to be analogous conferences before, more space has been offered to Philosophy and Methodology of Science. The organizers are happy about the involvement of several leading historians of science from outside the Baltic and Nordic region in the Programme Committee.

October 2010 is the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the common Association of the History and Philosophy of Science of the Baltic countries. The Association was founded in October 1990 in Riga.

The next step in cooperation will be considered in Tallinn. During the conference, participants from the Baltic States and Nordic countries will discuss the possibility of having joint conferences on the History of Science in the future.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Submission Deadline: 1 May 2010

We are pleased to announce that the 24th International Baltic Conference on the History of Science will be held on 8 - 9 October 2010 at Tallinn University of Technology.

Abstracts should concern one of the following fields in the Baltic and/or Nordic context:

-        philosophy and methodology of science
-        history of medicine and museums
-        history of natural sciences and mathematics
-        history of technology and engineering
-        history of social sciences, humanities and education

The deadline for submitting abstracts (of approximately 500 words) is 1 May 2010. Abstracts should be sent as e-mail attachments in either .doc or .rtf format. Please indicate in which section you would prefer to present your paper. If you do not receive confirmation of receipt of your abstract within a week, please resubmit or contact the organizers. Decisions concerning the abstracts will be communicated by 30 June, 2010.

The programme of the conference will be announced in early September 2010. Accepted abstracts will be published before the start of the conference. Language of the abstracts and of the presentations is English. Reading time of the papers is 20 minutes (15 minutes + 5 minutes discussion).

The abstracts should be sent to Mr. Mait Talts
mait.talts(at)tseba.ttu.ee

Conference registration fee is 40€, 25€ for graduate students.
Details of payment will be announced in January 2010.
[see the section Call for Abstracts at http://bchs10.ttu.ee/]

On behalf of the Organizing Committee:

Peeter Müürsepp
Professor of Philosophy and Methodology of Science
Tallinn University of Technology
Chairman of the Organizing Committee
Akadeemia tee 3
12618 Tallinn, Estonia
phone: +372 6204116
e-mail: peeter.muursepp(at)tseba.ttu.ee
 

European Humanities University

Research Conference for Undergraduate and Graduate Students
EUROPE 2010: Global and Local

May 15-16, 2010
Valakupių g. 5, Vilnius, Lithuania

European Humanities University is proud to announce its annual student research conference aimed at providing a platform for discussing current issues in politics, law and culture in a European context. Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to participate.

Conference panels include the following:
•        International, European and national law in the legal order of Eastern Europe
•        Belarus and European identity
•        History and culture of Belarus –  past and present
•        Individual and society –  philosophical and sociological aspects
•        Images of modernity in arts
•        Media culture: analysis, interpretation, criticism
•        Current problems in gender theory
•        Politics and society
•        Virtual university: challenges of distance learning

The working languages of the conference are Belarusian, Russian and English. Papers accepted will be published in the conference prospectus. Students with the most interesting presentations will be awarded certificates.

Applications for participation should be sent to studentconference(at)ehu.lt by April 4,
2010 with the subject line “Europe 2010.”

Requirements for presentation abstracts:
Length: should not exceed 3 pages A4
Font: Times New Roman,  12-point font, 1.5 spacing
Name, surname and conference panel in the heading of the presentation abstract

Those prospective participants who need a Lithuanian visa to participate in the conference should also provide the following information: date of birth, passport number (and ID number) and date of issue.  Visa fees will be covered by the conference organizers.

All conference participants will be provided with dormitory housing (May 15-16). Participants from Belarus will receive a travel grant. Please contact the conference coordinator (studentconference(at)ehu.lt) for more information.
  

LITERARY TRANSCENDENCES

7-8 October 2010, University of Tampere, Finland
Abstract submission dead line: 2 April 2010
Keynote speakers of the conference include: *Kevin Hart* (Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies, University of Virginia) and *Shira Wolosky* (Professor of American Studies and English Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

CALL FOR PAPERS

The conference Literary Transcendences welcomes contributions on the contemporary notions and significance of transcendence, be they reinterpretations of literary, philosophical or theological texts and traditions, or novel theoretical openings.

In the wake of the “immanent turns” in philosophy and cultural studies in the 1970s and 1980s transcendence was deemed a relic and a hierarchical concept that established false authority and even spiritual tyranny. In recent years thinkers in diverse fields have turned to transcendence again: not in order to rehabilitate but to rearticulate ‘transcendence’ as a concept for epistemological, literary and aesthetic criticism. It seems that philosophies of all-inclusive immanence repeat the same hegemonic mistakes for which thinkers of transcendence were previously criticised. Hence immanence needs to be radically revised and cracked open—not in order to establish other worlds or any deeper realities with their paramount Others, but so as to reveal ontological and epistemological blind spots unattainable by means of ordinary language and thought.

Despite the common conception of transcendence as a plane beyond language, language is a fundamental locus at which the divide between the immanent and the transcendent is determined. Language is also where the divide itself is always already suspended. Conversely, the very suspension applies to plain immanence too: when the place of transcendence is disputed, the ontology of immanence becomes a matter of negotiation. How, then, is transcendence written today and what is at stake?

The organizers welcome proposals for contributions (max. 400 words, for a 20 minute paper + 10 minute discussion time). The abstract and a short bio-bibliography should be e-mailed to

transcendences(at)uta.fi *by 2 April 2010*.

Speakers will be notified by the end of April. Full conference info will be available by the end of May.

ORGANISERS:
The Project *Literature, Transcendence and Avant-garde* http://www.littravant.eu/
Department of Literature and the Arts (University of Tampere, Finland)
Further information: paivi.mehtonen(at)uta.fi
 

LITERARY TRANSCENDENCES
7-8 October 2010, University of Tampere, Finland

Abstract submission dead line: 2 April 2010

Keynote speakers of the conference include: *Kevin Hart* (Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies, University of Virginia) and *Shira Wolosky* (Professor of American Studies and English Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

CALL FOR PAPERS
The conference *Literary Transcendences* welcomes contributions on the contemporary notions and significance of transcendence, be they reinterpretations of literary, philosophical or theological texts and traditions, or novel theoretical openings.

In the wake of the "immanent turns" in philosophy and cultural studies in the 1970s and 1980s transcendence was deemed a relic and a hierarchical concept that established false authority and even spiritual tyranny. In recent years thinkers in diverse fields have turned to transcendence again, not in order to rehabilitate but to rearticulate 'transcendence' as a concept for epistemological, literary and aesthetic criticism. It seems that philosophies of all-inclusive immanence repeat the same hegemonic mistakes for which thinkers of transcendence were previously criticized. Hence immanence needs to be radically revised and cracked open -- not in order to establish other worlds or any deeper realities with their paramount Others, but so as to reveal ontological and epistemological blind spots unattainable by means of ordinary language and thought.

Despite the common conception of transcendence as a plane beyond language, language is a fundamental locus at which the divide between the immanent and the transcendent is determined. Language is also where the divide itself is always already suspended. Conversely, the very suspension applies to plain immanence too: when the place of transcendence is disputed, the ontology of immanence becomes a matter of negotiation. How, then, is transcendence written today and what is at stake?

The organizers welcome proposals for contributions (max. 400 words, for a 20 minute paper + 10 minute discussion time). The abstract and a short bio-bibliography should be e-mailed to

transcendences(at)uta.fi *by 2 April 2010*.

Speakers will be notified by the end of April. Full conference info will be available by the end of May.

ORGANISERS:
The Project *Literature, Transcendence and Avant-garde* http://www.littravant.eu/
Department of Literature and the Arts (University of Tampere, Finland)
Further information: paivi.mehtonen(at)uta.fi
 

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

The Third Nordic Pragmatism Conference
"Action and Interaction"
Uppsala, Sweden, 1-2 June 2010

The Nordic Pragmatism Network organizes its third conference in Uppsala, Sweden, 1-2 June 2010. The theme of the conference is the pragmatist understanding of action and interaction, as well as its implications in contemporary philosophical reflection on various fields, such as science, religion, ethics, education and anthropology.

The organizing committee invites paper proposals to the conference programme. The deadline for abstracts is 1 April 2010. For more information and a detailed call for papers, please see the conference webpage at: http://www.nordprag.org/npc3.html.

Please feel free to forward this announcement to contacts and mailing lists.

Henrik Rydenfelt
Coordinator
Nordic Pragmatism Network
http://www.nordprag.org/
 

Conference Announcement and 2nd Call for Papers:

2ND COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE IN EPISTEMOLOGY:
THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY

THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN
AUGUST 19-20, 2010

We tend to think of liberal democracy as providing the most ethically defensible way to set up a modern society. A separate yet highly relevant issue is whether liberal democracies also are preferable from an epistemological perspective, i.e., from the point of view of promoting true over false belief, knowledge over ignorance, and so on.
The purpose of this conference -- and of the research project that it is part of -- is to investigate the norms, practices, and institutions that determine how belief and knowledge is acquired and transmitted in liberal democracies. Questions to be addressed include but are not limited to the following:

- Under what conditions is free speech a truth-conducive social arrangement?
- When can we trust each others' testimony?
- What is the proper response to disagreement, including disagreements among experts?
- What is the proper role of scientific expertise in democratic decision making?
- How is the need for expertise to be balanced against the desire for adequate representation?
- What are the epistemological properties of social deliberation?

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Speakers include David Estlund (Brown), David Christensen (Brown), Jerry Gaus (Arizona), Stephan Hartmann (Tilburg), Rainer Hegselmann (Bayreuth), Vincent Hendricks (Copenhagen), Michael Lynch (UConn), and Erik J. Olsson (Lund).

CALL FOR PAPERS
We cordially invite you to submit a 500 word abstract on any topic relevant to the conference theme. Please prepare your abstract for anonymous review. Abstracts should be submitted (as a plain text, MS Word, or PDF file) to cph.epistemology(at)gmail.com no later than April 1, 2010. Decisions regarding acceptance will be made within two weeks.

REGISTRATION
To register, please e-mail kappel(at)hum.ku.dk with your name and affiliation. There will be a registration fee of 200 DKK ($40, or €25) for faculty, and 100 DKK ($20, or €12) for students. There will also be an option to attend the conference dinner on the evening of August 19 at a cost of 400 DKK ($80, or €50). Please indicate in your registration if you wish to attend. All fees are due in full on the first day of the
conference.

ORGANIZERS
The conference is organized by the Social Epistemology Research Group (SERG) at the University of Copenhagen as part of the research project, the Epistemology of Liberal Democracy: Truth, Free Speech and Disagreement, conducted with generous support from the Velux Foundation.

WEB PAGE
http://epistemology.ku.dk/
 

CALL FOR PAPERS
Conference: The Cartesian “Myth of the Ego” and the Analytic/Continental Divide, Nijmegen (The Netherlands), 3-4 September 2010

Organizers
Cees Leijenhorst & Marc Slors (Department of Philosophy, Radboud University Nijmegen)

Themes and Objectives
The philosophical scene has been dominated for many years by the analytic/continental divide. This protracted history of antagonism has tended to obscure the fact that at least on one point the two traditions seem to be remarkably close, if not convergent. Despite all the differences in style and choice of topics, both traditions have been strongly shaped by a profound discussion with “Cartesianism”. Obviously, the term “Cartesianism” here does not necessarily refer to the historical positions defended by René Descartes. Quite to the contrary, both traditions seem to battle against a certain image of Cartesianism, broadly understood as the cluster of philosophical convictions grounded upon the supposition that philosophy should start from “the immediate data of consciousness” and not, for example, from human behaviour or man’s practical relation to reality as the existentialists and pragmatists would have it.    

One of the Cartesian doctrines that both analytic and continental philosophers generally found most unacceptable was that of the supposition of a pure Self, a pure Ego.  What we could call the Cartesian “Myth of the pure Ego” stands for a number of theses:  These roughly include two groups of convictions:

1) the metaphysical and epistemological claim that the conscious mind is an inner realm, connected to the outside world via the senses, to which only the ego has privileged access and about which it has incorrigible knowledge.

2) the methodological idea that this self forms the self-evident starting point of a philosophical system.

Cartesian philosophy of mind has been a favourite target for analytic philosophers from the very beginning. Think only of Ryle’s critique of substance dualism as a category mistake. In recent days, Dennett’s use of the term “Cartesian Theater” is a prototypical example of the strawman-like position labelled ‘Cartesianism’. The term is used to denounce the view that consciousness is an inner space in which an ego, homunculus or other fictitious entity watches the data coming in from the ourside world. For its part, the continental tradition only became obsessed with combatting “Cartesianism” after Husserl revived the Cartesian ego in the shape of his transcendental phenomenology. In this sense, Husserl’s “Cartesianism” became profoundly influential exactly because it was so unacceptable to most of his followers. Continental philosophers have portrayed Descartes’s/Husserl’s “pure self” as a “phantastical invention” (Heidegger) or as a linguistic fiction (Derrida).

This colloquium aims at a critical evaluation of the hidden anti-Cartesian consensus between analytic and continental philosophy. In this context, the colloquium will ask both historiographical and philosophical questions. Examples of historiographical questions include: to what extent did Descartes actually defend the “myth of the pure ego”? In other words, to what extent is “Cartesianism” a twentieth-century construction? What philosophical purposes does this construction serve? Is the rift between analytical and continental philosophy as deep as many have portrayed it? Philosophical questions include: which elements of the Cartesian tradition now still seem worth defending? Which ones should definitively be rejected, be it on the basis of insights gathered in analytic or on the basis of continental philosophy? Can philosophy really do without a “pure self”? Are there viable alternatives for a “pure self”? The organizers of this colloqium do not take an a apriori stand on these questions but invite participants to come to terms with “Cartesianism”, both from historical and contemporary philosophical perspectives. It is the hope of the organizers that in this fashion a fruitful dialogue not only between historical and systematic scholarship, but also between analytic and continental perspectives may result.

Confirmed speakers
Tom Sorell, Kathalin Farkas, Dan Zahavi, Shaun Gallagher

Requirements
Papers are invited on any topic related to the theme of the conference. Please send us a brief summary of your paper (maximum 500 words) and a short CV. Submission deadline: 1 April, 2010. Decisions will be reported by 1 May, 2010. Inquiries and submissions should be directed to: leijenhorst(at)phil.ru.nl. Costs for travel and accomodation will be covered by the organizers. There is no conference fee.
 

Aesthetics, Art, and Politics
6.5.-7.5.2010, University of Helsinki
Call for Papers

The Finnish Society for Aesthetics together with the research project Artification and its Impact on Art (http://www.artification.fi/) will arrange a two-day seminar on the theme “Aesthetics, Art, and Politics” from the 6th of May to the 7th of May 2010 at the University of Helsinki. The keynote speaker of the seminar is Professor Aleš Erjavec (Slovenia).

Significant connections between aesthetics, art, and politics continue to exist in the new millennium. However, alongside traditional questions about art’s relationship to politics and the political aspects of aesthetic phenomena, a new set of issues has gradually arisen which are as much a result of changes occurring in aesthetics and art as they are a result of changes that have recently shaped politics. The criticism that different traditions of contemporary aesthetics have aimed against the idea of “pure aesthetics,” i.e., an aesthetics severed from political considerations, has been widely accepted. But what is the position of aesthetic theories which emphasize the social function of art and aesthetics today? Do the main traditions of contemporary aesthetics any longer manage to account for the current forms that the relationship between aesthetics, art, and politics takes or are novel approaches required for analyzing those connections?

Many other social practices besides art are to a growing extent characterized by features which have traditionally been associated primarily with art. What sorts of aesthetic and political consequences could this process known as “artification” involve? What are the effects of this development, for example, to the alleged autonomous nature of art or is this supposition a mere fallacy anyway? Different artistic traditions and movements embody different kinds of ideologies. How should one understand the relationship between art and politics in a world where faith in the impact of politics is increasingly diminishing? Changes of approach in recent art research also provide a new outlook on the theme of the seminar.  Do the different research approaches articulate specific views of the connection between aesthetics and politics and what sorts of political underpinnings, if any, could these approaches themselves involve?

The organizers of the seminar kindly invite people interested in theme of the seminar to send an abstract of their paper (max. length 250 words) to the secretary of the Finnish Society for Aesthetics (kalle.puolakka [at] helsinki.fi). One of the two days of the seminar will be in English. It is also possible to offer a presentation in the form of an artistic presentation or a performance. The deadline for abstracts is the 28th of February 2010.

Finnish Society for Aesthetics
PO Box 4
FIN-00014 UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI
www.estetiikka.fi
 

CALL FOR PAPERS:
Is Medical Ethics Really in the Best Interest of the Patient?
http://www.crb.uu.se/symposia/2010/
http://www.crb.uu.se/symposia/2010/call.html

Medical Ethics Conference
14-16 June 2010, Uppsala, Sweden
Abstract submission deadline: February 15

Medical ethics is practised by doctors and nurses on an everyday basis. It is also a rapidly expanding academic discipline and ethical review boards for medical research play a key role in the life sciences. The primary concern is, or at least should be, the best interest of current and future patients. But is this really so?

This multi-disciplinary international conference will raise questions about some of the key ethical issues of concern regarding medical research. The possibility to increase knowledge about diagnosis, prevention and treatment of disease is the primary motive of medical research. Ethics is there in order to protect patients and promote their interests. But is medical ethics instrumental to this end?

The conference discusses three themes:

1. Should ideology be allowed to trump patient well-being?
2. What is the role of informed consent in medical research?
3. Ethical review boards: are they important ethical safeguards or     over-burdensome and unnecessary bureaucracy?

Call for abstracts

This conference is divided into three themes, one for each day of the conference. Each theme has three keynote presentations that will be followed by oral presentations in parallel sessions.

* Monday June 14
Should ideology be allowed to trump patient well-being?
* Tuesday June 15
What is the role of informed consent in medical research?
* Wednesday June 16
Ethical review boards: are they important ethical safeguards or over-burdensome and unnecessary bureaucracy?

We wanted to be a little provocative but, as the examples of questions indicate, we expect input both regarding "medical ethics as unduly bureaucratic" and "researchers as lazy when they complain about this alleged bureaucracy". We think that both ideology and prudence may in practice play a role both in clinical decision-making and in medical research ethics, but think that medical ethics, and the patients, would benefit from a clearer understanding of their relationship and their proper roles. We welcome presentations on medical research ethics as well as clinical ethics and encourage both empirical and theoretical contributions including discussions about different philosophical approaches to these issues. The abstracts will be peer reviewed and a notification of acceptance is due in March 2010.

On this basis we invite scholars of all disciplines and medical practitioners to submit abstracts.

The Scientific Committee welcomes the submission of abstracts for oral presentation for the conference. Abstracts should be submitted according to the guidelines below [for instructions, see their web page http://www.crb.uu.se/symposia/2010/call.html].

Accepted abstracts will be published in the Final programme and on the conference website. Presenting authors must register and pay the registration fee when submitting an abstract. If the abstract is not accepted, the registration fee is refundable.

Submission deadline is 15 February 2010.

We welcome your contribution!
 
Mats G. Hansson and Ruth Chadwick