[ecrea] CFP - University of Nottingham Ningbo China: 'Playful Encounters: Interdisciplinary engagements with play, creativity, entertainment, and fun'

    CALL FOR PAPERS


    “/Playful Encounters: Interdisciplinary engagements with play,
    creativity, entertainment, and fun./”


  University of Nottingham Ningbo China, September 29^th - 30^th , 2018

*//Playful Encounters***

‘Play is free movement within a more rigid structure’

(Salen and Zimmerman, 2004, p.304)

“… law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and 
science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play.”

(Huizinga, 1980, p.5)

‘Any earnest definition of play has to be haunted by the possibility 
that playful enjoinders will render it invalid.’

(Sutton-Smith, 1997, p.213)

In the now classic Homo Ludens, Huizinga situates ‘play’ as the 
foundation of culture – the point from which all human structures, 
ideas, and societies stem. Sutton-Smith’s The Ambiguity of Play posits 
an equally broad scope, with ‘play’ encompassing everything from the 
imaginary, the development of individual identity and passing on of 
traditions through rituals, power-plays in politics and war, fate and 
games of chance, and pure frivolity and humour. The entertainment and 
creative industries are billion-dollar businesses, but Huizinga and 
Sutton-Smith imply that almost any aspect of human culture could be 
conceptualized as forms of play – and yet in so doing introduces great 
seriousness into such ‘games’.

While there is a wide variety of research taking place within various 
disciplines which explore the specific themes of this conference, 
interdisciplinary dialogue about play / creativity / entertainment / fun 
is more limited. Therefore, this conference aims to open dialogue 
between different approaches to ‘the playful’ in order to consider what 
valuable synergies might be possible between different areas of study. 
What can such conceptual lenses bring to disciplines which have not 
traditionally engaged with them, and what might particular disciplinary 
understandings of ‘play’ bring to the discussions going on elsewhere? 
How might various theories and practices around ‘play’ advance various 
disciplines which have not usually engaged with them?


*Call for papers*

We invite papers which explore our themes, or which offer considerations 
of the application of such concepts to the researcher’s discipline. 
Panels may also be proposed. We are particularly interested in 
non-traditional presentation formats and will welcome workshops.


*/Potential themes and areas/*

  * Thinkering – Thinking through theories of play, fun, fantasy,
    creativity, ‘the play of ideas’.
  * Playful Pedagogies – incorporating play into teaching practices,
    teaching creativity.
  * Identity – Performativity, Persona, Imagined Communities, Imagined
    Geographies.
  * Politics as Entertainment – The Comedic Turn in Politics, Social 
Satire.
  * ‘War games’, dangerous games, dark sides of ‘play’.
  * Mind and Body - Sport, health, games, and play
  * Post-anthropocentric play – Animals, AI, and play
  * Play-grounds – spaces of play, online spaces, games, theme-parks.
  * Genres of Play – fantasy, magical realism, fiction.
  * ‘Creative’ ‘Industries’ – capitalizing on creativity, entertainment
    and pleasure.
  * Strategy, math, and predicting ‘chance’.


We encourage discussion within and between disciplinary areas such as: 
Media and Cultural Studies; Fan Studies; Celebrity Studies; Ethnographic 
Studies; Education; English and/or Literature Studies; Performance 
Studies; Games Studies; Digital Games; New Media; Mathematics; 
International Studies; Political Studies; Biology; Behavioral Sciences; 
Psychology; Design and Architecture; Philosophy and Critical theory.

*Submission of Abstracts*

Please prepare your abstracts following these guidelines:

  * 250-500 words maximum
  * Please include four to six keywords
  * Times New Roman 12 point, single space
  * Submit abstracts by the deadline via email to
    *(playfulencounters /at/ nottingham.edu.cn)
    <mailto:(playfulencounters /at/ nottingham.edu.cn)>*



**

*Key dates*

Abstract submission deadline: *May 31^st 2018*

Notifications: July 15^th 2018

Early bird registration opens: July 15^th 2018

Regular registration opens: August 15^th 2018

Conference: *September 29th-30th 2018*


*Conference URL: 
*https://www.nottingham.edu.cn/en/internationalcommunications/playful-encounters.aspx 



*Registration *

Early bird - 1000 RMB

Student early bird - 600 RMB

Regular - 1200 RMB

Student regular - 800 RMB

Day pass early bird - 800 RMB

Day pass regular - 1000 RMB


**

*Conference Venue*

The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) was the first 
Sino-foreign university. It is located in Ningbo, one of China’s major 
ports and economic centers in Zhejiang province. Ningbo is a rapidly 
growing city, ranked in the top ten of cities for business in China by 
Forbes, it is a thriving blend of enterprise, culture, education, 
tradition and entertainment.  It is well connected for national and 
international travel, for example, with Shanghai, Hangzhou and Hong Kong 
all less than three hours away (by train/plane).**

**

*Funding*

A Conference Hosting Support Scheme grant was awarded by the Research 
and Knowledge Exchange Committee (University of Nottingham Ningbo China).

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