THE EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF
LITERATURE AND MEDIA
UTRECHT UNIVERSITY ? THE NETHERLANDS
7-11 JULY 2010
ABOUT IGEL
The International Society for the Empirical
Study of Literature and Media (Internationale
Gesellschaft für Empirische
Literaturwissenschaft und Medien, IGEL) aims at
building bridges between the Humanities (e.g.,
literary studies, film studies) and the Social
Sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology,
anthropology) using quantitative and qualitative
research methods in the study of (response to)
literary texts and media. The principal duties
of the Society are to support scientific
projects through information and cooperation, to
further personal contact in all areas of
research supported by the Society, to support
students and junior researchers in the field of
empirical literary research, and to press for
the application of empirical results. IGEL has
been meeting these goals in a variety of
activities. The biennial conferences of the
organization are a unique forum for the exchange
of ideas in the empirical approaches to
literature, media and historical reception
studies, as well as computer science and artificial intelligence.
CONFERENCE TOPICS
IGEL invites you to send in proposals for
conference papers, symposia, and posters on the following topics, such as:
* Literary reading processes (emotion, cognition, personality, etc.)
* The social role of literature and related
media (e.g. film, theatre, Internet, multimedia, virtual reality);
* Literature and media from an evolutionary perspective;
* Early literary and media socialization;
* Pedagogical and educational aspects of literature and the media;
* Processes of literary/media production, distribution and reception;
* The role of literary and other cultural
institutions: past, present and future;
* The empirical study of historical reception and historical readers;
* Computational analyses of literature and
the media (corpus studies, hypertext models, etc.).
Proposals need to be based on research finished
around the time of presentation. The research
needs to be empirical in nature or theoretical
but informed by empirical research.
Submissions
Deadlines for conference paper and poster, as
well as applications for the Summer Institute
(3-7 July) are set at 1 February 2010. Please
submit proposals in English using the submission
system that will be launched shortly at the
conference website:
<http://www2.hum.uu.nl/congres/igel/index.html>http://www2.hum.uu.nl/congres/igel/
Proposals should include the following information:
1. The title of the presentation
2. Names and institutional affiliations,
including email addresses, of all authors
3. Contact address of the presenting author
4. Presentation Preference (?Poster?, ?Paper? or ?Either?)
6. A 75-word abstract of the presentation, for
publication in the abstracts booklet.
7. A summary of the presentation with a title
but no author information (max. 1000 words,
including bibliographic references).
Further instructions will be posted on the
website of the conference. As to proposals for
symposia or sessions, please contact the local
organizer Frank Hakemulder directly at
<mailto:(Igelconference2010 /at/ gmail.com)>(Igelconference2010 /at/ gmail.com)
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
JOAN PESKIN - SUSANNE JANSSEN - JEFF GREENBERG
Focus and keynotes
The focus of the conference will be on social
relevance of the empirical study of literature
and media. For this purpose a number of renowned
speakers will address the topic from different perspectives.
Joan Peskin (Human Development and Applied
Psychology, University of Toronto) has a special
interest in the study of cognition during
literary interpretation (development of metaphor
processing, symbolic thinking during writing and
reading poetry), as well as theory of mind and
education (relationship between theory of mind
and thinking about one?s reader?s mind in early
writing development; advanced theory of mind in
the literary arts). In other words, issues
central to the purpose of the conference.
Another key to our understanding of the main
topic of the conference will be the keynote
address by Susanne Janssen (Sociology of Media
and Culture, Erasmus University Rotterdam). She
will address issues related to evaluation
processes and the study of digitization of culture.
Jeff Greenberg (Department of Psychology,
University of Arizona) coined the concept of
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_Management_Theory>Terror
Management Theory with two of his colleagues
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Pyszczynski>Tom
Pyszczynski and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Solomon>Sheldon
Solomon), leading to robust evidence for the
effects awareness of our own mortality has on
our psyche and behavior. From this perspective
Greenberg has been asked to reflect on the
functions of literature and culture in general.
Wiljan van den Akker (Dean of the hosting
Faculty of Arts at Utrecht University) will open
the conference, talking about the role numbers
can play in the Humanities. More information on
these and other keynote lectures will follow
soon. For more information about the focus of
the conference, please refer to the website:
<http://www2.hum.uu.nl/congres/igel/index.html>http://www2.hum.uu.nl/congres/igel/
Special Interest Sessions
Sessions are in preparation on a variety of
subjects, such as effects of literary education,
the uses of stories in information and education
(?edutainment?), intercultural perspectives on
reading behavior, cultural competence, and
differences in literacy competences of
multilingual, multicultural classrooms,
literature and medicine, literature and coping,
ethics in documentary making, theatre and
empathy, empirical approaches to evolutionary
literary theory. For more information or other
suggestions please contact the organization ((igelconference2010 /at/ gmail.com)).
Outstanding Student Paper Awards
The Board of IGEL will decide on two awards for
the best presentation of junior researchers (graduate or PhD student).
Regular Poster Session and Knowledge Market
Two poster sessions will be part of the program:
one regular, academics only; and one in which
organizations, profit and non-profit, present
their posters to the participants of the
conference. This innovative event is aimed at
matching researchers and social partners. We
invite organizations to formulate their
questions and translate them into research
problems. This process will be supported by the
local organization (IGEL in collaboration with
the Science Shop, Utrecht University).
Researchers will be asked to respond in terms of
possible solutions based in available studies,
or generate new and/or joint research projects.
Prior to the conference, abstracts for both
poster sessions will be made available.
Conference Venue
The conference will be hosted by Utrecht
University. Keynotes and poster sessions will
take place at the University Hall (Aula of the
Academiegebouw, 1462), a historical site where
in 1579 the Union of Utrecht was signed, the
very beginning of the Republic of the
Netherlands; and buildings along the drift,
where Louis Napoleon had his palace (1808).
IMPORTANT DATES
· Deadline for proposals (Papers, Posters, Symposia)1 February 2010
· Summer Institute: 3-7 July 2010
· IGEL Conference: 7-11 July 2010
ORGANIZED BY IGEL in COLLABORATION WITH
Utrecht University- Institute for Media and Culture Studies
Dutch Reading Foundation ? STICHTING LEZEN
Science Shop ? Kennispunt Geesteswetenschappen
John Benjamins Publishing Company
