[ecrea] Interrogating Trauma in the Humanities conference

Interrogating Trauma in the Humanities



International Interdisciplinary Conference

 20-23 August 2012

University of Lincoln

 UK



Since 9/11 and the so called 'terror attacks', questions surrounding the nature of traumatic experience and how that experience may be presented/represented have dominated the Humanities.  This has led to a range of critical works which have attempted to evaluate the parameters of memory, testimony and the ethics of witnessing on both an individual and a collective level.  Trauma theories exist at the intersection of disciplines such as psychology, history, cultural and media studies and the dramatic arts. More recently this inter-disciplinarity has led to a growing area known as the 'Medical Humanities' in which literary and cultural theorists work alongside practitioners and clinicians involved in furthering insights into psychiatric conditions such as bi-polar disorder, PTSD and schizophrenia.  Trauma theory is therefore at the forefront of contemporary debates about human subjectivity and experience, but also locates such discourses within historical and political contexts and agendas.



Confirmed keynote speakers are Professor Cathy Caruth (Unclaimed Experience:  Trauma, Narrative and History, Trauma:  Explorations in Memory, Traumatic Departures:  Survival and History in Freud ) and Kali Tal (Worlds of Hurt:  Reading the Literatures of Trauma, Women in Particular:  An Index to American Women).



Papers are invited which may include, but are not limited to;

Literary representations of trauma                                 Trauma and aesthetics

The Medical Humanities                                                Violence and text

Mental Illness                                                               Historical contexts of trauma

Dramatising pain                                                           Performing trauma

Reporting disaster                                                         Narrativising mental illness

Linguistic de-signification                                               Visualising trauma

Ethnic diasporas



Priority will be given to those papers which seek to transgress established parameters of academic debate and attempt to circumvent recognised subject divisions. Submissions of approximately 300 words are invited.  Please send abstracts together with a brief biographical note to the University Conference Office at (conferences /at/ lincoln.ac.uk)<mailto:(conferences /at/ lincoln.ac.uk)>  .  Deadline for the first call is 29 April 2012 (23:59 GMT)



It is envisaged that selected papers will be published in a collected volume originating from this conference.



Organising Committee:

Chair:  Catherine Redpath  (Senior Lecturer in English) (credpath /at/ lincoln.ac.uk)<mailto:(credpath /at/ lincoln.ac.uk)>



            Dr. Philip Redpath  (Senior Lecturer in English) (predpath /at/ lincoln.ac.uk)

Nigel Morris (Principal Lecturer in Media Theory, Lincoln School of Media) (nmorris /at/ lincoln.ac.uk)

            Dr.  Cairo Hickman (Senior Lecturer in History and American Studies) (chickman /at/ lincoln.ac.uk)

            Lisa Gaughan  (Senior Lecturer in Drama) (lgaughan /at/ lincoln.ac.uk)

            John Dixon  (Senior Lecturer in English and American Studies)  (jdixon /at/ lincoln.ac.uk)

            Susie Karpasitis  (Doctoral student) (skarpasitis /at/ lincoln.ac.uk)





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