1st Global Conference: Deception

1st Global Conference: Deception

Thursday 17th July - Saturday 19th July 2014, Mansfield College,
Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations
We have entered a 'post-truth era', in which, Daniel J. Boorstin
notes, 'believability' has become an acceptable substitute for
'truth', and 'manifold deceptions of our culture' are difficult to
separate from 'its few enduring truths'. In this era, communities and
individuals may feel routinely duped, cheated or betrayed. Though
truth may be considered intrinsically valuable, deception may
sometimes be useful or necessary. Sometimes there is pleasure in the
spectacle of deception.

Deception is not limited to human activity. It is also practiced by
animals, plants, diseases, and machines. It is an issue that
transcends disciplines, affecting communities, individuals and
objects.

This inter-disciplinary conference will address artefacts and
practices that challenge truthfulness, authenticity or reliability.
Deception is practiced in many forms, affecting societies and
individuals. It may be a vital survival tool, a means of gaining
unfair advantage, or a pleasurable spectacle. This conference invites
delegates to explore how deception is manifested in their discipline,
or how multi-disciplinary notions of deception affect their field.
Proposals for papers and presentations are invited on topics related
to, but not limited to:

False Identities:
- disguises
- costumes and masquerade
- aliases and pseudonyms
- anonymity

Illusions:
- virtual reality and simulated worlds
- trompe l'oeil, and optical or perceptual illusions
- theatrical and dramatic illusions
- mirrors and architectural illusions
- camouflage

Fakes and Forgeries:
- false signs of authenticity
- the lives and practices of forgers
- hoaxes
- red herrings and decoys

Betrayal:
- whistleblowers and defectors
- trust and distrust
- infidelity
- fractured expectations

Dishonest Media:
- photo-manipulation and retouching
- 'black' propaganda
- plagiarism
- misrepresentation

Possible examples of some of the above are seen in, but not limited
to: The V and A's recent 'Fakes and Forgeries' exhibition, featuring
the collected works of forger Shaun Greenhalgh/ Manipulation of
photographs by North Korean government agencies/ Adult chat-room users
masquerading as children (and sometimes posing as a different gender)/
The 'Geezer Bandit', an apparently elderly gentleman who robbed 16
banks in California and was later revealed as a much younger man
wearing a prosthetic mask/ J.K.Rowling's use of a pseudonym for her
novel 'Cukoo's Calling'.

The Steering Group invites proposals for pre-formed panels, as well as
individual papers.

In order to support and encourage interdisciplinarity engagement, it
is our intention to create the possibility of starting dialogues
between the parallel events running during this conference. Delegates
are welcome to attend up to two sessions in each of the concurrent
conferences. We also propose to produce cross-over sessions between
these groups - and we welcome proposals which deal with the
relationship between Deception and Childhood and Videogame Cultures.

What to Send
Proposals will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word a
proposals should be submitted by Friday 14th February 2014. If a
proposal is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more
than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 16th May 2014. Proposals
should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs;
abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information
and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in
programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of
proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Deception 1 Proposal Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using
footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as
bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all
proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week
you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost
in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic
route or resend.

Organising Chairs

Barbara Brownie: b.k.1.brownie@herts.ac.uk
Rob Fisher: decep1@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the Violence series of ongoing research and
publications projects conferences, run within the Probing the
Boundaries domain which aims to bring together people from different
areas and interests to share ideas and explore innovative and
challenging routes of intellectual and academic exploration. All
proposals accepted for and presented at the conference must be in
English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook.
Selected proposals may be developed for publication in a themed hard
copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require
editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and
professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should
attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make
this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.

For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/hostility-and-violence/deception/call-for-presentations/