3rd Global Conference: Body Transformations

3rd Global Conference: Body Transformations Saturday 30th August - Monday 1st September 2014 Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom Call for Presentations Is our body our own or are we owned by our body? From the millisecond we are conceived we are whole. Made out of around 100 trillion cells and (maybe) one soul. Our body is our first partner, our first ally, and sometimes our greatest foe. No other creature is as complex as the human being. Our capability to use tools, record history, and perform are unparalleled by any other being inhabiting this earth. This conference aims to discuss the body in all its glory and all its gore. The 3rd Body and Transformation Conference seeks to explore the many layers and levels of bodies, and the ways in which bodies can transform and shift. We want to explore the whole array of bodily functions, stations, failures, alterations, concepts, abilities and disabilities, and awareness–external and internal. We welcome a variety of presentation formats: - papers, panels, workshops, reports - case studies - performance pieces; dramatic readings; poetic renditions; short stories; creative writings - works of art; works of music We are particularly interested in presentations that explore the physicality of existence, including, but not limited to: - The physicality of change, such as aging, shapeshifting, reconstructive surgery, transplants, hybridity, death and dying, genetic manipulation, abilities and disabilities, and growth, mutants (and perhaps even superheroes). - Race, sex, and gender, including issues of bio-identity, transgender identity, virginity, desire, pleasure, and asexuality. - Embodiment and disembodiment, including animate and inanimate bodies, avatars, the metaphysical, spirit and the body, liminality, solitude and companionship. - Body horror, including parasites, wounds and injury, infection and contagion, the politics of bio-power, pain, abjection, and violence. Presentations, performances and papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes. The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 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 Sport and Bodily Transformations. What to Send 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th April 2014. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 11th July 2014. Abstracts 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: BT3 Abstract 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 paper 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 Margo Collins and Nadine Farghaly: margoc@inter-disciplinary.net Rob Fisher: bt3@inter-disciplinary.net The conference is part of the At the Interface programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. 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/at-the-interface/evil/body-horror/call-for-presentations/ Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.