This conference will provide a forum for debate on the concepts of vice and virtue as they are defined and challenged within societies and cultures of all periods and any regions, providing thereby important insights into contemporary fundamental values and cultural perceptions. Such debates are also of interest to related disciplines such as literary studies, the visual arts, anthropology, cultural studies, sociology and philosophy, and the organisers see this as an opportunity to draw together historians and other scholars to debate a range of historiographical and methodological issues, as well as providing a forum for examining particular case studies relating to these concepts. Proposals are thus invited debating aspects of definitions, and issues of continuities and discontinuities between such concepts, across societies, cultures, geographical locations and periods, utilising a range of themes, which might include but are not restricted to:
- Religions and their moral codes, including concepts of Heaven, Hell and
Purgatory
- Images of vice and virtue in the arts; literary and other print depictions of
vice and virtue
- Justice and legal codes; upholders of vice and virtue, including police,
lawyers etc.
- Aids to the development of vice and virtue in societies or individuals,
including climate,location, and tradition
- Industry and idleness – work and play, and time management
Nations and nationalism - race, gender and class as symbols or signifiers
- Sex and celibacy: private and public, including the home as the location of
virtue or vice
- Appearance and conspicuous consumption, including shopping; luxury, and
pricing
- Philanthropy and charity; virtuous institutions and their antithesis
- Censorship and liberalism as agents of vice and virtue
Keynote speakers include:
John Garrard
Peter J. Marshall
John K. Walton
After-Dinner Speaker : Professor Asa Briggs
Proposals are invited for papers in any historical context, period or culture. These should consist of title and abstract (around 350 words, and no more than one side of A4). Proposals from postgraduate students are particularly welcomed. Submission of sessions or panels of three related papers (plus chair) are encouraged, and especially those for panels which would signal engagement between historians working on discrete historical periods, or for panels exploring links between history and other disciplines.
Abstracts should be sent to Mrs. Linda Persson at address below:
Deadline for submitting abstracts: Monday, 18 June, 2001.
Late submissions will be considered.
For further information on the conference, and its location, please visit the Social History Society’s web-site: http://www.ntu.ac.uk/sochist.
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