 |
 |
UPDATE: The Body in Pain and Pleasure - Third Annual Graduate Student Conference in Comparative Studies, OSU
| Location: | Ohio, United States |
| Call for Papers Date: | 2009-11-11 (Archive) |
| Date Submitted: |
2008-10-28 |
| Announcement ID: |
164828 |
|
THIRD ANNUAL GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE IN COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Hosted by the Department of Comparative Studies
http://comparativestudies.osu.edu
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH USA
16 January 2009
THE BODY IN PAIN AND PLEASURE
As our lives are increasingly characterized by disembodied and mediated experiences, how is it that the individual comes to know pain and pleasure? For the person in pain, Elaine Scarry famously argues, "'having pain' may come to be thought of as the most vibrant example of what it is to 'have certainty,' while … hearing about pain may exist as the primary model of what it is 'to have doubt.'" In other words, she argues that certainty is contingent upon the experiential reality of the body. Though Scarry is specifically addressing pain in the context of torture here, this same logic might be extended to pleasure – that to 'have certainty' of pleasure necessitates embodied experience. In terms of seeking certainty, Aristotle noted in Nicomachean Ethics "bodily pleasures are pursued by people who are incapable of experiencing other pleasures." In an age, however, when individuals are increasingly divorced from their bodies, how are pain and pleasure known or understood?
Keynote speaker, Ariel Glucklich is Professor in the Theology Department at Georgetown University and specializes in Hinduism, Psychology of Religion, and Anthropology of Religion. He is interested in a wide range of issues including classical Indian law, Hindu myths and rituals, contemporary folk religion and magic in Banaras, theories and methods in the study of religion, phenomenology, neuro-psychology and the evolutionary psychology of religious experience. He is currently researching the way that religious emotions are implicated in human self destructiveness.
Publications include A Taste for Heaven: The Biology of Religious Self-Destructiveness (Harper Collins, 2009), The Strides of Vishnu: A Historical Introduction to Hinduism (Oxford University Press, 2008), Climbing Chamundi Hill (Harper, 2003), Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul (Oxford University Press, 2001), Hachavaia Hamagit (Aryeh Nir, 2001), The End of Magic (Oxford University Press, 1997), The Sense of Adharma (Oxford University Press, 1994), Religious Jurisprudence in the Dharmasastras (Macmillan, 1988).
To this end, we are seeking graduate student papers that look to address the body in pain and pleasure from a variety of (inter)disciplinary perspectives. We welcome projects that consider the following topics or others, as they illuminate our inquiry:
• Biopolitics and governmentality
• History and historiography
• Nation, state, and nation-state
• Religion
• Art, film, and literature
• Theatre and dance
• Popular culture
• Pornography and erotica
• Trauma
• The family
• Psychoanalysis
• Gender and sexuality
• Substance and substance abuse
• Terror and terrorism
• Crises and disasters
• Performance
• Philosophy and ethics
• BDSM
• Environmentalism
• Technology
• Race
• Illness, medicine, and death
• Justice and the law
• Sport and exercise
Please send 250-word abstracts for individual 20-minute papers (or panels of 3-4 presenters) to compstudiesconference@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is November 10th, 2008. Accepted applicants will be notified by November 30th. In the body of the e-mail, please include the following information:
Presenter(s) name(s):
Institutional affiliation(s):
Level of graduate study:
Title of paper:
Contact information:
**We are striving to make this conference accessible to all participants and attendees, particularly for persons with disabilities. Please contact our access coordinator at compstudiesconference@gmail.com for more information or specific requests**
|
Didn't find what you're looking for?
Try our power search! |
Return to the top of this page
Return to announcements home
|
Send comments and questions to H-Net
Webstaff. H-Net reproduces announcements that have been submitted to us as a
free service to the academic community. If you are interested in an announcement
listed here, please contact the organizers or patrons directly. Though we strive
to provide accurate information, H-Net cannot accept responsibility for the text of
announcements appearing in this service. (Administration)
|
|
