Historians of the University of Bordeaux 3 and their research centre are planning an international Conference on « Public authorities and censorship, 16th-21rst Centuries ». It will be held on the University Campus of Pessac on 17-20 October 2013.
It will take as its starting point the fact that, throughout this period, the boundaries of the « moral space », i.e., what has been considered moral/immoral, tolerated or tolerable/intolerable, speakable/unspeakable, visible/hidden, have deeply changed, and that these changes have been constructed historically and deserve to be studied as such. In particular, the Conference will address the question of the relationship between “public authorities” (State institutions, Church[es], pressure groups, etc.) and “public opinion” (or, to avoid the elusive nature of this notion, the perception of such issues in the “public debate”), in the defining of community standards.
What follows hereafter is an open list of possible themes:
• How did public authorities practice and manage censorship in the long run?
• How did politics and religion interact in these fields throughout the centuries?
• What have been the respective parts of normative and prescriptive texts?
• What has been the respective part of “moral entrepreneurs”, before and after their 19th century heyday? In particular, what can be said about “self-proclaimed defenders” of public morals such as Anita Bryan, Mary Whitehouse, etc. ?
• Can the implementation of public policies in these fields be considered as a response to changing perceptions of social or cultural needs?
• What value cultural productions have been given and what degree of toleration did they benefit of in the name of that value? • What oppositions did these policies have to face, and from what sections of society?
Contributions are expected to cover mostly western societies, although other cultural areas can be taken into consideration. Please send abstracts of approximately 300 words and a brief scholarly biography by September 30, 2012 to Prof. Philippe Chassaigne, Dept. of History, University of Bordeaux (philchassaigne@gmail.com).
Working languages : French, English.
Conference participants are expected to pay a registration fee of 80 euros (or its equivalent at the current exchange rate), covering for welcome kit (including a booklet of draft papers), coffee breaks, lunches. Travel and accommodations are the responsibility of the participants or their institution. Discounted rates are available for doctoral students.