CFA: International Conference on 'AI and Society", School of Liberal Arts, Alliance University, Bangalore. Dates: 1-3 March 2024

Concept Note and Submission Details:

The blinding glare of AI makes us squint in a combination of hope and fear. We have to take pause and redirect the glare through the prisms of diverse domains and disciplines, to take advantage of the perhaps still-too-human ability to detach and reflect, immerse, and observe, both at the same time. The reflective part of the conference not only steers away from the enchantment of grand questions and grand paranoia, but invites the best combination of breadth and specificity, accessibility and depth, freedom and discipline. The immersive dimension, on the other hand, asks us to submit to the most eclectic manifestations of AI: whether it is about talking to a therapy bot, co-creating AI art, using AI mechanisms to generate historical narratives and research documents, using AI devices to encounter health and climate hazards, diving into an AI-generated metaverse, and many other aspects. Such immersions are meant to usher in new possibilities of reflection. While recent incarnations like ChatGPT force us to take stock of the disruption brought about by the generative paradigm, we will also acknowledge earlier inflections that AI brought about in recommendation systems, translation engines, image-processing, cultural understandings, socioeconomic growths, among many others. Are some of these inflections such as therapy bots and AI-driven media poised for their own respective singularities? Is there a possibility of building an intersectional alliance with AI so that the singularities do not emerge as all-pervading, imperial, and dictatorial entities around us?

What makes this collective exercise in contemplation unique is the meeting ground it offers for theorists, practitioners, critics, and enthusiasts. Located in Bangalore, which is India’s de facto AI capital, this is envisaged to be a one-of-a-kind exchange involving a thriving AI community of academic experts drawn from the world over. Slicing through the jargon of technological advances, the arcane dialect of academia, and the authentic vernacular of consumers and users, the conference does not presume a pre-existing language for communication, but instead hopes to arrive at one. Concerning these arguments, the conference invites Ph.D. scholars, postdoctoral fellows, independent researchers, and faculties from different educational and research institutions to contribute abstracts on the following sub-themes (but not restricted to):

• AI and philosophy

• AI and Cultural Studies

• AI and Political Science

• AI and Psychology

• AI, Science and Technology, and Science and Technology Studies (STS)

• AI and Media

• AI, Design, and Art

• AI, Translation Studies and Machine Learning

The range and scope of topics have been kept wide enough to enable conversations and inputs from actual stakeholders of AI (technocrats and policymakers). 

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Submissions should be able to underline why the research problems concerned matter beyond their sub-disciplines. Interested contributors need to submit an extended abstract of 800-1000 words and the timeline of submission is 31st January 2024. The contributors will be informed about the outcome of their submission on/by 15th February 2024. 

After the conference, selected presenters would be invited to submit chapters for conference proceedings. 

Please send the abstracts to both 

Dr. Ravi Chakraborty (ravi.chakraborty@alliance.edu.in) and 

Dr. Sayan Dey (sayan.dey@alliance.edu.in).

CFP: Virtual International Interdisciplinary Conference on "MEMORY, FORGETTING AND CREATING" 18-19 January 2024

 

ABOUT CONFERENCE: 

In our increasingly fast-paced societies, where information is abundant and its reception is superficial, human memory appears to be an endangered phenomenon. This is why we would like to take a closer look at the complex processes of memory. These include forgetting, neglecting, negation, and detachment, along with creating, recollecting, remembering, regaining memories, and reconstructing one’s relationship with the past. We are deeply interested in examples and consequences of altered memories: invention, fabrication, deception, indoctrination or propaganda. We invite reflection on mutual relations between memory and imagination, fantasising and manipulating, forgetting and creating.

We would like all these problems to be contextualised as broadly as possible, with reference to historical, social, religious, cultural, psychological, artistic and other factors. Different forms of presentations are encouraged, including case studies, theoretical investigations, problem-oriented arguments, and comparative analyses.

The conference is intended as an interdisciplinary event. Hence, we invite researchers representing various academic disciplines: anthropology, history, sociology, philosophy, psychology, psychoanalysis, neurophysiology, literary studies, theatre studies, film studies, memory studies, consciousness studies, dream studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, animal studies, medical sciences, psychiatry, social policy, cognitive sciences and others.

We will be happy to hear from both experienced scholars and young academics at the start of their careers, as well as doctoral and graduate students. We also invite all persons interested in participating in the conference as listeners, without giving a presentation. We hope that due to its interdisciplinary nature, the conference will bring many interesting observations on and discussions about the role of memory in the past and in the present-day world.

​

Our repertoire of suggested topics includes but is not restricted to:

1. Lost Memory:

- forgotten history

- forgotten nations

- forgotten heroes

- forgotten legacy

- forgotten times

- forgotten revolutions

- forgotten identity

- forgotten authors

- forgotten texts

- forgotten languages

2. Memory Loss:

- amnesia

- Alzheimer’s disease

- dementia

- sclerosis

- selective memory

- repression

- psychopathology of everyday life

3. Stolen Memory:

- denationalisation

- eradication

- expulsion

- disinheritance

- exclusion

- manipulation

- propaganda

- indoctrination

- Holocaust (and other genocide) denial

-“historical politics”

-“cultural revolution”

4. Abandoned Memory:

- non-action

- negligence

- indifference

- insouciance

- decline of attachment

- emotional atrophy

- disownment

- betrayal

5. Memory as a Trap:

- the terror of memory

- trauma

- post-memory

- memory and mourning

- nostalgia

- fixation

- the return of the repressed

- “primal scenes”

- compulsions

- stereotypes

6. Memory Regained:

- recollection

- anamnesis

- insight

- epiphany

- “time regained”

7. Dubious Memory:

- déjà vu

- confabulation

- fabrication

- rumour

- apocryph

- parallel histories

8. Memory and Imagination:

- facts and phantasms

- political phantasms

- historiography and fantasizing

- the realness of memories

- national mythologies

- reconstructions and narrations

- memory and representation

- memory and fiction

- non-fiction

- autobiography

- para-documentary film

- imagination in mnemonics

- collective memory and collective imagination

9. Memory and Art:

- literature, art, film, theatre as memory “media”

- socially engaged art: artists in defense of memory

- Joseph Conrad and Heart of Darkness

- Marcel Proust and In Search of Lost Time

- Thomas Mann and The Magic Mountain

- Gabriel Garcia Marquez and One Hundred Years of Solitude

- Tadeusz Kantor and the “cliches of memory”

10. Memory and Science

- mirror Neurons

- diseases and syndromes of memory

- “creating memory” in the lab

- memory of matter (inorganic memory)

- memory processing in technology

​

Please submit abstracts (no longer than 300 words) of your proposed 20-minute presentations, together with a short biographical note, by 31 December 2023 to: conferencememory@gmail.com  or by REGISTRATION FORM

Notification of acceptance will be sent by 3 January 2024.

The conference language is English.

Note:

As our online conference will be international, we will consider the different time zones of our Participants.

The conference will be held virtually via Zoom. Different forms of presentations (also posters) are available

REGISTRATION :

In order to participate in the conference (as a speaker or an audience member) you need to pay a REGISTRATION FEE via bank transfer or PayPal:

PRESENTERS: EUR 35 or USD 40 or GBP 35 or PLN 120 - by 11 January 2024

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: EUR 25 or USD 30 or GBP 25 or PLN 70 - by 17 January 2024

NOTE: We offer a discount for our returning Participants.

THE FEE COVERS:

- LIVE access via individual link to all conference sessions (without installing any additional applications)

- the conference programme in PDF

- certificate of attendance  for Presenters and Audience Members (sent by email or/and by post)

- online community gathering

- easy access on any device (phone, tablet and computer) with the possibility to join or leave the conference at any time

Banking details:

Beneficiary name: InMind Support Beneficiary Address: Jelitkowski Dwor 4

Beneficiary Bank name: SANTANDER   

The SANTANDER Swift code is:  WBKPPLPP

Beneficiary Bank account numbers (IBAN):

Payment in PLN:           

95 1090 2590 0000 0001 4259 8763   

Payment in EUR:           

PL58 1090 2590 0000 0001 4259 8847     

Payment in USD: via PayPal - please ask for a special link     

In the description field, please quote your first and last name and a note " memory conference".

All banking charges are to be covered by the Sender.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

NOTE: PAYPAL PAYMENTS (USD, GBP or EUR) ARE ALSO ACCEPTED (on request) - Please ask for a  link.

 

CANCELLATION FEES:

3 months before the conference and more - 50%

from 3 months to 1 month - 75%             

1 month before the conference and less - 100%                 

 

Our email: conferencememory@gmail.com

Scientific Committee:
Professor Wojciech Owczarski – University of Gdańsk, Poland
Professor Polina Golovátina-Mora – NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

 

CFP - International Conference on "Mind Matters: Literature, Cinema and Culture-Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata

Conference Dates: 19-20 January, 2024 (OFFLINE mode)

Venue: Rabindra Bhavan, Centre for Distance and Online Education, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

(Address: EE 9 & 10, Sector II, Salt Lake, Kolkata, West Bengal - 700 091)

Keynote Speaker: Prof. Supriya Chaudhuri

Plenary Speakers: Prof. Amrit Sen, Prof. Anup Dhar, Dr. Prasanta Chakravarty and Dr. Nina Krajnik (online)

CALL FOR PAPERS

What precisely constitutes a mind? This inquiry has been a source of contemplation for both philosophers and those outside philosophical circles throughout documented history. Some assert that minds are spiritual entities that temporarily inhabit bodies, entering either at conception or birth and departing at death, framing death as the separation of the body's spirit. Alternatively, there are those who envision a more interconnected relationship between minds and bodies: a mind is present when a body is organised in a specific manner and absent otherwise. Yet, another perspective maintains that minds are indeed tangible entities, specifically physical ones, contending that minds are essentially synonymous with brains. The ongoing discourse with neuroscience, dedicated to scrutinizing hypotheses about human behaviour and neurophysiology through empirical methods, has expanded psychoanalytic conceptualizations to encompass areas such as motion, memory, sleep, dreams, conflict, and trauma. Importantly, both psychoanalysts and neuroscientists share a profound curiosity in investigating the neurological foundations of psychic functioning. Cognitive perspectives delve into the mental processes involved in perception, memory, problem-solving, and decision-making. When applied to cultural texts, this lens allows for an exploration of how individuals within the text perceive and interpret their world, process information, and construct meaning from their experiences. This conference seeks to explore the kaleidoscopic possibility of reading various cultural texts and practices vis-à-vis philosophy of mind, as it evolved through Cartesian dualism, Lockean empiricism, German idealism, and of course, an array of psychoanalytic theories. It aims to consider how these diverse philosophical perspectives have shaped our understanding of the mind within the cultural tapestry, laying the foundation for continued inquiry and dialogue in contemporary philosophical discourse.

Sub-topics for the conference may include (but are not limited to):

Literary Studies and Human Mind Dreams, Repression, and Desire Representation of Mind in Cinema and Popular Culture Psychology, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis Memory Studies Mind and the Screen: Cinema, Games, and New Media Ideology, Politics and Human Mind Narrative and the Unconscious Language, Mind, and Meaning Understanding Affect: Visual and Plastic Arts Literature, Sinthome, and the Textual Unconscious German Idealism and the Natural History of Mind Collective Unconscious and Archetypes Mind-Body Dualism Artificial Consciousness, AI and Desiring Machines Phenomenology and the Philosophy of Mind Mysticism, Planes of Consciousness, and Yoga Psychology Psychobiology and Cognitive Science Qualia, Rhizomatic Consciousness, Neuroaesthetics

DEADLINE for ABSTRACT SUBMISSION: 20 DECEMBER, 2023.

Please submit your ABSTRACT (about 250 words) along with your Paper Title, Name, Designation, Affiliating Institution and your Email-ID using the link below:

https://forms.gle/5zCzDEMPzCMEw2XHA  Selected participants will be notified via email by 30 December, 2023.Select papers may be published in a book after the conference.

REGISTRATION FEES (to be collected after Abstract Selection)

Paper Presenters (any discipline/department)

• Faculty Members/Professionals: INR 800/-
• Students/Research Scholars: INR 500/-

Participants (Non-presenters): INR 150/-

The registration fee will cover Conference Kit, Lunch, and Refreshments during the conference.

No travel bursary or accommodation is available. Certificates will be provided.

For any queries, please contact: cdoerbu.eng@gmail.com 

CFP: #Funded International #Conference : #Culture and the Mind: Voices, Sites and Practices- Denmark-May 2024

 CULTMIND will hold its first annual conference 15-17 May 2024 in central Copenhagen.

We invite scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and career stages to discuss the current state of research on the entanglement of culture and the mind, and to outline new paths for future exploration.

The conference will present a forum for discussing the cultural and social specificity of psychological distress, trauma and healing; for exploring the distinct cultural traditions in which ideas of mental health and treatment take shape.

The conference will address the following topics and questions:

• The social and cultural variety of ideas about mental disorder, trauma and treatment:

How do conceptions of mental health and therapeutic modalities reflect distinct cultural traditions and social contexts? How have definitions of the mind responded to major historical changes?

• The entanglement of the arts and the human sciences:

How have medical and scientific explorations of the mind presented a resource for cultural producers, and how have clinicians drawn on the insights and techniques of film, literature, theatre and art?

• Languages of illness and healing:

How do medical and scientific understandings of the mind travel outside the clinical setting? How do patient narratives and voices expand psychiatric discourses and diagnoses?

• The intersection of expert knowledge and political ideology:

How have medical and scientific ideas about the human mind overlapped with political agendas and imperatives?

• Cross-cultural encounters in mental healthcare settings:

How do medical professionals account for cultural factors in the course of diagnostic and therapeutic processes? How have the psy-disciplines engaged with the consequences of cultural change and migration?

• The place of the medical humanities:

What role can the medical humanities play in uncovering the cultural dimensions of mental health, illness and treatment?

We encourage early career researchers, tenured researchers, and clinical professionals to send us an abstract for a short oral presentation or poster to be presented on the conference.

Funding is available to assist presenters with travel and accommodation costs.

Please send proposals for oral presentations or posters (including a paper/poster title, an abstract of 300 words and a brief academic biography of 200 words) to: CULTMIND@hum.ku.dk by the 15^th of January 2024.

Contact Information

The Centre for Culture and the Mind, University of Copenhagen

Contact Email: cultmind@hum.ku.dk

URL

https://cultmind.ku.dk/events/culture-and-the-mind-voices-sites-and-practices/