6th Global Conference (2005)

6th Global Conference
Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness

Friday 18th – Wednesday 23rd March 2005
CERGE-EI,
Prague, Czech Republic

Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers

The programme for the conference is available below. Delegates are listed according to the session in which they appear. Clicking on the Session Title will take you to the abstracts (where available) for that session. Each delegate is listed according to their affiliation.

Final Conference Programme v.1.7

Friday 18th March
From 12.30 – 14.00
Registration

14.00
Welcome and Opening Words
Dr. Rob Fisher

14.15
Session 1: Daughters of Eve
Chair: Elizabeth McCarthy

Geraldine Biddle-Perry and Janice Miller
“…and if Looks Could Kill:” Making Up the Face of Evil

Kate Hebblethwaite
Eviling the Woman and Taming the Beast: Fantasies of Power Through Vivisection

Maria Parsons
The Dual Portal: Menstrual Possession and Psychic Paranormal Abilities in Horror Fiction

15.45
Refreshment Break

16.15
Session 2: Panel – Tales of Torture
Chair: Jean-Philippe Imbert

Brigitte LeJuez
Torture and Loss of Faith in Le Perchoir du Perroquet by Michel Rio

Jean-Philippe Imbert
Hervé Guibert: The AIDS Trilogy and the Aesthetics of Torture

Agnes Maillot
Paramilitary Activity: From the Torture of Individuals to the Coercion of Communities

17.45
Notices & Announcements

18.00
Wine Reception

20.30
Torture Museum Tour

Saturday 19th March
09:00
Session 3: Religion and Politics
Chair: Rob Fisher

Vincent Pizzuto
The Myth of Our Righteousness: The Hijacking of Religion in Global Terror

Aaron Rotsinger
The Evil Dictator and the Just God: Theism’s Moral Double Standard

James Heaney
Were Death Really an Evil Thing: Religion and Political Violence in the Writings of Patrick Pearse

10.30
Refreshment Break

11:00
Session 4: Apprehension and Appreciation of Evil and Sorrow
Chair: Karil Kucera

John Nijjem
Holy Families; The Rise of the Religious Right in Australia

Mena Mitrano
Beauty in Mourning? (Robert Rauschenberg’s Bed)

Alan Watt
The Problem of Evil After the Death of God

12.30
Lunch

14.00
Session 5: Sex, Sex, and More Sex
Chair: Dara Patricia Downey

Monica Whitty
Playing Around on the Internet: An Examination of Cheating in Cyberspace

Daniel Keen
Homosexual Sex: A Convenient Evil for Conservative American Evangelicals

Stephen Morris
Remarriage and Ass-F**king: Shifty Byzantine Views of Sex

15.30
Refreshment Break

16.00
Session 6: Encountering Hell
Chair: Darren Oldridge

Karil Kucera
Hoping For Heaven, Landing in Hell – Lessons Learned From Buddhist Hell Depictions at a Medieval Chinese Grotto

Ann-Marie Cook
From Hell to Hollywood: Transforming (Un)Knowable Evil From Graphic Novel to Film

José Eduardo Serrato Córdova
The Road to Hell. Rituals, Sacrifices and Social Depredation in Chiapas and Guatemala

17.30
Sessions End
Sunday 20th March
Cultural Tour Day

Jewish Quarter/Golem Tour
Charles Bridge
Lunch
Cathedral/Castle Complex
Monday 21st March
09:00
Session 7: Holocaust and Genocide
Chair: Alan Watt

Sarah Cushman
Women Perpetrators in Birkenau

Naama Haviv
Absolute Evil: International Actors in Contemporary Genocides

Madelaine Hron
Torture: A Literary and Visual Exhibit

10.30
Refreshment Break

11:00
Session 8: Wicked Responsibility
Chair: Colette Balmain

Merdijana Sadovic
Collective Denial: Serbs and the War in Bosnia

Rachel Waterstradt
Ricoeur on Decision and Genocide as the Act of an Individual

Chris Bell
The Way of the Transgressor is Hard: Personal Experience on Death/Suffering and Community Responsibility

12.30
Lunch

14.00 Concurrent Sessions
Session 9a: Music and Wickedness
Chair: Sorcha Ni Fhlainn

Agnieszka Tworek
Evil Unveiled in Opera With a Long Title

Frank Faulkner
“Get Your Kicks on Route 666,” Or “Why the Devil Has All the Best Tunes:” Trekking Through the Darker Side of Heavy Metal Music

Pamela Rossi Keen
Evil as Good, Good as Evil: Contemporary Christian Music and Loss of Religious Identity

Session 9b: Evil Places
Chair: Andrew Power

Jennifer Arends
The Ghostly Air of Evil: Malevolent (Abstract) Space In Turn of the Screw

Kiki Benzon
To Kill a Capitalist: Locating Evil in Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis

Scott Simpkins
The Glorious Self-Defeat of the Extra-Evil Gothic Villain

15.30
Refreshment Break

16.00
Session 10a: Screening Evil
Chair: William Myers

Lois Drawmer
Seeing Evil: Rational Science in CSI

Jose Gabriel Ferreras Rodriguez
Good and Evil in the Cinema of Martin Scorsese: A Moral Study of Raging Bull

Anthony Crisafi
The Seduction of Evil: A Look at the Media Culture of the Current White Supremacist Movement

Session 10b: Wicked Undead
Chair: Kiki Benzon

Anne-Lise Perotto
Sublime Evil and Human Wickedness

Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
1976: The Duality of Post-Modern Vampiric Evil and Identity in A. Rice’s Interview With a Vampire and G. Romero’s Martin

Ferruh Mutlu Binark
Angels and Evil in Turkish Society and Postmodern Representations of Them Through Popular Television Texts

17.30
Sessions End

20.00
Ghost Tour and Drinking Houses of Prague!
Tuesday 22nd March
09:00
Session 11: Suffering and Anguish
Chair: Mena Mitrano

Tahia Thaddeus Reynaga
Ensimismamiento and the Anguish of Self-Reflexivity in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Imp of the Perverse”

Justin Messner
Narrating War and Suffering: The Short Form and Experience In Mavis Gallant’s The Moslem Wife

Santiago Sia
The Challenge of Suffering and Evil: A Process Literary-Philosophical Approach

10.30am
Refreshment Break

11:00
Session 12: Evil Stalks the Land
Chair: Janice Miller

Natalia Irina Roman
Falstaff in the Worlds of Utopia – or, Human Wickedness Seen as a Necessity

Thomas Herdin
Aspects of Terrorism in the Tourism Industry

Elizabeth McCarthy
Stop Making Sense: The Image of the Disembodied Talking Head in the French Revolution

12.30
Lunch

14.00
Session 13: Considering the Wicked
Chair: Charles Nuckolls

Robert Butler
Teaching About Evil in History: Demonizing Historical Figures

William Myers
Ethical Aliens: The Challenge of Extreme Perpetrators to Humanism

Veronica Felizardo
Punishment AND Treatment: A New Face of Evil?

15.30
Refreshment Break

16.00
Session 14: Mars vs. Venus
Chair: Chris Bell

Dara Patricia Downey
Bring Your Home Back to Life! The Malevolent House in Shirley
Jackson and Stephen King

Richard Bryan
Boys Will be Boys, Girls Will be Girls: Language and Subcultures of Violence

Margarita Carretero-Gonzalez and Maria Elena Rodriguez-Martin
Wicked Women: The Menace Lurking Behind Female Independence

17.30
Sessions End

20.00
Banquet and Costume Contest

Come, eat, and drink! Come dressed as your favourite evil or wicked character – be prepared to explain who you are and why! Best costume wins! [Costume not required but encouraged!]
Wednesday 23rd March
09:00
Session 15: Wickedness Onstage
Chair: Agnieszka Tworek

Andrew Power
Sinful Stages of Madness: The Relationship Between Sin and Madness on the Early Modern Stage

Carmen M. Mendez-Garcia
From Bad to Mad: Labelling and Behaviour In Peter Shaffer’s Equus

Darren Oldridge
Evil, Exploitation, and The Elephant Man

10.30am
Refreshment Break

11:00
Session 16: Evil in Japan
Chair: Justin Messner

Charles Nuckolls
What it Means to do Wrong the Wrong Thing in Japanese Popular Culture

Colette Balmain
Oriental Nightmares: The ‘Demonic’ Other in Contemporary American Adaptations of Japanese Horror Film

12.00
Development Meeting

12.30
Conference Close

14.00
Art Tour of National Gallery Collection of Medieval Art