Call for Papers
1st Global Conference
Friday 5th November – Sunday 7th November 2010
Prague, Czech Republic
The conference seeks to examine and explore why it is people choose, quite deliberately, to end their own lives – or why it is that people value death more than they value life. Biological, mental, medical, social, economic, religious and other factors will be considered along with an assessment of the contexts within which acts of suicide take place. The ‘meaning’ of suicide will assessed, particularly in relation to narrative, cultural, and existential influences.
Papers, workshops and presentations are invited on any of the following themes:
1. What is Suicide?
~ Naming, defining, and understanding the nature of suicide
~ Is any act of self-destruction suicidal?
~ Assisted suicide and euthanasia
~ suicide as murder; as act of aggression; as political attack
~ suicide as despair; suicide and self-harm
~ Is suicide ever a rational choice?
~ Whose death is it, anyway? Legal and judicial concerns
2. Why? The Value(s) of Suicide or What is it Good For?
~ Critical explorations: what positive value may the concept and act of suicide hold?
~ When suicide becomes a lifestyle choice: justification and rationalisation
~ Profound attraction and desire; the lure of the abyss
~ The romantic fantasy of control; suicide pacts
~ The suicide bomber: going beyond the headlines
~ suicide and honour
~ suicide and protest
3. Resistance and Rehabilitation
~ Prevention and cure: treating the suicidal patient
~ Best practices; non-traditional treatment modalities
~ Cultural competence in understanding suicidal ideation
~ Gender and suicide: commonalities and differences in etiology, frequency, and treatment
~ Religion, religious practices and suicide
4. Suicide and Meaning
~ Representations, explanations and the critique of suicide from the humanities and the arts
~ Suicide in popular media (music, film, literature); the treatment of the subject; judgment and stereotype
~ “Cry for help” or “last word”: exploring the suicide note in fact and fiction
~ Suicide as an act of love
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 28th May 2010. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 24th September 2010.
300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs:
- Nancy Billias
Project Leader, Director of Publications
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire. United Kingdom
. - Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Making Sense Of: programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).
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