[H-verkko] CFP: Interdisciplinary conference: Images of Afterlife

[agricola at utu.fi]

Agricolan artikkelipyyntöihin on lähetetty uusi ilmoitus:
---------------------------------------------------------
Interdisciplinary conference: Images of Afterlife
---------------------------------------------------------
CFP: Interdisciplinary conference: Images of AfterlifePosted on October 23,
201322–24 October 2014, University of Turku, Finland

Images of death and afterlife are rich and manifold in various religious
contexts, as well as in artistic, media and other symbolic expressions.
Representations of afterlife reflect cultural values, fears and hopes. In the
contemporary West collective religious representations are challenged and
completed by individual conceptions and beliefs, which, in turn, derive from
various cultural sources. How has afterlife – the life and existence of souls
and minds (or bodies) after death – been imagined in different contexts and
how is it imagined today? What are the contexts in which these images are
expressed? Where do afterlife conceptions come from and what is their
significance in the societies of the living?

The interdisciplinary conference Images of Afterlife aims to discuss the
cultural imagery of death and afterlife from various perspectives, such as
anthropology, history, linguistics, religious studies, arts studies, social
sciences, health care, psychology and psychiatry, in various cultural and
historical contexts. We welcome a broad spectrum of papers, which illustrate and
analyze theoretical approaches to cultural representations as well as to
individual experiences of death and afterlife. The representations can include
stories, beliefs, conceptions, customs and rituals, as well as works of art and
literature. We are also interested in various methodologies that can be applied
in the study of the images, including multidisciplinary methodologies.

Topics for papers may include but are not limited to:

Religious and spiritual images of afterlife
Images of afterlife in art
Mythic topographies of the otherworld
Secular conceptions of afterlife
Afterlife conceptions as sources of comfort and hope
Beliefs about persistence of the mind after death
Mind, soul and consciousness
“Good” and “bad” death
Suicide and afterlife
Euthanasia
Organ transplantation
Death, afterlife and multiculturalism in health care
Agency in afterlife
Marginalized discourses of afterlife
Interaction with the spaces and agents of the afterlife
Spirits, souls, ghosts, wraiths, apparitions, revenants
Ancestor worship
Near-death experiences and deathbed visions
Afterlife and emotions
Afterlife: popular (pseudo-scientific) discourses vs. legitimized doctrines

The conference is organized by the research project Mind and the Other – An
Interdisciplinary Study on the Interactions of Multiple Realities (funded by the
Academy of Finland) in collaboration with the Finnish Death Studies Association.

The confirmed keynote lecturers are:

Professor Tony Walter, Death Studies, University of Bath

Professor Jussi Kotkavirta, Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä

Professor Altti Kuusamo, Art History, University of Turku

The language of the conference is English. Those who wish to present a paper in
the conference are kindly requested to send an abstract of no more than 300
words (in .rtf, .doc or .docx format) to imagesofafterlife at gmail.com by February
28, 2014. Please send with the abstract your name, affiliation, contact
information and field of specialization. Notices of acceptance will be sent by
April 30, 2014.

Further information about the conference, social programme, travel and
accommodation in Turku will be soon available on our web page
http://imagesofafterlife.wordpress.com.

------------------------------------------------------
Ilmoituksen lähetti: Agricola <agricola at utu.fi>
Ilmoitus vanhentuu: 3.3.2014
Lisätietoja WWW-osoitteesta: http://imagesofafterlife.wordpress.com