(E)motion 2020 : (E)motion in Changing Worlds

Emotion, whether as energy current, flow, impact or intensity, is a force of movement and a force on the move. Motile and contagious, it travels and circulates within and across (non/human) bodies and (non-)places. To feel is often an urge to move towards, to move away or to move in sync.
Mobility, whether enforced or voluntary, be in the form of travel, tourism, migration, exile or as basic human need to come in or avoid encounter and connection, is also necessarily an affective event. It is charged with emotion, shaped by, but also shaping, its force. We move when moved; dynamics of feeling always impinge upon the ways we move or the trajectories we follow.

It is the aim of this conference to add to the existing body of thought on emotion and affect theory, focusing in particular on this inextricable link between emotion and mobility. We are interested in the ways in which affective structures and the dispositional dimensions of life impact and are impacted upon by physical, cultural, class, racial, gender, technological or juridical modes of mobility in contexts (present or past) that see people, ideas, images and civic structures being actively on the move. We invite papers that explore the different ways in which this interaction between “states” of being, feeling and moving govern how and where we move, think, speak and connect with others.

We invite papers in the fields of literature, language, pedagogy, culture and art that discuss (e)motion in relation (but not limited) to the following:

Identities (race, gender, class, ethnicities)
Bodies (human and animal)
Travel (tourism, trade and transport)
Geography (e.g. emotional geography)
Media and Digital Technologies
Urban Ecology and Eco-criticism
Biopolitics
Abstracts (300 words) and a short biographical note (150 words), together with your affiliation (if any) and title of your paper should be addressed to Dr. Effie Botonaki or Dr. Maria Ristani, and sent to [email protected].

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is August 31st, 2019.