Panic and mourning are two distinct emotional constructs that often intersect and interplay in landscapes of conflict, violence, crisis, tragedy and catastrophe, both natural and man-made. Whereas panic tends to occur during the experience of the catastrophic events, mourning, on the other hand, relates to the aftermath of a violent disruption and to the way humans try to make sense of it retrospectively. Conversely, violent events can also leave a thread of panic in its aftermath, such as mourning can be disturbed or reinstated by a catastrophic occurrence.

This inter-disciplinary conference seeks to address questions at the interface of panic and mourning, both individually and jointly. We are particularly interested in investigating representations and performances of modalities and contexts of panic (fear, horror, terror, rage, anxiety, shock, threat) and mourning (pain, grief, loss, trauma, memory, melancholy, nostalgia, healing) in media, literary and cultural frameworks.

This conference wishes to bring together doctoral students, Post-doc researchers and international key scholars from different areas and disciplines to share research interests and works-in-progress, engage in fresh intellectual discussion and build a community of young scholars.

Papers are welcome on the topics listed below, amongst others:

– The cultural construction of panic and mourning
– Representations of panic and mourning in literature and the arts
– Mediation and the mediatization of panic and mourning
– Panic and mourning as spectacle
– Tropes of panic and mourning between victimhood and agency
– Public and private rituals of panic and mourning
– Gendered discourses of panic and mourning
– The work of law in practices of mourning
– Transgenerational mourning and the heritage of collective loss
– Dimensions of panic: moral panic, technopanic, hyperpanic, media panic, voluptuous panic, global panic
– Power, governamentality, and the regulation of emotions

Confirmed keynote speakers:

António Sousa Ribeiro (Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra)
Ban Wang (Stanford University)
Barry Richards (Media School, University of Bournemouth)
Eduardo Cintra Torres (CECC / Institute for Social Sciences, University of Lisbon)
Frederik Tygstrup (Copenhagen Doctoral School in Cultural Studies)
Liliane Weissberg (University of Pennsylvania)

Speakers should be prepared for a 15-minute presentation followed by questions.

Please send a 250-word abstract, as well as a brief biographical note (100 words) to panicandmourning@gmail.com by June 30, 2010. Proposals should list paper title, name, institutional affiliation, and contact details.

E-mails should be entitled: Panic and Mourning Abstract Submission

Successful applicants will be notified by July 15, 2010.

Organizing Committee

Daniela Agostinho
Elisa Antz
Elisabetta Colla
Cátia Ferreira
Tânia Ganito

Conference Program

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