The British Society for Phenomenology invites papers for the 2020 Annual Conference: ‘Engaged Phenomenology’, Thursday 3 – Saturday 5 September.
‘Engaged Phenomenology’ – BSP AC2020
Location: ONLINE (see COVID-19 updates)
Date: Thursday 3 – Saturday 5 September 2020.
UPDATED 30 April 2020: Amid global concerns about Coronavirus (COVID-19), the British Society of Phenomenology (BSP) has taken the decision to move our 2020 annual conference from face-to-face to online. Read more…
CfP deadline was Tuesday 31 March 2020 (midnight BST)
‘Engaged Phenomenology’ seeks to complement the approaches of applied and critical phenomenology by investigating embodied lived experience through a plurality of voices, encouraging dialogue between phenomenology, as a philosophical approach, and other disciplines, in addition to practitioners and individuals outside the academy. The aim is to engage phenomenological approaches across a variety of contexts (e.g., healthcare, medicine, education, design, art, psychology, architecture, community spaces, etc.) with the hope of opening up the phenomenological approach to individuals and communities outside of traditional philosophical spaces for the encouragement of dialogue, interaction and deeper understanding of the complexities of embodied lived experience across a diversity of contexts, while also being alert to the socio-political realities and power relations which frame experience.
‘Engaged phenomenology’, as an approach:
> heeds the situatedness of lived experiences across diverse cultural and environmental lifeworlds
> invites us to hold this notion of plural lifeworlds together with wider phenomenological questions about lived possibility, power relations, and the condition of having and being in a lifeworld which feels open to us and to which we are open
> challenges assumptions around narrativity and privileged articulacy in phenomenological methods, embracing new ways of listening and attending to people’s lived experiences in their specificity and relationality
> is mindful of how experience is lived through constellations of relations with others, rather than only seeking individualised (depoliticised) first-hand accounts
> considers the transformative potential of research participants sharing their experiences in meaningful ways, rather than merely assessing their ‘utility’ in academic terms.
Keynote speakers:
> Prof. Dan Zahavi, professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Subjectivity Research, Københavns Universitet; & professor of philosophy, University of Oxford
> Prof. Sophie Loidolt, professor of philosophy and chair of practical philosophy, Technische Darmstadt Universität
The British Society for Phenomenology Annual Conference is a longstanding and respected feature of the UK academic scene, providing a friendly and supportive forum for inter-disciplinary discussion. This year we are partnering with University of Exeter (UK); and the event will be co-sponsored by Egenis and the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health.
Abstracts:
We welcome papers across a broad range of areas. These include, but are not limited to:
> Health and Social Care (medicine, medical humanities, physiotherapy, maternity, disability)
> Mental Health and Psychological Theories (psychology, psychotherapy, psychiatry, childhood development, trauma studies)
> Public Policy and Society (education, policing, law, economics, politics and international relations, science and technology [STEM])
> History and Theory of Phenomenology (perception, the body, sexuality, emotion, ethics and morality, key thinkers in the history of phenomenology, feminism, gender, race, existentialism, philosophy of religion, phenomenological theology, philosophy of technology)
> Art (fine art, photography, video games, poetry, literature, film, architecture, music)
We are looking for contributions from these categories and others, across multiple perspectives, from practitioners and philosophers (including both the European / Continental and Anglo-American / Analytic traditions). Also, submissions from postgraduate researchers, who will be considered in a separate student panel.
Submission Advice and Process:
> We are an open and welcoming society, and our aim is to create a convivial, inclusive environment for audience engagement with phenomenology by philosophers and practitioners. So abstracts and papers should be composed with accessibility in mind.
> Each year – in addition to our keynote presentations – we seek to provide a space for 25-30 speakers in a single track. Papers should be 20 minutes long.
> Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words, and you should also provide a short biography of no more than 100 words.
> We welcome panels of two to four papers. An abstract should be submitted for each paper, as well as biographies and contact details for all panel participants. See the advice on the Abstract Submission System.
The Abstract Submission System is now closed (as of Wednesday 1 April).
Selection process:
> The deadline for the submission of abstracts is Tuesday 31 March 2020 (midnight BST).
> Abstracts will be blind peer reviewed by members of the BSP conference committee.
> Each year, we receive more abstracts of quality than for which we are able to provide space. From the shortlist, the review team selects what they believe to be the best of these for presentation during the event, with an eye to the aims and objectives of the conference, the society and its co-organisers and sponsors.
> We intend to inform participants if they have been successful on or around Thursday 30 April 2020. Due to the quantity of abstract submissions, while we notify everyone on the outcome of their submission, we do not supply individual feedback on those which are unsuccessful.
General registration information:
> See the conference website.
More information and questions:
> You can find more information about the conference on the BSP 2020 Annual Conference website.
> If you have any questions about the conference, please email: [email protected]
Organisation Committee led by:
> Dr Patrick O’Connor, President of the BSP; senior lecturer in philosophy, School of Arts & Humanities, Nottingham Trent University.
> Dr Luna Dolezal, BSP AC2020 host; senior lecturer in philosophy and medical humanities, and deputy director of the Liberal Arts Programme, University of Exeter.