Conference Announcement

The Annual Fatih University Conference on Literary and Cultural Studies

 E-motion: Sentiment and Technology
May 16-17, 2008
Istanbul, Turkey

Keynote Speaker:
Prof. Dr. Paula Bennett,
Southern Illinois University and Harvard University

emotion (noun): a strong feeling deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others. [ ] instinctive or intuitive feeling as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge [ ] ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (denoting a public disturbance): from French émotion, from émouvoir excite , based on Latin emovere, from e- (variant of ex-) out + movere move . The current sense dates from the early 19th cent. (The Oxford Dictionary of English)

Why do we cry at the best and worst moments of our lives? Do men and women laugh and cry over different things? Do humans have the same emotional reactions in hot or cold climates? Does the internet and cyperculture influence our emotions? How is the neuroscientific fact that e-motion is inextricably linked to physical movement and action translated into technological progress, medicine and entertainment? How are emotions managed, controlled, and manipulated?

Happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, anger, and fear: These six core emotions that are biologically driven responses to stimuli are evident across all cultures. Together with our feelings, which are culturally reinforced interpretations of our emotions, they structure our daily experiences, and are part of our personal and professional lives. But emotions have also been the focus of scholarly interest in fields as varied as sociology, psychology, anthropology, theology, ethics, neuroscience, metaphysics, cultural studies, literature, arts, and technology.

Whereas William James tied emotions back to different bodily experiences, and Charles Darwin believed in the cross-cultural universality of emotions, sociologist Jack Katz defines emotions as dialectical tensions between doing and being done by interactions with others. Extending and questioning such theories, we might inquire into the alleged universality of emotions as well as into the link between the cultural work of sentiment and the impact of technological motions.

The conference seeks to transcend both disciplinary boundaries and national borders in a cross-cultural understanding of the theory and practice of emotions. Fatih University s English Language and Literature and American Culture and Literature departments invite speakers from a broad range of disciplines for narrative, visual, and theoretical presentations. Please contact either of the following organizers:

Verena Laschinger: vlaschinger@fatih.edu.tr
Ralph Poole: ralphpoole@fatih.edu.tr