Paperi (call for crazy papers)

Magari chi non è del settore non li conosce ma i call for papers sono per gli accademici un po' come il pane quotidiano. Ogni volta che si organizza un convegno o un numero speciale di una rivista, specialmente nel mondo di lingua inglese, viene diffuso un avviso con tutti i dettagli: argomento, scadenze, indirizzi, etc.
E' appunto il call for papers, l'appello a contribuire.
La legge del mercato universitario è chiara: che o su pubblica o si muore (publish or perish) e quindi ci tocca continuamente trovare dove presentare le nostre ricerche.

Di call for papers ricevo un centinaio a settimana e così ho provato a selezionare i più strani che mi sono arrivati negli ultimi mesi. Roba da non credere!
Ne ho talmente tanti che ho deciso di inaugurare una rubrica: Paperi (call for crazy papers).

Uno immagina che i filosofi si occupino dei grandi problemi esistenziali, metafisica, sapienza. Sì, sì, come no. Eccovi qualche assaggio.

Dopo i Simpson e la filosofia e dopo Matrix e la filosofia, finalmente i Metallica e la filosofia.


The editor of Seinfeld and Philosophy, The Simpsons and Philosophy, The Matrix and Philosophy, and More Matrix and Philosophy seeks abstracts for a new volume on Metallica. Abstracts and subsequent essays should be
philosophically substantial but accessible, written to engage the
intelligent lay reader. Potential contributors should examine other
volumes in the Popular Culture and Philosophy series for style and
content. Contributors of accepted essays will receive a significant honorarium.


Possible themes and topics might include, but are not limited to, the
following: Search for Meaning­“Frantic” and “Through the Never”; Nuclear
Fear and Politics­“Fight Fire with Fire” and “Blackened”; Capital
Punishment­“Ride the Lightning”; Politics, Economics, and Ethics­“…And
Justice for All” and “Some Kind of Monster”; The Problem of Evil­“Creeping
Death”; Alcoholica: Free Will and Addiction­“Master of Puppets” and
“Fixxer”; Appearance and Reality­“Enter Sandman” and “Escape”; Foucault
and Metallica on Madness and Insanity­“Sanitarium” and “The Frayed Ends of
Sanity”; Truth­“Eye of the Beholder”; Hypocrisy and Inauthenticity­“Leper
Messiah” and “Holier Than Thou”; Hume and Augustine on Moral Motivations and Inordinate Desire­“Sad But True,” “The Unnamed Feeling,” and “Master
of Puppets”; Emotion: Love and Anger­“The Struggle Within” and “St.
Anger”; Heidegger’s Being-toward-death­“Fade to Black” and “The Four
Horsemen”; War­“Disposable Heroes” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”; Sorrow,
Redemption, and Forgiveness­“No Remorse,” “Harvester of Sorrow,” and “The Unforgiven”; Violence­“Seek & Destroy” and “All Within My Hands”;
Masculinity and Warrior Virtues­“Metal Militia,” “Don’t Tread on Me,” and
“Shoot Me Again”; Existentialism­“Wherever I May Roam,” “Nothing Else
Matters,” and “My World”; Selling-Out, Commercialism and Marxism: Why did Metallica start making videos?; Napster and Intellectual Property; Group Identity and Personal Identity: Are the group members the same persons they were 20 years ago? Is it the same group it was 20 years ago, given the changes the members have undergone and given the changes in bass players?

Contributor guidelines:

1. Abstract of paper (100-500 words).
2. CV or resume for each author and co-author.
3. Submission deadline for abstracts: July 1, 2005
4. Submission deadline for first drafts of accepted papers
(tentative): February 1, 2006
5. Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail, with or without Word attachment.

Send by e-mail to:
wtirwin@kings.edu

William Irwin
Series Editor,
Open Court Publishing, Popular Culture and Philosophy
Associate Professor of Philosophy
King’s College
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711
(570) 208–5900 ext. 5493
wtirwin@Kings.edu
www.kings.edu/wtirwin/




Non vi è bastato? Eccovi allora un'altra chicca.

La logica culturale di Brad Pitt.

CFP: The Cultural Logic of Brad Pitt

For the 2005 Western Literature Association Conference in Los Angeles,
we plan to organize a panel on the film icon, Brad Pitt. Why Brad Pitt?
As one of this generation's most popular actors, Pitt has explored many
of the cultural tensions of our emerging postmodern era. Depicting
masculine American whiteness in various states of crisis, his characters
generally enact complex postmodern agencies; they are never wholly
coherent, they are often self-destructive, and they generally rely on a
certain amount of play--between stability and instability, between life
and death, between autonomy and alter-dependency, between control and abandon. Simultaneously reifying and challenging hegemonic codes of
race, class, gender, and regional or national identity, his characters
explore the complex and changing postmodern cultural landscape. Tracing his performances through a variety of films and theoretical texts we hope to explain Brad Pitt's multi-dimensional postmodernity by exploring: 1) the cultural logic of his performances, showing how they dramatize postmodern cultural tensions, and 2) the kind of cultural or political work that his performances accomplish, or the difference that they make and the impact that they have on the audiences who watch them.
Some of the kinds of issues that we hope to explore include:

* Brad Pitt's West: From A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall
to Thelma and Louise and Kalifornia, many of Pitt's performances explore
the physical and cultural landscapes of the American West? How do Pitt's
performances both reenact and revise more traditional western narratives
and identities?

* Brad Pitt's postmodern subjectivity: How do Pitt's performances,
especially in films such as Fight Club and 12 Monkeys, explore new
postmodern constructions of race, class, gender, and national identity?
What makes these characters compelling or illuminating for contemporary
audiences, and what do they tell us about how American culture is
changing in response to new postmodern economic and historical contexts?


* Marketing Brad Pitt: While Brad Pitt has clearly emerged as a
mainstream Hollywood star and box-office favorite, his characters
frequently bristle with an undeniably rebellious and countercultural
energy? But do his characters really explore radical or marginal
locations outside the boundaries of the dominant culture, or are they
only pseudo-revolutionaries-posing as rebels, but ultimately conforming
to privileged, white, male, heterosexual, and American cultural norms?
What do his performances teach us about the complex relationship between the culture and the countercultures of the postmodern, especially in the popular media? How is his revolutionary persona used as a marketing device to sell movies and/or postmodern culture?

Please send a 1-page proposal and 1-page CV to Robert Bennett by Friday
June 10, 2005.
Proposals may be sent either by email (preferable):
bennett@english.montana.edu
or by regular mail: Robert Bennett / 2-270 Wilson Hall / English
Department / Montana State University / Bozeman, MT 59717

More info about the conference is available online:
www.usu.edu/westlit/conference2005.html



Lo so, gli appelli per queste due conferenze sono ormai scaduti e purtroppo non potrete contribuire ma per le prossime volte vi prometto qualcosa di più aggiornato. Vi anticipo solo alcuni dei titoli: Fat Studies, The Cultural Production of Ignorance, Medieval Video Gaming, Filthy Ideas and Indecent Expressions.
Roba da pazzi.