The next annual conference of the International Society for Cultural History will be held in Umeå, Sweden, 26-29 June 2017.
The general theme this year is ‘Senses, Emotions and the Affective Turn - Recent Perspectives and New Challenges in Cultural History’
The history of senses and emotions is an established and vibrant research field within cultural history which has brought new theoretical and methodological issues to the fore of historical and cultural analysis. The ISCH 2017 conference will promote a broad range of perspectives and themes in the history of senses and emotions, including both traditional analyses of representations and discourses and newer emphases on practices, materiality and historical phenomenology. We also want to discuss the even more radical return to bodies and materiality represented by the recent “affective turn”. Inspired by Gilles Deleuze and a branch of neuroscience, some scholars distinguish between affect as an initial autonomic bodily response and emotion as part of cognitive meaning-making reflection. In this approach, focus is shifted from cognition and emotional codes to affective dispositions and practices rooted in the body. Is this sharp difference between affect and emotion a false dichotomy as claimed by its critics or a pathway towards a deeper understanding of the embodied and physical nature of the agency and lived experience of senses and emotions, and therefore integral to a historical phenomenology? We take up this question and other reflections on the “affective turn” as key themes for the theoretical and methodological sessions at the ISCH 2017 conference.
The following broad subtopics are suggested as themes for panels and individual presentations. The subtopics are suggestions not limitations – other thematic panels could also be proposed.
1. Emotional communities and regimes
2. Emotional practices and vocabularies
3. Embodiment, performance and emotional styles
4. The politics of emotions
5. Emotions, senses and material objects
6. Emotions and senses in religion
7. Gender, class and age
8. Space and place
9. Sight and sound
10. Shame and disgust
11. Desire and sexuality
12. Emotions and senses in literature and philosophy
13. Emotions and senses in medicine, health and healing
14. Emotions and senses in popular culture
15. Theoretical and methodological issues - senses, emotions and the affective turn
16. Cultural history in the Nordic countries – the state of the art
In this first call, we invite proposals for panels addressing one of the suggested subthemes (or suggesting a new one). Proposals should include:
- a panel title
- abstract of max 250 words
- name and email address of the panel convenor/s and short bio/s
Proposals may also list one or several (no more than five) individual presentations including:
- names and email addresses of proposed presenters
- abstracts of max 200 words and a short bio of each presenter
We especially welcome proposals on Non-European and Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance cultures and societies.
Conference language: English
Confirmed keynote speaker: Barbara H. Rosenwein

DEADLINES
Last date of submission October 31 - notification of acceptance November 15.
In a second call issued in late November, we will invite proposals for individual papers addressing the already accepted panels.
All the delegates must be members of the ISCH during 2017 and pay the fees specified at the time of registration. Speakers will be encouraged to submit their papers to the Society’s peer-reviewed journal Cultural History, where a selection of them, if appropriate, may be published.
For initial questions please contact jonas.liliequist@umu.se; proposals should be sent to isch2017@culthist.org