Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by email (following website instructions) by 2010 March 15th: http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010/abstract-submission

This panel is concerned with the social dimensions of neuroscience. It will explore the emergence, topography and implications of the Œnew brain sciences‚. The focus is intentionally broad, reflecting the heterogeneity of neuroscience itself. The specific history and sociology of neurologic terms and concepts are likely to be a focus, as will the practices that have given rise to and are enabled by these sociotechnical objects: from neurons to psychiatric disorders; brain genomics to Œneurodiversity‚; imaging technologies to Œneuroethics‚. The increasing prominence of the brain across science and society, and the traction of neuroscientific ideas in key public and policy debates, makes neuroscience the perfect case through which to examine both classic themes within STS (expertise, democracy, power, technique, etc.), while also allowing for the development and enrichment of newer conceptual frameworks (practice, materiality, performativity, and so on). In the latter case, this track invites contributors to consider ways in which the neurosciences themselves attempt to describe how the Œsocial‚ comes into existence and to reflect back on the ways through which this might at once challenge and support changing uses and meanings of the category of Œthe social‚ within our own disciplines.
Potential questions and directions

For this track we invite contributions which explore the complex of elements assembled in neuroscience, in which instances of things like Œsociality‚ and Œtechnique‚ form around and configure the brain. Central questions to be considered include (but are by no means limited to): what might the concepts of practice and performance offer to studies of the brain and of neuroscience ˆ in terms of both opportunity and danger? How did the brain-as-thing arise? What might STS learn from neuroscientific configurations of the social, and vice versa? What is at stake when visualising the subjective? How can we Œexplain‚ the emergence of fields like Œneuroscientific lie detection‚ or Œneuroeconomics‚? And how do these developments sit within, sustain, reshape and challenge existing configurations of ethics and practice?

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by email (following website instructions) by 2010 March 15th: http://events.unitn.it/en/easst010/abstract-submission

Convenors

Andrew Balmer is completing his PhD at the Institute for Science and Society, the University of Nottingham. His thesis explores the development of functional magnetic resonance imaging as a lie detector, exploring questions about the production of lies, and the translation of scientific expertise into legal evidence. He is currently a research associate at the University of Sheffield.

http://sheffield.academia.edu/AndrewBalmer

Des Fitzgerald is in the second year of his PhD at the BIOS Centre and the Department of Sociology, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His PhD work considers the interactions between brain-imaging technologies and Autism Spectrum Disorders.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/BIOS/whosWho/Studentprofilepages/Des_Fitzgerald.htm

Martyn Pickersgill is a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. His primary interests are in the co-production of science, medicine and subjectivity, focusing particularly on neuroscience and psychiatry.

http://edinburgh.academia.edu/MartynPickersgill

All best wishes,

Andy Balmer, Des Fitzgerald and Martyn Pickersgill

It seems that we have learned more about the brain in the last decade than over the previous millennia of human history. But to what extent are developments in the ‘new brain sciences’ leading to a mutation in our understanding of selfhood? Are we in the midst of a move from ‘soul to brain’, a radical restructuring of our understanding of human ‘psychology’ and the rise of a ‘neuronal self’? If so, in what ways, and with what consequences, for individuals and for society, and for our ways of governing ourselves and others?

This symposium will focus on one key aspect of these developments. It will ask to what extent these developments are reshaping our understanding of human subjectivity, identity and selfhood and with what consequences? And to what extent are individuals themselves coming to understand their own moods, identities, desires, emotions and distress in the languages of these new sciences of the brain? Will the languages and techniques of these new brain sciences in the 21st century supplement or supplant psychological conceptions of personhood and their associated ways of thinking and acting that emerged in the 20th century with such significant consequences for social and personal life?

This is the closing symposium of a three year research project, ‘Brain Self and Society in the 21st century’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and based at the LSE. The symposium will bring together leading figures from across the disciplines of the brain sciences, psychiatry, philosophy, history and the social and human sciences in an interdisciplinary dialogue on changing concepts of self and person and their implications.

The event is open and free to all but PRE-REGISTRATION is required as seats are limited. To book a place please send your name, title, position and affiliation to personhood@lse.ac.uk

2001: A Space Odyssey, Bladerunner, AI: Artificial Intelligence, I, Robot, and The Bicentennial Man, and, on television, in stories such as the classic Twilight Zone episode “The Lonely,” the “Valerie 23” and “Mary 25”episodes of The Outer Limits, and the 1980s TV series Small Wonder. Human-machine relationships run the gamut from comedic to sinister. In The Desk Set, a satire of contemporary worries about how smart computers would affect the human labor force, Woody Allen’s character struggles with toasters, tape recorders, and cars, whereas much darker forces are at work in the relationship between a man and his machine in Christine. These and other stories have raised numerous questions: Is sex with an android any different than sex with a vibrator? Could a machine love you back? What does the “cyborg-ization of society” mean, and how does it alter the Cartesian distinction between living and non-living things?

2010 Film & History Conference: Representations of Love in Film and Television
November 10-14, 2010
Hyatt Regency Milwaukee
www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory
First Round Deadline: November 1, 2009

AREA: “Loving the Machine: Human-Machine Relationships in Film and
Television”

This area, comprising multiple panels, invites submissions that explore this subject from a variety of methodologies. Topics might include but are not limited to the following:

• Human/machine relationships in Anime
• The anthropomorphism and/or gendering of ships, vehicles, and weapons
• The recent trend of producing shorts with robotic pets for YouTube
• Android love
• Obsession with a particular machine
• Dystopian representations of machine-run societies
• Love/hate relationships with machines
• Robots as either saviors or conquerors
• Mystical or magical sources in human/machine stories
• Literary sources of films and teleplays about love and the machine
• Philosophical bases of our ideas about our relationship with machines

Please send your 200-word proposal (by e-mail only) to the area chair:

Lisa Nocks, Area Chair
Federated Department of History
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, NJ 07102
email: lnocks@gmail.com

Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory).