Conferences and Calls for Papers

ASLE 2007 Proposed Roundtable, or Panel Environmental Science Fiction: Genre and Possibility Ecocriticism

has indeed branched out to include literatures not typically associated with "nature writing." In an effort to continue this extension of ecocriticism into other genres, this roundtable/panel will explore the contributions of science fiction (SF) to environmental thought and ecological understandings. 250-word proposals are invited for a roundtable/panel that will examine SF as a literature well-suited to express the concerns of environmentalism and to explore humanity's place in ecological systems. General ecocritical discussions of the SF genre--its rhetorical modes, its environmental history, etc.--are welcome, as are more specific studies of particular works. Send proposals by January 10th, 2007 to Eric Otto, eco2_at_psu.edu. Inquiries welcome. See conference website for more details: www.woffordcollege.org/asle/Eric C. Otto, Ph.D. Lecturer in English Schoo!
l of Humanities and Social Sciences Penn State Erie, The Behrend College 5091 Station Road Erie, PA 16563-1501 phone: (814) 898-6193 email: eco2_at_psu.edu

Contribution alert

Special Issue: Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience

Submissions that reflect significant advances in the application of cognitive neuroscientific methodologies (e.g., functional neuroimaging, testing neuropsychological patients) to investigate hypotheses derived from an evolutionary psychological framework are invited for inclusion in a Special Issue of Evolutionary Psychology dedicated to "Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience."

Specifically, we invite :

original empirical articles that employ functional neuroimaging to advance our understanding of evolved cognitive adaptations
original empirical articles that employ the use of clinical neuropsychological patients or neuropsychiatric patients to answer questions posed from an evolutionary framework
original review articles that critically review and synthesize a base of evolutionary psychological literature from the perspective of cognitive and/or brain evolution
original review articles that review a base of cognitive neuroscience literature applying an evolutionary framework to interpret the findings

Papers should conform to the submission guidelines of Evolutionary Psychology and be submitted on EP template ( original empirical article, original review article) directly (via email) to Dr. Steven Platek, the action editor for this special issue, by 15 May 2007. All submissions will undergo peer-review and no contribution can be guaranteed publication in the special issue.

Download the official call for papers here.

All scientists and students of human behavior with an interest in applying evolutionary principles to an understanding of mind and behavior who from any geographical locale - but particularly from the Northeast (PA, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, and ME) and from nearby states and provinces (e.g., Maryland, Ontario, etc.) are encouraged to join. If you're interested in joining and coming to the NorthEast for our annual meeting, don't let geography stand in the way! England, Texas, and Washington State are, in fact, already represented!

This society is designed to facilitate interactions among scholars who study psychological questions from an evolutionary perspective. Given this relatively broad charge, we welcome scholars from multiple disciplines (e.g., anthropology, biology, literary studies, psychology, sociology, etc.) with a diversity of research and theoretical interests.

Initial conversations about the creation of this society have been warmly received by several established scholars (including, Rebecca Burch (SUNY Oswego), David Buss (HBES president), Rob Kurzban (Penn), and David Sloan Wilson (Binghamton University)). In fact, David Sloan Wilson has kindly agreed to give the keynote address at our first conference, scheduled for April 13 and 14, 2007, on the campus of SUNY New Paltz (mark your calendars!).

Proposed essay collection, "Erasmus Darwin and the Life Sciences"

As engagements with "Romantic Science" become increasingly varied and
complex, references to the life and works of Erasmus Darwin appear
with increasing frequency in a multitude of contexts. Similarly,
treatments of Darwin's connections to contemporary literary figures,
as well as reexaminations of his own status as a popular poet,
suggest that sustained attention to Darwin can further enrich our
understandings of the relation between poetry and science. This
proposed collection of essays seeks to examine Darwin at that nexus,
paying particular attention to the manifold ways in which he and his
works embody its complexities, problems, and possibilities.

Papers exploring any aspect of these issues in Darwin's works will be
considered; papers that go beyond reading a single text from the
Darwin opus are especially welcome. Possible topics may include, but
are not limited to:

Darwin and Evolutionary Thought
Poetics of Zoology and/or Botany
Darwin and the Lives of the Mind
Darwin Among the Romantics
Dr. Darwin as Popular Poet
Darwin and the Forms of Knowledge
Reading Darwin, Darwin Reading
Darwinian Inheritances and Legacies

Proposals should be approximately 500 words in length (no complete
papers at this point, please), and submissions should include the
author's name, affiliation, surface mail address, email address, and
a brief CV. The deadline for proposals is March 1, 2007; deadline
for completed papers (5500-7500 words with notes) will be July 1,
2007. Electronic submissions to James Allard at <jallard@brocku.ca>
are encouraged, but hard copies may be sent to:

James Allard
Department of English Language and Literature
Brock University
500 Glenridge Avenue
St. Catharines, Ontario
CANADA L2S 3A1

All submissions will be acknowledged by email upon receipt.

CALL FOR PAPERS:
"Narratology in the Age of Interdisciplinary Narrative Research" (2/15/07;
6/25/07-6/26/07)

Papers are invited for the Inaugural Symposium of the Center for Narrative
Research at Wuppertal University, Germany, 25-26 June, 2007.
The significance of narrative as a cognitive and communicative tool used to
make sense of the world by creating personal and cultural identities or
relating the present to the past and future is increasingly recognized in a
variety of disciplines, ranging from literary studies and linguistics to
anthropology, sociology, psychology, historiography and business studies, to
name but a few. The growing interdisciplinary interest in narrative and
storytelling, however, has so far not led to a convergence of theoretical
frameworks and methodological approaches: Far from developing a 'lingua
franca' for interdisciplinary discussions of narrative, the numerous studies
of stories and storytelling in recent years seem to have contributed to a
'Babelisation' of narrative studies. This situation raises a number of
questions which the contributions to the symposium will explore:

- What are the differences or similarities between (the analysis of)
non-fictional and fictional storytelling?
- To what degree have the various disciplinary approaches to narrative
acknowledged each other's findings? Do they proceed from the same premises?
- Can the terminology developed by narratological approaches to fiction
serve as the basis for an interdisciplinary lingua franca in narrative
research? Or is fictional narrative significantly different from
non-fictional story-telling?
- How can (literary) narratology benefit from concepts and methods proposed
by narrative researchers in other disciplines? Might the insights of
narrative psychology, for instance, help to further shape the approach known
as 'cognitive narratology'?
- Can 'narrative' and 'storytelling' function as 'travelling concepts'
(Mieke Bal), facilitating interdisciplinary communication?
- Is there any common ground between hermeneutic, narratological and
empirical methods of describing, analysing and interpreting narrative(s)?

We welcome contributions both from literary scholars and from narrative
researchers in other disciplines. There will be keynote lectures by David
Herman (Project Narrative, Ohio State University) and Bo Pettersson
(Department of English, University of Helsinki). Please submit proposals for
a 20-minute paper to Roy Sommer at rsommer@uni-wuppertal.de by February 15,
2007. Proposals should include both an abstract (150-250 words) and a short
biographical note. All submissions will be considered for a prospective
volume on the topic.

Prof. Dr. Roy Sommer
University of Wuppertal
English and American Studies
Gaussstrasse 20
D-42119 Wuppertal
Germany
E-mail: rsommer@uni-wuppertal.de