Fwd: 1st Global Conference - Making Sense Of: Suicide

1st Global Conference
Making Sense Of: Suicide

Friday 5th November ? Sunday 7th November 2010
Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Papers
The conference seeks to examine and explore why it
is people choose, quite deliberately, to end their
own lives ? or why it is that people
value death more than they value life. Biological,
mental, medical, social, economic, religious and
other factors will be considered along with an
assessment of the contexts within which acts of
suicide take place. The 'meaning' of suicide will
assessed, particularly in relation to narrative,
cultural, and existential influences.

Papers, workshops and presentations are invited on
any of the following themes:

1. What is Suicide?
~ Naming, defining, and understanding the nature
of suicide
~ Is any act of self-destruction suicidal?
~ Assisted suicide and euthanasia
~ suicide as murder; as act of aggression; as
political attack
~ suicide as despair; suicide and self-harm
~ Is suicide ever a rational choice?
~ Whose death is it, anyway? Legal and judicial
concerns

2. Why? The Value(s) of Suicide or What is it Good
For?
~ Critical explorations: what positive value may
the concept and act of suicide hold?
~ When suicide becomes a lifestyle choice:
justification and rationalisation
~ Profound attraction and desire; the lure of the
abyss
~ The romantic fantasy of control; suicide pacts ~
The suicide bomber: going beyond the headlines
~ suicide and honour
~ suicide and protest

3. Resistance and Rehabilitation
~ Prevention and cure: treating the suicidal patient
~ Best practices; non-traditional treatment modalities
~ Cultural competence in understanding suicidal
ideation
~ Gender and suicide: commonalities and
differences in etiology, frequency, and treatment
~ Religion, religious practices and suicide

4. Suicide and Meaning
~ Representations, explanations and the critique
of suicide from the humanities and the arts
~ Suicide in popular media (music, film,
literature); the treatment of the subject;
judgement and stereotype
~ Cry for help or last word: exploring the
suicide note in fact and fiction
~ Suicide as an act of love

The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of
pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be
considered on any related theme. 300 word
abstracts should be submitted by Friday 28th May
2010. If an abstract is accepted for the
conference, a full draft paper should be submitted
by Friday 24th September 2010.

300 word abstracts should be submitted
simultaneously to both Organising Chairs;
abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF
formats with the following information and in this
order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d)
title of abstract, e) body of abstract.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain
from using footnotes and any special formatting,
characters or emphasis (such as bold,
italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and
answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do
not receive a reply from us in a week you
should assume we did not receive your proposal; it
might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to
look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:

Nancy Billias
Project Leader, Director of Publications
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
USA
E-mail: [email protected]

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
E-mail: [email protected]

The conference is part of the Making Sense Of:
programme of research projects. It aims to bring
together people from different areas and
interests to share ideas and explore various
discussions which are innovative and exciting. All
papers accepted for and presented at the
conference will be eligible for publication in an
ISBN eBook.  Selected papers may be developed for
publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details about the project please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/making-sense-of/suicide/

For further details about the conference please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/making-sense-of/suicide/call-for-papers/
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