CALL FOR PAPERS: American Association of Geographers
Boston, 5–9th April 2017
HISTORICISING THE MIND: Between conscious and unconscious states of mentation.
Paper session organisers: Hazel Morrison (Durham University) Felicity Callard (Durham University) and Des Fitzgerald (Cardiff University).
States of mind such as daydream, reverie, hallucination and mind wandering, are conceptualised as veering from conscious to unconscious levels of mentation. Today, they are understood in terms that emanate, among others, from psychology, psychiatry, biology, theology, philosophy, semantics.
Such liminal territories of mind/brain are often marked as the preserve of distinct disciplinary fields – such as that of the psychiatrist, the cognitive neuroscientist, the poet, the psychoanalyst, the priest – out of which are carved complementary, yet more often conflictual understandings of mentation.
This panel invites new insight into the historical-geography of mental states, such as daydream, mind wandering, hallucination and reverie, that permeate the boundaries set, among others, by Sigmund Freud, between conscious and unconscious levels of thought. We wish to explore how past literary tropes, theological discourses, anatomical discovery, clinical case studies, and scientific experimentation, among others, have guided past and present understanding of states of consciousness and unconsciousness that bridge such liminal territories.
This CFP draws on the interdisciplinary research project “Wandering Minds: Interdisciplinary Experiments on Self-Generated Thought”, funded by The Volkswagen Foundation.
Please send a 250 word abstract (max) outlining your topic for a 20 minute paper presentation (15 min presentation, 5 min discussion), to Hazel Morrison by October 15. We will review submissions no later than October 20.
For more information on the AAG, click here. Note that participants will need to register and pay for attendance at the conference around the time that their abstract is accepted.