From a literary studies point of view, narratological questions arise that put forward for discussion the limitations of language and linguistic expression to represent subjective experience. Fiction frequently seeks to achieve a mimetic perspective through which a voice can be given to people affected by the disease. In order to imitate the inner sensibility of patients suffering from dementia, writers, for example, engage in aesthetic experimentation and try to visualise dementia by means of narrative fragmentation, syntactic transgressions etc. As a matter of fact, fictional narratives of dementia recurrently echo avant-gardist literary traditions and their critique of the restrictions of language; at times they even recall Romanticism and its inclination towards irrationality. In this way alternative modes of experience, which question the authority of solely rationally determined worldviews and the legitimacy of hierarchical value systems, are put forward for discussion.

Philosophical approaches address the status of the patients’ subjectivity with regard to theories of personal identity. They particularly address difficulties that evolve in the course of losing the diachronic unity of consciousness and the individual’s access to his or her own self. Beyond the complex question whether – and to which degree – people affected by dementia are considered as persons according to the traditional or extended meaning of the term, drawing conclusions from the aforementioned discourses on identity raises multiple ethical challenges. Hence, analyses putting into relation prior declarations of intent and subsequent patient decisions that are made in the course of a patient’s fading cognitive faculties gain considerable significance. Considering the relation between advance directives and the patients’ autonomy opens the field to in-depth discourses on dementia and autonomy. These discourses may address patients’ different ways of self-determination and the preservation of their self-respect.

The conference aims at contributing to an interdisciplinary exchange of diverse views on dementia and subjectivity. It is, among others, specifically interested in perspectives from the disciplines of philosophy as well as literary and cultural studies. What is in focus is an examination of the subjective condition of persons affected by dementia: Which means of conveying subjective experience exist and in which way are they seized upon by literature and the arts? Which narrative, dramatic, poetic or formal strategies do literary texts, movies, paintings, photographs and other works of art apply in order to represent the subjective experience of dementia? How can philosophers analyse the cognitive conditions of dementia patients, and which ethical implications could arise as a consequence? With regard to the increasing prevalence of dementia, what significance is given to the act of remembering an individual’s past as well as to preserving the collective memory and cultural identity of communities?

We invite papers which respond to these and related questions. Papers may address topics including, but not limited to:

– Dementia and person
– Dementia, identity and autonomy
– Language, aphasia and literary modes of representing dementia
– Media-specific modes of representing dementia
– Dementia and narrativity
– Memory and forgetting
– Subjective experiences of patients, relatives and caregivers
– Intergenerational conflicts and emotions
– Respect towards patients and caregivers
– Spatial aspects and subjective perceptions of nursing homes

The official conference languages are English and German. Please send abstracts of 300-400 words for 20-30 minute presentations, along with a brief bio-note, in a Word document or PDF file to the three conference organisers by 10 March 2015.

Dr Daniela Ringkamp (Philosophy), daniela.ringkamp[at]uni-paderborn.de
Dr Sara Strauß (English Studies), sara.strauss[at]uni-paderborn.de
Leonie Süwolto, MA (Comparative Literature), schultel[at]mail.uni-paderborn.de

The 7th issue of Cinema – Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image aims at discussing Poshumanism as a way to explore alternative understandings to both the Moderm/Humanistic and Postmodern views on the issue of Technological Images, New Media and Human and Non-human relations.

In the turn of the Millennium, Robert Pepperell’s book The Poshuman Condition and Katherine Hayles’ How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics launched a debate over the concept of Posthumanism. Despite using the term in diverse ways, both authors discuss the means in which Posthumanism tries to respond to what they considered to be the insufficient capacity of the Modern/Humanistic concepts of Human, Nature, Technology, Body, and Consciousness to cope with the developments taking place in tour technological information societies.

Ever since, trends of Posthumanism have developed in somewhat diverse, but complementary, domains of thought and practice, including Arts and Digital Media Theories, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Politics, Ethics and/or Value formation, Contemporary informatics, Biotechnology and Biology. Posthumanism has became a key term in contemporary academic debate about New Media, Technology, Cyberspace, Digital Images, Human Subject, New Materiality, Nonhuman Agents, Biotechnology and Consciousness. It has been proposing a revision of the Postmodern rhetoric of immateriality, disembodiment, and hiperreality of the late XX century, and proposing a new account of Technological Subjects and Objects, Body and Mind, Materiality and Immateriality, Nature and Culture, Human and Non-Human Agents, Technology and Biology.

In proposing this topic we are particularly interested in exploring the way Posthumanism critics the Modern Mind/Body divide, discuss the blurring of distinctions between the Human and the Technological; Culture and Nature, as well as its main perspectives on the interplay between Technological, Natural, Animal, Vegetal and Physical worlds.

Particular themes of interest include (but are not restricted to) the following topics:
• Posthumanism/Transhumanism/ Metahumanism/ Antihumanism/Nonhumanism: differences and convergences
• Posthumanism and Postmodernism
• Philosophical roots of Posthumanism
• Posthumanistic theories and authors
• Phenomenology and Postphenomenology;
• New Materialism
• Embodied consciousness
• The Modern Culture/Nature divide
• Erasing the divide between humans and machines
• New perspectives on the natural, animal, vegetal and physical worlds
• New Media Art, Bioarts, Body Art, Performance and the Posthuman
• Media Theories
• Digital and BioArt
• Humanity, Human Nature, Biotechnology
• Theology, enhancement, and the place of the Posthuman
• Biotech enhancement of the human
• Robotics, Cybernetics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and nonhuman actants
• Actor–network theory
• Technology and biotechnology impact on ethics and/or value formation.
• Ethics, Bioethics, and the Moral Status of the Posthuman and of non human agents
• Emerging Technologies, Posthuman Informatics and the Posthuman
• Dystopian/utopian literature on Posthumanism
• Popular culture and Posthumanist representations

The submission deadline is November 30, 2014 (for 500-word abstracts). Prospective authors should submit a short CV along with the abstract. A selection of authors will be invited to submit full papers according to the journal guidelines. Acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee publication, since all papers will be subject to double blind peer-review. Submissions are accepted in English.

Cinema also invites submissions to its special sections: interviews, conference reports and book reviews. Please consult the Journal’s web site for further details.

Please feel free to contact the Editor for this issue, Patrícia Castello Branco (ps.castellobranco@gmail.com), or the Editors Susana Viegas and Sérgio Dias Branco on general queries.

Registration for the Sexuality Summer School is open to all PhD and Masters students and will go live on 14 February 2014 at estore.manchester.ac.uk. The number of students is limited to 35 so book early to avoid disappointment. Price: £70 (early bird, until 14 March) / £80 (regular). Includes some food / refreshments and tickets to public events at Contact and the Cornerhouse.

The Sexuality Summer School is a five-day event for postgraduates, organized by the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture (CSSC) at the University of Manchester since 2008. The Sexuality Summer School brings together postgraduates, researchers and international scholars, and also artists and filmmakers, to facilitate dialogue and discussions that speak to contemporary debates in queer and feminist sexuality studies, with a particular emphasis on the interdisciplinary study of culture. In 2014, our focus will be on cultural theories and histories of anatomy.

The Sexuality Summer School includes public events (see below for details) with Jaspir Puar (Rutgers), Jim Hubbard (director, United in Anger), Richard Dyer (Kings), Valerie Traub (Michigan), Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver (Split Britches), Mary Bryson (British Columbia) and Chase Joynt (Chicago). The Summer School will also include workshops with Claudia Castañeda (Emerson), with Erika Alm and Kajsa Widegren (Gender Studies, Gothenburg) and members of CSSC at the University of Manchester, including: Jackie Stacey, Monica Pearl, David Alderson and Laura Doan.

The Sexuality Summer School is sponsored this year by the University of Manchester Faculty of Humanities; Cornerhouse; Contact; Screen; Science, Stroke, Art 2014; and SEXGEN.

For more information about the Sexuality Summer School, including details of previous events, go to sexualitysummerschool.wordpress.com, email us and get on the mailing list at sexualitysummerschool@gmail.com, find Sexuality Summer School on Facebook or tweet us @SSS_Manchester.

SSS 2014 Public Events (open to everyone):

Monday 26 May – 12-2 – lunchtime public lecture: Professor Jasbir
Puar (Rutgers)
Monday 26 May – 6-8 – film screening at Cornerhouse: United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (2012) followed by Q&A with director Jim Hubbard, Professor Richard Dyer (Kings) and Dr. Monica Pearl (Manchester). Co-sponsored by Screen

Tuesday 27 May – 4-6 – public lecture: Professor Valerie Traub (Michigan and Simon Visiting Professorship, Manchester). Co-sponsored by SEXGEN northern network

Tuesday 27 May – 7.30-9.30 – workshop at Contact: Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver in Green Screening: A Conversational Workshop (to book: http://contactmcr.com/whats-on/12873-split-britches-ruff/)

Wednesday 28 May – 8-10 – evening performance at Contact: Peggy Shaw in her new show: RUFF followed by ‘Ask the Doctor: Q&A’ (sponsored by Science, Stroke, Art 2014 as part of Action on Stroke Month) (to book: http://contactmcr.com/whats-on/12873-split-britches-ruff/)

Thursday 29 May – 5-7 – public lecture: Professor Mary Bryson (University of British Columbia) and Chase Joynt (Chicago) on Cancer’s Margins