Emotions in Legal Practices: Historical and Modern Attitudes Compared
Holme Building Refectory, Science Rd, The University of Sydney
26-28 September, 2016

Enquiries: Pam Bond (pam.bond@uwa.edu.au)

This two-day conference at The University of Sydney, under the auspices of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, will gather academics and legal practitioners to debate their findings on emotions in legal practices and engage critically with each other about their perspectives on whether the law can recognise, acknowledge and encompass emotional responses. This conference aims to generate stimulating discussions between historians, legal scholars and legal practitioners who are working in the area of emotions in legal proceedings.

In addition to hearing from invited speakers, we are issuing a call for papers for a more novel session in which we ask for poster presentations of research accompanied by a 3-4 minute speed-bite presentation. The aim is to showcase, national, international and interdisciplinary research in a dynamic format. In addition to the speed-bite presentations, there will be plenty of time for presenters to answer questions on their research.

We therefore invite postgraduates, early career researchers and senior researchers working in the fields of history, legal studies, or who are legal practitioners, to submit a 200-300 abstract and brief biography for consideration to Merridee Bailey (Merridee.bailey@adelaide.edu.au) and Kimberley-Joy Knight (Kimberley.knight@sydney.edu.au) by 1 July, 2016.

Confirmed keynote speakers are:

• Prof. Hila Keren, Southwestern Law School, Los Angeles
• Magistrate Hugh Dillon, Deputy State Coroner, NSW
• Prof. Payam Akhavan (via Skype), McGill University, Montreal, Canada

In 2015, Justice Peter Openshaw urged the jury of a murder case in the United Kingdom to judge the case ‘coldly, calmly and dispassionately’ while, in that same year, Mr Justice Dingemans advised the jury of another young woman’s murder to arrive at their decision ‘without emotion’. In both cases the judges referred to the presence of emotion and drew a clear distinction between decisions arrived at emotionally and those arrived at dispassionately. Given the high profile nature of both of these cases, and the media interest that surrounded them, the judges’ instructions publically set out an image of the courtroom as a space where heightened emotions are present but also as a space where emotions should be set aside.

Today many assume that Western legal practice was historically embedded in the perception that upholding the law required dispassion and that undisciplined emotions could dangerously undercut the ability for judges and juries to make rational decisions. Emotion had no role in the creation, interpretation, reception, or practice of the law. However, in the last two decades there has been an ever-increasing volume of academic work by legal historians, philosophers, social scientists and legal practitioners that paints a very different picture of the role of emotions in the law. This work both questions whether this picture was true historically by investigating historical legal systems but it also looks to modern courtrooms and the role that emotion does and should – or should not – play there today. At the same time, there has been a much wider movement in the social sciences, humanities and cognitive sciences to acknowledge the importance of human experience and to understand emotion not simply as a departure from rationality. Legal scholarship has taken note of this and is increasingly arguing that emotions should be accepted as proper tools in legal processes and decision-making. Indeed, scholars of both law and emotion have shown that emotions do influence law (Bandes, 1996; Kahan and Nussbaum, 1996) and that law, in turn, influences emotion (West, 2014).

However, the case is not so clear-cut that legal practitioners and all scholars have increasingly accepted the legitimate place of emotions in legal disputes. Many historians and legal scholars may now recognise that emotions permeate and enhance legal decision-making but is there still a disjuncture between academic theory and the practice of the law? Has the pendulum managed to swing far enough into actual courtrooms and legal spaces? In 2010, Abrams and Keren noted how the study of law and emotions is often treated as a ‘novel pastime’ rather than an instrument for addressing practical problems. Why do those in the legal sphere often struggle to relinquish their rationalist premises? What is at stake in upholding one stance over another? Given the ‘emotional turn’ in scholarship, are we in danger of according emotions too great a place in legal practice? Are we dangerously privileging emotions as ‘right’ or sincere because they are ‘human’?

While the courtroom has been the focus of much of the work on emotional practices this conference will extend the investigation of emotions across legal practices to include the sentencing of convicted criminals and the parole process. The conference aims to stimulate genuine debate and encourage serious reflection on the enduring ‘problem’ of rationality and emotions. Our aim is for scholars and legal practitioners to bring their different disciplinary expertise to reconsider collectively the role of emotions in legal practices both historically and today and, potentially, to inform new legal policies.

Posters accompanied by a 3-4 minute speed-bite are invited to consider the following topics:

• how emotions have been seen and/or continue to be seen to complement or distort logic and decision making by judges, juries, legislators or citizens
• historical and contemporary perspectives on how people should behave in courtrooms, including evaluations about emotions and body language
• the empathy debate: empathy and anti-empathy
• the role of victim impact statements, past and present
• reflections on the role of the judge as a ‘rational actor’
• the gendering of emotion in legal theory
• ‘proper’ emotions in legal processes
• the role of specific emotions in legal practices including, but not limited to, anger, wrath, guilt and remorse
• disciplined versus un-disciplined emotions
• (how) can the law take account of emotions and remain consistent and fair?
• how far are we able to accurately judge and evaluate emotions and what bearing should this have on accepting emotions as part of legal rulings?
• should lawyers and judges receive training in approaches to emotions?
• non-Western perspectives on emotions in the law.

22nd Australasian Irish Studies Conference
1916 – 2016: Change, Commemoration and Community
Flinders University of South Australia (City Premises, 182 Victoria Square), Adelaide, South Australia
29 November-2 December, 2016

Under the umbrella of “Change” we envisage subthemes of creativity, rebirth, revolution, renewal, new departures, innovation and economics; “Commemoration” encompasses all the significant events in political, social and economic life and is particularly significant in 2016 when there is a spotlight on commemorating and celebrating the centenary of the Easter Rising, equally important are the events of the Great War; “Community” may include the diaspora, Irish language, religion, volunteerism, immigration, emigration, sport, cultural studies, literature, music, dance and drama. Papers can address one or more of these themes but those which do not will be considered.

Guest speakers include Professor Melanie Oppenheimer, Flinders School of History and International Relations, and Professor David Fitzpatrick, Trinity College, Dublin. There will be a publication in 2017 of selected papers from the conference.

Abstracts and expressions of interest should be emailed to Dr Dymphna Lonergan: dymphna.lonergan@flinders.edu.au and should be no more than 200 words in length. Please also provide your full name and that of your affiliated institution. The closing date for abstracts has been extended to 24 June, 2016.

Further information may be found on the Flinders Institute for Research in the Humanities (FIRtH) webpage: http://www.flinders.edu.au/ehl/firth/firth-conferences/22nd-australasian-irish-studies-conference/about.cfm

Art and War: New Perspectives
The Frick Collection, New York
16 September, 2016

The Frick Collection is pleased to invite submissions for Art and War, a symposium that will accompany the special exhibition Watteau’s Soldiers: Scenes of Military Life in Eighteenth-Century France. On view from July 12 to October 2, 2016, the exhibition presents a selection of Jean-Antoine Watteau’s little-known drawings and paintings of military life. In these works, Watteau eschews martial glory in favor of depicting more mundane aspects of life on the front: fatigue, boredom, simple diversions. Prompted by Watteau’s singular vision of war, The Frick Collection solicits 25-minute papers that consider the relationship between art and war in ways both direct and oblique, across all media, geographic regions, and time periods. We welcome a range of approaches that engage critically with the historical and theoretical problems posed by the relationship between art and war.

Questions to be addressed include, but are not limited to:

• What representational pressures and aesthetic challenges has war created?
• Where have artists located themselves in, away from, or after ‘the fight’?
• How can art convey the experience of war—not only the violence of battle, but also its impact on everyday life?
• How has art glorified, condemned, or otherwise commented on war?

What can we learn from examining this relationship in an age of perpetual war?

Please send a 250-word abstract and CV by Thursday, June 16, 2016, to Caitlin Henningsen (henningsen@frick.org) and Aaron Wile (wile@frick.org). Proposals from emerging scholars are particularly encouraged.

2017 Society of Architectural Historians Conference
Glasgow
7–11 June, 2017

The Society of Architectural Historians is now accepting abstracts for its 70th Annual International Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, June 7–11. Please submit an abstract no later than June 6, 2016, to one of the 32 thematic sessions, the Graduate Student Lightning Talks, or the open sessions. The thematic sessions have been selected to cover topics across all time periods and architectural styles. SAH encourages submissions from architectural, landscape, and urban historians; museum curators; preservationists; independent scholars; architects; and members of SAH chapters and partner organizations.

Please note that those submitting papers for the Graduate Student Lightning Talks must be graduate students at the time the talk is being delivered (June 7–11, 2017). Open sessions are available for those whose research does not match any of the themed sessions. Instructions and deadlines for submitting to themed sessions and open sessions are the same.

Submission Guidelines

1. Abstracts must be under 300 words.
2. The title cannot exceed 65 characters, including spaces and punctuation.
3. Abstracts and titles must follow the Chicago Manual of Style.
4. Only one abstract per conference by author or co-author may be submitted.
5. A maximum of two authors per abstract will be accepted.

Abstracts are to be submitted online at the SAH website.

A selection of sessions of particular relevance for scholars working on the eighteenth century are included below. See the call for papers for the full list.

Confluences, Connections, and Correspondences: Music and Visual Culture Conference
University of Toronto, ON, Canada
October 13–14, 2016

Conference Website

Keynote Speakers:

• Tim Shephard (The University of Sheffield)
• Joseph L. Clarke (University of Toronto)

The publication of The Routledge Companion to Music and Visual Culture in 2014 reexamined the diversity and breadth of interdisciplinary study of music and the visual arts, drawing together the various threads of scholarship that have emerged over the past two decades. The 2016 “Confluences, Connections, and Correspondences: Music and Visual Culture Conference” will reflect on the issues and questions raised by this significant publication. Drawing on various theories, methodologies, and frameworks, this conference seeks to bring together wide-ranging, multidisciplinary, and inclusive approaches to the study of these disciplines in conjunction with one another. We invite proposals for individual papers and themed sessions examining aspects of music, visual culture, and related fields across broad-ranging media, geographical regions, and time periods. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Art and music
• Art history and musicology
• Music and dance
• Music and drama studies
• Music and film studies
• Music and new media
• Music and painting
• Music and screen media
• Music and theatre
• Music in art
• Notation as visual form
• Performance and performativity
• Sound and architecture
• Sound and colour
• Sound and space
• Sound art
• Sound sculpture
• Spectatorship and participation
• Synaesthesia
• Visual communication

Proposals:

• Individual paper (20-minute presentation): 300 words abstract
• Themed session (90- or 120-minute session): 250 words introduction and 200 words abstract for each paper

Proposals and current CVs should be submitted to Samantha Chang (musicandvisual@gmail.com) by July 17, 2016. Selected speakers will be notified by July 31, 2016. The conference programme will be announced in August 2016.

Keynote Speakers: Tim Shephard is a Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Sheffield, Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Music, Gender and Identity at the University of Huddersfield, and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Music and Visual Culture (Routledge, 2014). Joseph L. Clarke is Assistant Professor of Modern Architecture (18th–21st Century) at the University of Toronto and his current book project, Reverberation: Sound and Architectural Modernity, 1750–1900, explores how acoustic research has influenced the spatial ideas and auratic pretensions of modern architecture.

Conference Committee: Samantha Chang (Chair), Lauryn Smith, Elizabeth R. Mattison