Into the Woods – Call For Papers

The ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, Europe 1100 – 1800 – “Shaping the Modern” Symposium:

Into the Woods: An ‘Emotions and Environment’ Symposium
The University of Melbourne
22 July 2015

Confirmed keynote speakers:

  • Professor Stephen Knight (Melboune)
  • Associate Professor Linda Williams (RMIT)

Forests, and the stories we tell about them, often belong to our earliest memories, regardless of the amount of time we have ourselves spent in the woods. As Robert Pogue Harrison has suggested, the destruction of the the forest can be considered tantamount to the obliteration of cultural memories. This day-long symposium will consider representations of the forest in music, art, literature and history, from the Medieval period to the present day. Speakers are invited to consider the emotions associated with, and evoked by, the forest while also addressing the role of woodland and the imaginary.

Topics may include:

  • forest fires
  • forest adventures/revelry
  • the forest as sanctuary
  • animals and forests
  • conservation
  • forest management
  • climate change and the forest
  • settlers and forests
  • memory and forests
  • forests and fear
  • enclosure
  • deforestation/the endangered forest
  • forests and indigenous culture
  • ecology
  • woodland soundscapes
  • fairytales/folklore

Abstracts of no more than 200 words are required by 28 February 2015. You will be notified by 10 March 2015 if your paper is accepted. Please include a biographical statement of about 100 words with your submission. Please send proposals to: Into-the-Woods2015@unimelb.edu.au.

The Centre for the History of Emotions is grateful to the Romantic Studies Association of Australasia for partnering with us for this event. The RSAA conference, Re-reading Romanticism: Imagination, Emotion, Nature and Things, will take place between July 23-25, 2015. Further details at: http://conference.rsaa.net.au.

Symposium updates will appear on the CHE website at www.historyofemotions.org.au.