Dear all please find details of a conference stream that may be of 
interest. 

Best 
Shona 

Call for Papers 

For Equal Opportunities International Conference, 1-3 July 2008 at the 
University of East Anglia, Norwich.

The conference will provide an international platform for exchange of 
knowledge across all strands of equality, diversity and inclusion at work

Stream: Fear, Shame, Anger and Pride: Emotions, Diversity and In/Equalities 
in Organisations

Whilst there has been a veritable outpouring of academic work on emotions 
in recent organisational theory, there has been very little explicit 
theorisation or research on emotions, feelings, affect and in/equalities in 
organisations.  This stream starts to address this relative gap by 
examining how recent social theory on emotions might help understand many 
different aspects of the operations of inequalities and equalities work in 
organisations. Drawing inspiration from the recent work of Sara Ahmed on 
the cultural politics of emotions, it explores issues such as: 

•	dominant group’s fear of minoritised groups’ anger; 
•	the so called backlash to equal opportunities by dominant groups; 
•	anxiety, nervousness, confrontation and defensiveness in diversity 
training; 
•	organisational diversity pride; leaders’ ‘passion’ for and 
commitment to diversity; diversity awards and the ‘glossification  
and ‘showcasing’ of diversity (Prasad and Mills, 1997, ); 
•	equality and diversity and white shame and guilt (Hunter, 2007) 
•	equality and diversity fatigue and weariness; the emotional labour 
of diversity workers
•	social, cultural, national and geographic conceptions of emotions 
and /inequalities 

The stream will provide a forum for empirical and theoretical work; work in 
progress; and social and psychological accounts of emotions but which move 
away from essentialising or de-politicising emotions.    

Track questions: 

•	How might recent work on emotions in organisations illuminate 
current thinking on inequalities and equalities in organisations? 
•	How might thinking on emotions enhance current ideas about 
diversity and equality interventions in organisations? 
•	How do emotional concepts and emotional practices vary across 
different national and cultural boundaries? 
•	How might transnational feminisms and anti-racisms helps us 
understand differing views on emotions and in/equalities and the work of 
diversity and equality workers?    
•	How might research on emotions develop understanding of how 
inequalities and equalities work/operate in organisations?

Submission: 

Abstracts should be submitted to Elaine Swan at [log in to unmask] by 
April 11th 2008

Key dates: 

Closing date for abstracts April 11th, 2008.
Final confirmation of stream due on May 20th 2008
Final papers to be submitted by June 6th 2008 for online publication 

Conference details: 

Papers are to be no more than 5,000 words in length. Paper presentations at 
the conference will be a maximum of 20 minutes long, with 10 minutes for 
questions and discussion. Data projectors will be available in each 
conference room.
Registration Fees: 

Registration fees for the conference will be £400. This price includes:
-	full attendance at the conference, 1-3 July 2008
-	accommodation for the nights of 1,2 July 2008 at UEA Guest Suites
-	all meals and refreshments for the conference, including the 
welcome function at the Sainsbury Centre, the conference dinner at the 
Cathedral, and either a cruise on the Norfolk Broads or a tour of Norwich 
Castle.
Registration will be available online through UEA Conferences.



Track chairs:  

Dr Elaine Swan, Lancaster University, UK 
Dr Valerie Stead, Lancaster University, UK
Sarah Proctor-Thompson, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Dr Kiran Trehan, Lancaster University, Uk
Professor Beverly Metcalfe, Liverpool Hope University, UK. 
Dr Diane Grimes, Syracuse University, US. 
Dr Shona Hunter, Leeds University, UK
Dr Deborah Jones, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand