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CALL FOR PAPERS

 ‘The 21st Century Body Reloaded’

 Symposium

7-8th November 2013, London

Additional details to be confirmed shortly



Exciting developments in the life sciences and their application in
biotechnology are helping to provide pioneering cures and therapies for
inherited and degenerative diseases. Consider genomics and genetic based
therapies, neuroscience and neuropharmacology, ICT implants and prosthetics,
nanomedicine and the required socio-cultural accommodations to ageing and
you will see how the way in which we perceive ourselves and those around us
is slowly being recast.  As our knowledge and its application continues to
grow and expand, the range, scope and magnitude of what we are able to
achieve seems to be limitless.

Building on the success of last year’s event and the many positive and
encouraging comments from participants, this year’s interdisciplinary
symposium is convened in order to further build capacity as well as
consolidate existing scholarship on perspectives on the human body and
identity in the face of new advances in emerging technologies.

FURTHER DETAILS

Technology forecasters point to advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology
as an ‘enabling technology’ which opens up further opportunities when
combined with other technologies.  This “convergence” of new emerging
technologies therefore becomes a matter of great debate. This is seen, for
example, when advances in nanoscience converge with developments in
biotechnology, which also utilise developments in information technology to
capture and simulate human abilities using artificial intelligence systems
and, more controversially, cognitive science.  As the animal-human
distinction becomes increasingly blurred, it is plain to see the increasing
growth of human power over nature in all of its forms including traditional
and contemporary understanding about human nature itself. More than just
speculative science fiction, talk of brain implants and neural imaging,
cyborg enhancement and virtual reality simulation is suddenly becoming a
pressing reality.

At this time we are faced with a key question: what does it mean to be human
in the 21st Century? A series of identity crises emerge. Against the
backdrop of developments in ICT, and especially in virtual contexts we are
keen to ensure that our identities are protected and can be authenticated
appropriately, without fear of them being reconstructed by others. Likewise,
concern is expressed over the question of privacy and surveillance when we
encounter new forms of identifying technologies such as biometrics which
could challenge our freedom and dignity. As genetic and neuroscience
technologies evolve, they provoke and unsettle some of our traditional
perceptions of who and what we are.

It is envisaged that this symposium will contribute to the conversation on
this theme and by drawing from insights and ideas from across the
disciplines, the aim will be to chart challenges to, and changes in
perceptions of identity and the human body in the 21st century.



Some key questions this symposium will aim to address include the following:



●      Is human identity being transformed, redefined or superseded through
new developments in medicine and technology?

●      Do these new emerging technologies present as radical and
revolutionary changes to how we see ourselves (as is sometimes claimed)? Or,
are they in fact no different to their predecessors?

●      How are we to evaluate or assess the moral significance of these new
technologies to our identity as humans?

●      What does it mean to have identity and to be identifiable in the
21st Century?

●      Are new technologies helping to redefine what we recognise as the
human body? Are they in some ways helping to make the human body redundant?
If so, in what ways?

●      What are the social, ethical and policy implications of these
changes, both locally and globally, as we increasingly encounter the rapid
expansion of biotechnologies worldwide?

●      Is altering the shape and appearance of the body contributing to our
loss of contact with the body? How does this affect traditional ideas about
the mind/body distinction?





Suggested topics:



*	Ageing and immortality;
*	Artificial intelligence; the Turing test; machine understanding;
*	Artificial life; computational biology;
*	Biometrics;
*	Cognitive science;
*	Converging technologies (nano-bio-info-cogno);
*	Ethical and social implications of advances in emerging
technologies;
*	Genetics;
*	Human enhancement;
*	Implant technology;
*	Medical anthropology;
*	Neuroscience.

Organising committee:



Dr Yasemin J. Erden, Lecturer in Philosophy, CBET, St Mary's University
College, Twickenham   [log in to unmask]

Deborah Gale, MA, King’s College London    [log in to unmask]

Matt James MA, Director, BioCentre    [log in to unmask]

Aaron Parkhurst, PhD research candidate, Medical Anthropology, University
College London   [log in to unmask]

Dr. Stephen Rainey, Visiting Lecturer in philosophy, St Mary’s University
College, Twickenham     [log in to unmask]



SUBMISSION DETAILS

We invite submission of abstracts in the first instance, with a word limit
of around 500-750 words (maximum), and not including references. The
abstract should clearly outline main arguments and conclusions of the paper.
On the basis of these abstracts, the academic organising committee will
compose a short list of speakers to be invited to submit full-length papers
for presentation at the symposium, which will be held in London in November
2013.

All abstracts must be submitted through EasyChair (in a Word attachment;
without inclusion of personal details to allow for blind reviewing).

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=c21stbody-reloaded

A selection of successful papers from last year’s symposium were published
in a special issue of The New Bioethics: A multidisciplinary journal on
biotechnology and the body.

This year a selection of papers which are included in the symposium will
also be invited to submit copies for consideration to a special publication
on the same theme.

WEB LINKS

http://www.bioethics.ac.uk/news/Call-for-Papers-The-21st-Century-Body-Reload
ed-.php





IMPORTANT DATES




Tuesday 9th July 2013

Deadline for submission of abstracts to Easychair (500-750 word limit).


Monday 28th October 2013

Final version of papers to be submitted to Easychair


w.c. 4th November 2013

Symposium, University College London



CONTACT

 For more information on submissions, please contact the organising
committee directly.



THANKS

 The organising committee is grateful for the support provided by BioCentre
and the Department of Anthropology, University College London.










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