FINAL WEEK - Deadline June 15 2018
CALL FOR PAPERS
“Playful Encounters: Interdisciplinary engagements with play, creativity, entertainment, and fun.”
University of Nottingham Ningbo China, September 29th - 30th, 2018
Playful Encounters
‘Play is free movement within a more rigid structure’
(Salen and Zimmerman, 2004, p.304)
“… law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play.”
(Huizinga, 1980, p.5)
‘Any earnest definition of play has to be haunted by the possibility that playful enjoinders will render it invalid.’
(Sutton-Smith, 1997, p.213)
In the now classic Homo Ludens, Huizinga situates ‘play’ as the foundation of culture – the point from which all human structures, ideas, and societies stem. Sutton-Smith’s The Ambiguity of Play posits an equally broad scope, with ‘play’ encompassing everything from the imaginary, the development of individual identity and passing on of traditions through rituals, power-plays in politics and war, fate and games of chance, and pure frivolity and humour. The entertainment and creative industries are billion-dollar businesses, but Huizinga and Sutton-Smith imply that almost any aspect of human culture could be conceptualized as forms of play – and yet in so doing introduces great seriousness into such ‘games’.
While there is a wide variety of research taking place within various disciplines which explore the specific themes of this conference, interdisciplinary dialogue about play / creativity / entertainment / fun is more limited. Therefore, this conference aims to open dialogue between different approaches to ‘the playful’ in order to consider what valuable synergies might be possible between different areas of study. What can such conceptual lenses bring to disciplines which have not traditionally engaged with them, and what might particular disciplinary understandings of ‘play’ bring to the discussions going on elsewhere? How might various theories and practices around ‘play’ advance various disciplines which have not usually engaged with them?
Call for papers
We invite papers which explore our themes, or which offer considerations of the application of such concepts to the researcher’s discipline. Panels may also be proposed. We are particularly interested in non-traditional presentation formats and will welcome workshops.
Potential themes and areas
* Thinkering – Thinking through theories of play, fun, fantasy, creativity, ‘the play of ideas’.
* Playful Pedagogies – incorporating play into teaching practices, teaching creativity.
* Identity – Performativity, Persona, Imagined Communities, Imagined Geographies.
* Politics as Entertainment – The Comedic Turn in Politics, Social Satire.
* ‘War games’, dangerous games, dark sides of ‘play’.
* Mind and Body - Sport, health, games, and play
* Post-anthropocentric play – Animals, AI, and play
* Play-grounds – spaces of play, online spaces, games, theme-parks.
* Genres of Play – fantasy, magical realism, fiction.
* ‘Creative’ ‘Industries’ – capitalizing on creativity, entertainment and pleasure.
* Strategy, math, and predicting ‘chance’.
We encourage discussion within and between disciplinary areas such as: Media and Cultural Studies; Fan Studies; Celebrity Studies; Ethnographic Studies; Education; English and/or Literature Studies; Performance Studies; Games Studies; Digital Games; New Media; Mathematics; International Studies; Political Studies; Biology; Behavioral Sciences; Psychology; Design and Architecture; Philosophy and Critical theory.
Submission of Abstracts
Please prepare your abstracts following these guidelines:
* 250-500 words maximum
* Please include four to six keywords.
* Times New Roman 12 point, single space.
* Submit abstracts by the deadline by email to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
If you are outside of China and plan to submit an abstract and/or attend the conference, please use the above email address to express your interest as soon as possible to the organisers, who will brief you on the necessary VISA application process.
Key dates
Abstract submission deadline: May 31st 2018
Extended submission deadline: June 15th 2018
Notifications: July 15th 2018
Early bird registration opens: July 15th 2018
Regular registration opens: August 15th 2018
Conference: September 29th-30th 2018
Registration
Early bird - 1000 RMB
Student early bird - 600 RMB
Regular - 1200 RMB
Student regular - 800 RMB
Attendee (non-presenter) - 800 RMB
Student attendee (non-presenter) - 400 RMB
Keynote biographies
Professor Doris Cheng Pui Wah is the Acting Dean of the School of Art and Humanities of Tung Wah College. She was the ex-Centre Director of Childhood Research and Innovation at the Education University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong Institute of Education). Her research and publications focuses on early childhood curriculum and pedagogy including teaching and learning through play, the impact of play on children and the role and professional development of early childhood teachers. She publishes widely on early childhood education especially on the teaching and learning through play and is an advocate of play. Internationally, Doris has been active in promoting play. In 2004, she was invited to be an overseas consultant in a ‘Play and Learning’ project at the University of Cambridge, U.K. Currently, she becomes one of the core team members in a Global Research & Innovation Network on Learning through Play. She is involved in the Netherland’s NUFFIC project working with Bangladesh, Uganda and Tanzania.
Dr. Bertha Chin lectures on social media at Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak). She has published extensively on fan labour, anti-fandom and fan-producer relationships; is a board member of the Fan Studies Network; and co-editor of Crowdfunding the Future: Media Industries, Ethics and Digital Society (2015, Peter Lang). She is currently working on a book with Mark Stewart on appropriate fandom, and extending her research into coffee culture.
John Morreall (MOR-EL), Ph.D., is Emeritus Professor at the College of William & Mary. His ten books cover many topics in humor and in religion. The most recent are Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor (2009), The Religion Toolkit: A Complete Guide to Religious Studies (2012), and Laughing All the Way (2016). Morreall has done over 600 presentations on the benefits of humor in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Dr Hanna Wirman an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Design where she teaches game design. Her research focuses on marginal game audiences and on players' participation in game creation before and after release. Her game designs range from design for children with special needs to games for orangutans. Hanna served as the first president of Chinese DiGRA and currently on the DiGRA Executive Board.
Conference Venue
The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) was the first Sino-foreign university. It is located in Ningbo, one of China’s major ports and economic centers in Zhejiang province. Ningbo is a rapidly growing city, ranked in the top ten of cities for business in China by Forbes, it is a thriving blend of enterprise, culture, education, tradition and entertainment. It is well connected for national and international travel, for example, with Shanghai, Hangzhou and Hong Kong all less than three hours away (by train/plane).
Regards,
Celia
___________________________________________________________
Celia Lam (PhD)
Assistant Professor (Lecturer) Media and Cultural Studies
School of International Communications
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Room 329, Trent (AB) Building
The University of Nottingham, Ningbo China
199 Taikang East Road Ningbo, 315100
e: [log in to unmask]
t: +86(0)574 8818 0000 - 8453
w: www.nottingham.edu.cn<http://www.nottingham.edu.cn/en/internationalcommunications/staffprofile/celia-lam.aspx>
Recent publications
(2018) Personas and Places: Negotiating Myths, Stereotypes and National Identities<https://www.amazon.com/Personas-Places-Negotiating-Stereotypes-Identities/dp/0993993893>, WaterHill Publishing (edited volume)
(2018) Disassembling the Celebrity Figure: Credibility and the Incredible<https://brill.com/view/title/35653?format=PBK&offer=368089>, Brill (edited volume)
(2018) ‘Grant’ing a voice: the representation, activity and agency of Stan Grant<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2018.1432418>, Celebrity Studies Journal available as eprint<http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/MUUyhZ3cRwcrR22gn4Fr/full>
(2018) 'Representing (real) Australia: Australia’s Eurovision entrants, diversity and Australian identity<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2018.1432354>', Celebrity Studies Journal available as eprint<http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/MxumsteeDUfhyuxyqUpb/full>
(2018) 'X-Men bromance: film, audience and promotion'<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2018.1426026>, Celebrity Studies Journal available as eprint<http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ceJcT7M7aTDQK7cP49Y7/full>
(2017) 'True bromance: the authenticity behind the Stewart/McKellen relationship<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2017.1365615>', Celebrity Studies Journal
(2017) 'The function of hosts: enabling fan–celebrity interactions at pop culture conventions<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10304312.2017.1391177>', Continuum available as eprint <http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/u7EVZZDY9tukusXpDvBi/full>
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