A recent CFP that might be of interest to some on this list:
The Matter of Spirit: Plasma, Aether, Urstoff and the Emergence of German
Modernism (Deadline: 2/10/2011; German Studies Association; 09/22-25, 2011)
Nineteenth century Germany played host to a whole range of approaches
designed to conceptualize the material foundations of psychic functions.
Beginning around 1800 with Friedrich Schellingıs Naturphilosophie, and its
extraordinarily influential equation of world-soul with primal matter, the
interest in a physical science of spirit culminated, by the second half of
the century, in the invention of new disciplines like evolutionary biology
(Ernst Haeckel, Thomas Henry Huxley) and experimental psychology (Wilhelm
Wundt, Alfred Binet), which sought to study the empirical substrate of
mental life. The phenomenon did not, however, remain confined to the natural
sciences. Concepts like "plasma" and "aether," which played the role of
substrate for the scientists, soon also figured prominently in the context
of occult experiments (Albert v. Schrenck-Notzing), mystical theosophies
(Rudolf Steiner, Bruno Wille), philosophical speculations (Arthur
Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche), modernist poetics (Robert Müller, Thomas
Mann), and avant-garde media aesthetics (Raoul Hausmann, Laszlo
Moholy-Nagy). The panel seeks to explore the significance of this widespread
fascination with spiritual "matter" for the development of German Modernism.
We invite papers addressing topics including but not limited to: the impact
of Naturphilosophie on 19th century natural science; the reimagining of
"spirit" in the fields of experimental psychology and evolutionary biology;
occult "research" practices like spirit photography/cinematography; theories
of materialist monism and/or theosophical unity; aesthetic appropriations of
concepts like plasma and Urstoff; avant-garde reception of scientific and
occult models of spiritual matter.
Please send an abstract of approx. 300 words by Feb. 10 to Sarah Pourciau
([log in to unmask]), Tobias Wilke ([log in to unmask]), and Lisa
Cerami ([log in to unmask]).
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