CFP: Spies, Spying and Forgeries (a special stream of the 1st Global Conference on Deception)



Thursday 17th July – Saturday 19th July 2014

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom





Call for Presentations:

Proposals are sought for special streams of the Deception conference, on 

the themes of spies, spying and forgeries. The Deception conference will 

address artefacts and practices that challenge truthfulness, 

authenticity or reliability. Deception is practised in many forms and 

affects societies and individuals. This conference invites delegates to 

explore how deception is manifested in their discipline, or how 

multi-disciplinary notions of deception affect their field.



This special stream will address issues related to espionage and 

clandestine acts of deception. We invite participants to discuss 

examples from fact and fiction, contemporary and historical. Topics may 

include, but are not limited to:

● Disguises, aliases and identity theft,

● Fictional spies (in literature, film and television),

● Government, private, and industrial espionage,

● The ethics of espionage,

● Espionage toolkits, technologies and paraphernalia,

● Decoys, distractions and diversions

● Forged documents and manipulated photographs.



Possible examples could include fictional spies such as James Bond or 

Jason Bourne, famous spies such as Mata Hari or The Cambridge Five. 

Alternative subjects may include those who operate undercover for 

personal, professional or political gain, such as identity fraudster, 

Frank Abagnale, fictional fraudsters such as Patricia Highsmith’s 

‘Talented Mr. Ripley’, or as in recent reality televisions shows 

‘Undercover Boss’ and ‘The Secret Millionaire’. This is, of course 

closely tied into the subject of governmental surveillance and national 

versus individual security, as highlighted by the recent case of Edward 

Snowden. we also invite discussion of the social, cultural and 

psychological issues that arise as a result of such deceptions, covering 

notions of self in fictional or appropriated alternative identities, and 

the ethics of espionage, masquerade and deception.



  These discussions extend to deceptive objects and artefacts of 

deception: faked and manipulated images and videos, such as the removal 

of Jang Song-thaek from North Korean documentaries in anticipation of 

Kim Jon-un’s purge of North Korean officials; attempts to uncover 

forgeries, such as efforts to disprove the authenticity of photographs 

of the Cottingley Fairies, or the BBC series ‘Fake of Fortune?’; 

counterfeit fashions and designer goods. We also invite exploration of 

the ‘legitimate fakes’ of forgers including Han van Meegeren and Shaun 

Greenhalgh.



  The Steering Group invites proposals for pre-formed panels, as well as 

individual presentations.



In order to support and encourage interdisciplinarity engagement, it is 

our intention to create the possibility of starting dialogues between 

the parallel events running during this conference. Delegates are 

welcome to attend up to two sessions in each of the concurrent 

conferences. We also propose to produce cross-over sessions between 

these groups – and we welcome proposals which deal with the relationship 

between Deception and Childhood and Videogame Cultures.



What to Send:

Proposals will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word a 

proposals should be submitted by Friday 11th April 2014. If a proposal 

is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 

words should be submitted by Friday 16th May 2014. Proposals should be 

submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in 

Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in 

programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, 

f) up to 10 keywords.



E-mails should be entitled: Deception 1 Proposal Submission.

All abstracts will be at least double blind peer reviewed. Please use 

plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any 

special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or 

underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all proposals 

submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should 

assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! 

We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.



Organising Chairs:

Barbara Brownie: [log in to unmask]

Rob Fisher: [log in to unmask]



All proposals accepted for and 

presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for 

publication in an ISBN eBook.  Selected proposals may be developed for 

publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the 

conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates 

from the conference.



Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and 

professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend 

for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this 

commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation

For further details of the conference, please visit:

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/hostility-and-violence/deception/call-for-presentations/



Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we 

are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or 

subsistence.



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