Transdisciplinary Conference, April 25th-27th 2013, University of
Mainz (Germany)
Keynote Speakers (confirmed): Chris Shilling (University of Kent),
Annemarie Mol (University of Amsterdam), Paul Stoller (West Chester
University), Gesa Lindemann (University of Oldenburg) und Martin
Dinges (University of Mannheim).
The human body as the subject of research still sits very firmly in
the grasp of the natural sciences. Nevertheless, cultural studies and
social sciences have put forward two fundamental insights on the body
vis-à-vis established biomedical knowledge. Firstly, both
anthropological and phenomenological approaches have delved into the
inner perspective of our inhabited bodies by viewing the ‘lived body’
as the foundation of all cognition and as the fundamental site of
sensory perception, personality, and subjectivity. Secondly,
ethnological and historical semantic studies have shed light on the
extreme variability of ‘the body’ subject to societal knowledge
regimes. Human bodies span an infinite plurality of cultural
classifications and historical discourses – a bundle of linguistic
categories, medical imaging, interpretation and explanation patterns.
Our natural scientific knowledge of the body is part of historically
and culturally specific ethnosemantics.
This conference proposes a third fundamental sociocultural way of
viewing the body, namely as a component of material culture. In recent
years the term practices has oftentimes been used to express this
perspective – a conception of human action and behaviour that places
controlled bodily movement at the centre of social life. As a part of
material culture the body is without doubt an artefact. It has limited
capabilities, is practically shaped by food, medicine, and
socialisation, and wears out through practical use. However, it is a
special material thing: it can learn, i.e., through usage it is
materially (re)shaped, disciplined, and is impregnated with habits,
and it can specialise in body techniques: instrumental music,
handicraft, sports, martial arts, and sex, to just name a handful of
such specialisation possibilities.
However, as part of material culture the body has another specific
quality: it is the fundamental and, even in the age of technological
telecommunication, the inescapable medium of communicative practices.
This holds true for its everyday use in linguistic communication – for
speaking and hearing, reading and writing – and for the unstoppable
display of visual signs through gestures, facial expressions, and
clothing, by means of which bodies are constantly depicting cultural
differences (e.g. gender, ethnicity, or status). Moreover, this
applies for the body in professionalised cultural practices – e.g.,
pantomime, acting, and dance – and for the specific interconnection of
disciplined bodies with telecommunication artefacts.
The conference aims to consolidate contributions of diverse
disciplines (e.g., sociology, history, anthropology, cultural and
media studies) in order to converge on possible answers to fundamental
questions regarding a sociocultural view of the body. What kind of an
artefact is the lived body? How many bodies does a human being have?
Which language(s), images, and practices were and are used in
pre-modern, modern, and post-modern times to evoke which bodies? What
is the communication technological potential of bodies? How does the
material body correspond to the perception of the lived body and of
‘mental’ activities? What are the variations that ‘marginal bodies’
bring to light: damaged, animal, dead, embryological, and engineered
(cyborg) bodies? Furthermore, cultural studies and social sciences
face a number of methodical challenges: How is it possible to capture
such a mute object as the body empirically? In which sign systems does
it present itself: do bodies ‘speak’ their own language? Is it
possible to access culturally different and historical bodies of the
past? What kind of descriptive language can be developed that is
independent of biomedical ethnosemantics? And finally, how can we deal
with the idiosyncratic bias in light of the fleshy mass in between the
ends of our hair and toes that we show a portion of the front side of
to each other at conferences?
Abstract submission (for papers of 20 min.): one page maximum until
January 1st, 2013 to:
symposium2013@socum.uni-mainz.de
The conference will be bilingual (English and German)
More information about the programme and registration will be
presented on our conference homepage by February 1st, 2013:
www.symposium2013.socum.uni-mainz.de
The conference is hosted by SOCUM, the Research Center of Social- and
Cultural Studies Mainz, and the Research Unit Historical Cultural
Sciences
Conference Organisation: Stefan Hirschauer (Sociology), Matthias
Krings (Anthropology), Jörg Rogge (History)
