2021 - Evil: Traditions and Transformations 3rd Global Interdisciplinary Conference

Both essentialist and contextual notions of Evil – the things we do as well as the things that happen to us – continue to be a stubborn and destructive presence in our lives. But what is “Evil”? What are the moral, political, philosophical, pragmatic, individual and global implications of calling something or someone “Evil”? What impact does that have on personal and social identities? How are concepts of Evil mediated and represented through different cultural forms? If ascribed too loosely is the intended effect of the term (whatever that may be) diminished?
Despite often repeated slogans of ‘never again’ and ‘lessons will be learned’, and in the face of all of the monuments, memorials, speeches and books designed to keep the ills of the past ever in our thoughts, the sheer savagery of the evils we are individually and collectively capable of performing is writ seemingly larger every day.
People increasingly feel we have entered a time of ‘big’ evil – actions and events which play out on national, international and global stages, using the tools and machinery of the state and supported by the deliberate and cynical manipulation of all forms of media. The re-emergence of slavery, the continued growth of trafficking, the apparent invulnerability of corporations and the unaccountability of political actors create a rising sense among us all of injustice, powerlessness, indifference, irrelevance, hopelessness, resignation and despair. In what ways are “old” evils simply being transformed to seem like new ones? Are there new ones? What role does tradition play in the persistence of “evil” (both conceptual and practical)?
How do people represent and contend with evils through artistic forms and other media? How are evils portrayed in fictional and non-fictional contexts and how do those types of representation impact our understanding of evil? Should evil be portrayed?
Our third meeting of this inclusive interdisciplinary conference will explore these ideas with a view to forming a publication to engender further collaboration and discussion.
Evils operate across numerous levels and layers, inviting responses from people from all disciplines, professions and vocations. This inclusive interdisciplinary conference will open a space for us to come together in dialogue and wrestle with questions that cross the boundaries of the intellectual, the emotional and the personal. Underlying these efforts is the sense that in grappling with evil we are in fact grappling with questions and issues of our own humanity.
Proposals are invited for presentations, papers, panels, workshops, readings, performances, screenings and installations on any aspect of evil(s), but particular attention to the notion of tradition and transformation, to the ways in which evils of the past are reimagined in different context, perspectives, cultures, forms, are encouraged:
Key Topics
Key topics, themes and issues for discussion may include, but are definitely not limited to:
~ The uses, benefits and disadvantages of using ‘evil’ as a label, description or classification.
~ Philosophical and historical theories of evil.
~ How (if at all) are the evils of today different from the evils of previous centuries?
~ Whose Evil? Naming and owning evil. The status and responses to actions considered justified by some groups and evil by others
~ Evil by name or evil by nature: Considering the use and implications of the rhetoric of inherent or culturally acquired evil in relation to social, political, religious and cultural issues
~ Evils, law and order (including immigration, asylum, human rights, slavery, trafficking)
~ Evils and Geopolitical issues
~ Evils in business and corporate environments
~ Evils, religion and religious movements
~ Evil and education/research
~ The anthropocentrism of evil and challenges to that (killer robots, evil animals, aliens)
~ Health, medicine, pharma, mental health, pain and suffering,
~ Technology and Evils
~ Anarchy, Revolution, Legitimate and illegitimate protest
~ The state and oppression; surveillance; privacy
~ Personal and Mass Violence (Genocides. Single Killings. War. Terrorism. Torture.)
~ News, fake news and misinformation: free speech
~ The physicality of evil – Otherness, the abject.
~ Response and Representation: how such evils are portrayed in visual media, storytelling, music, opera, ballet, sculpture, graffiti, street art, and other forms of art. Film, radio, television and theatre. Literature, social media, news and information outlets.