INTERFACEing 2023
Changing Paradigms: Humanities in the Age of Crisis

1. Call for Papers

Every historic period has its problems, which from a current perspective are certainly seen as urgent and requiring solutions. However, from a historical point of view, it is evident that the course of history has its quieter and more turbulent periods. Evidently, we can already state that the times we are witnessing belong to the latter category. The optimistic vision of the “end of history” that was possible a few decades ago has been replaced by an awareness of a crisis that is manifold and has a global dimension. To old “chronic” problems, such as economic inequality and sporadic conflicts between countries, new ones have been added: a worldwide pandemic which has caused restrictions unprecedented in modern history, a great war in Europe which seemed no longer possible, waves of migration, and an ever-growing problem of global warming, to name just a few.

It is obvious that a significant part of these problems is rooted in the spheres of ideology, political philosophy, ethics, etc., which belong to the field of humanitarian knowledge. These problems are reflected in the media, represented in works of literature and art, and thereby influence public consciousness. In this way, the humanities are one of the important forces that allow us to formulate, realize, and outline ways of solving the urgent problems facing humanity.

The aim of our conference is to reflect on and re-evaluate the role of the humanities in the face of these global challenges. Papers may address general theoretical themes of the humanities, or they may deal with specific cases and works of art. In addition to papers dealing with the contemporary situation, we are also interested in presentations considering different historical periods.

“INTERFACE”, as a multi-disciplinary and multi-lingual journal, encourages scholars working in fields such as literature, philosophy, ethics, history, anthropology, art, geography, education, sociology, and cultural studies to submit proposals for either panels or individual papers. Topics for consideration might center (but are not limited to) around the following key questions:

• - literature and art in critical periods of history
• - problems of migration and their reflection in literature, art, and media
• - humanities and ecological thinking
• - media manipulation and post-truth
• - the role of education in dealing with global problems
• - political ideologies in literature, art, and media
• - changing relationship between man and nature in the Anthropocene
• - cross-cultural relations and the trend toward globalization vs. regionalization
• - multilingualism and the problem of minor languages

Proposals for panels should be submitted to ＜interfaceing2023[AT]gmail.com＞ by 1 April 2023.
※Please change [AT] to @.

Papers can be presented in any of the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian.

The conference will take place at Kobe University, Japan, from 25 to 27 September 2023. It is organized by the Graduate School of Humanities at Kobe University as an in-person conference (online participation is also possible).

Papers presented at the conference may be submitted for publication in the Special Topic issue(s) of “INTERFACE”, to be published in 2024 (subject to double-blind peer review).

The Kobe Organizing Committee of INTERFACEing 2023 would like to thank National Taiwan University (Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures), Trier University (Institute of Sinology), University of Bristol (Department of Classics and Ancient History), and Seoul National University (Institute of Classical Studies) for their kind support and cooperation in organizing this conference.

2. Instructions for Submitting Panel Proposals

We particularly encourage proposals for panels, with preference to panels that have an interdisciplinary approach (e.g. discuss situations in different places/times, or in the same place/time but from the point of view of different disciplines or subdisciplines).

Each accepted panel will be allocated 1 or 2 sessions of 90 minutes each (at least 15 minutes per session should be reserved for audience questions and answers). How long each particular presentation lasts is a matter to be arranged by the panel participants themselves.

There should be at least 3 presenters in a panel (1 session), and at least 5 presenters for a 2-session panel.

The papers presented in each panel can be in any of the conference languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian). There is no need for all the papers to be in the same language; but every panel should have a lingua franca, and care should be taken by the panel organizers to accommodate members of the audience that are only able to follow proceedings in the lingua franca (e.g. prepare handouts or powerpoint projections in the lingua franca that cover the main points of papers presented in another language).

Proposals for panels should be submitted by e-mail to ＜interfaceing2023[AT]gmail.com＞ by 1 April 2023. Use as Subject line: “Panel Proposal”, and include:
※Please change [AT] to @.

• 1. Name and affiliation of panel Organizer
• 2. Title of Panel (in its lingua franca and also in English if it is not the lingua franca)
• 3. A brief description of the panel (in its lingua franca, max. 200 words)
• 4. Names and affiliations of panel participants and their short CVs
• 5. Titles of the papers to be presented in the panel (in the language in which they will be presented)
• 6. Abstract of each paper (max. 200 words) both in the language of presentation and in English (if it is not the language of presentation).

3. Instructions for Submitting Paper Proposals

We very much welcome proposals for individual paper presentations of 25 minutes or less. The paper could be in any of the conference languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian).

Proposals for panels should be submitted by e-mail to ＜interfaceing2023[AT]gmail.com＞ by 1 April 2023. Use as Subject line: “Paper Proposal”, and include:
※Please change [AT] to @.

• 1. Name and affiliation of paper presenter
• 2. short CV of paper presenter
• 3. Title of paper (in the language of its presentation)
• 4. Abstract of the paper (in the language of its presentation, max. 200 words)