The study of the emotions is a burgeoning multi-disciplinary field, with approaches to the topic ranging from scientific investigation into the biological mechanisms of affect to studies of the cultural constructedness of emotional experience to analyses of specific emotions like disgust. There has also been a renewed interest in political aspects of emotions, evident in publications such as The Politics of Affect (Brian Massumi), The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Sara Ahmed), and Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements (ed. Jeff Goodwin et al.). We are seeking proposals for twenty-minute papers exploring the politics of emotion for a workshop to be held through the Humanities Research Institute in September 2017. In order to stimulate discussion, the topic is meant to be interpreted very broadly, and we encourage submissions from all disciplines, from faculty members and especially from Graduate Students.

Papers might explore (but are not limited to) topics such as:

• The political uses of emotion (eg. instrumentalizing fear, doubt, indignation, etc);
• Sympathy, solidarity, and moral sentiments;
• Political rhetoric;
• The politicization of feeling;
• Political drama, literature, visual art, or film;
• Emotions and social media;
• Political enthusiasm and revolutionary spirit;
• Political and social “structures of feeling” (Raymond Williams);
• Historical, psychological, biological, philosophical, or economic, impacts of emotion in a political context.

Please submit proposals of 250 words to humanities.research@uregina.ca by 15 May, 2017.