CFP: Deception

1st Global Conference: Deception (July 2014: Mansfield College, Oxford)

CFP deadline: 14 February, 2014

We have entered a ‘post-truth era’, in which, Daniel J. Boorstin notes, ‘believability’ has become an acceptable substitute for ‘truth’, and ‘manifold deceptions of our culture’ are difficult to separate from ‘its few enduring truths’. In this era, communities and individuals may feel routinely duped, cheated or betrayed. Though truth may be considered intrinsically valuable, deception may sometimes be useful or necessary. Sometimes there is pleasure in the spectacle of deception.

Deception is not limited to human activity. It is also practiced by animals, plants, diseases, and machines. It is an issue that transcends disciplines, affecting communities, individuals and objects

This inter-disciplinary conference will address artefacts and practices that challenge truthfulness, authenticity or reliability. Deception is practiced in many forms, affecting societies and individuals. It may be a vital survival tool, a means of gaining unfair advantage, or a pleasurable spectacle. This conference invites delegates to explore how deception is manifested in their discipline, or how multi-disciplinary notions of deception affect their field. Proposals for papers and presentations are invited on topics related to, but not limited to:

False Identities:
- disguises
- costumes and masquerade
- aliases and pseudonyms
- anonymity

Illusions:
- virtual reality and simulated worlds
- trompe l’oeil, and optical or perceptual illusions
- theatrical and dramatic illusions
- mirrors and architectural illusions
- camouflage

Fakes and Forgeries:
- false signs of authenticity
- the lives and practices of forgers
- hoaxes
- red herrings and decoys

Betrayal:
- whistleblowers and defectors
- trust and distrust
- infidelity
- fractured expectations

Dishonest Media:
- photo-manipulation and retouching
- ‘black’ propaganda
- plagiarism
- misrepresentation

Possible examples of some of the above are seen in, but not limited to: The V&A’s recent ‘Fakes and Forgeries’ exhibition, featuring the collected works of forger Shaun Greenhalgh/ Manipulation of photographs by North Korean government agencies/ Adult chat-room users masquerading as children (and sometimes posing as a different gender)/ The ‘Geezer Bandit’, an apparently elderly gentleman who robbed 16 banks in California and was later revealed as a much younger man wearing a prosthetic mask/ J.K.Rowling’s use of a pseudonym for her novel ‘Cukoo’s Calling’.

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

What to Send
Proposals will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word a proposals should be submitted by Friday 14th February 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.

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: b.k.1.brownie@herts.ac.uk
Rob Fisher: decep1@inter-disciplinary.net

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.

For further details of the conference, please visit:

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