Home » Archives for January 2011

UCL Centre for Digital Humanities

UK Reading Experience Database – Workshops

Posted: 31 Jan 2011 10:54 AM PST

The Open University is launching the UK Reading Experience Database, which is an open-access database housed at The Open University containing over 30,000 easily searchable records documenting the history of reading in Britain from 1450 to 1945. The programme is as follow: Workshop 1: 'What Are We Reading' A Workshop for Librarians, Archivists and Information Managers When: [...]

Law & Humanities Blog

Conference on Law, Science, and Technology

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 11:58 AM PST

From Dr. Maksymilian Del Mar, Institut des sciences sociales, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, news of an interesting conference to be held in August.

The Congress of the International Association for Legal and Social Philosophy (IVR), to be held August 15-20, 2011, in Frankfurt, has the theme "Law, Science, and Technology." Dr. Del Mar and Dr. Randy Gordon are organizing one workshop on exemplary narratives and are particularly interested in interdiscplinary papers in the areas of law and literature and law and legal and literary theory. There will also be papers presented that discuss the role of exemplary narratives historically and in theological practices, particularly in Jewish legal theory.

Anyone interested can get in touch with Dr. Del Mar at Maksymilian.DelMar@unil.ch) and/or Dr.Gordon at rgordon@gardere.com.

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Medical Humanities Blog

Call for Applications: “On Healers and Healing: Exploring the Why, What and How of Medical Humanities Pedagogy” (Summer Seminar)

Posted: 27 Jan 2011 06:21 AM PST

We invite you to apply to a Summer Seminar sponsored by Hiram College's Center for Literature, Medicine & the Biomedical Humanities:

"On Healers and Healing: Exploring the Why, What and How of Medical Humanities Pedagogy"

June 7-10, 2011
Hiram College (Hiram, OH)
http://www.hiram.edu/excellence/litmed/ohh.html
(Application deadline: February 25)

This intimate seminar will engage fundamental questions about the reasons, materials and methods central to teaching in the medical humanities. Participants' conversations will inform the content of a forthcoming literary anthology, On Healers and Healing, along with a special issue of The Journal of Medical Humanities. Seminar discussions will be led by key figures in the field:

·         Catherine Belling – Northwestern University
·         Jack Coulehan – Stony Brook University, SUNY
·         Rebecca Garden – Upstate Medical University, SUNY
·         Anne Hudson Jones – University of Texas Medical Branch
·         Bradley Lewis – New York University
·         Allan Peterkin – University of Toronto

This seminar is being organized by Tess Jones (University of Colorado at Denver), Delese Wear (Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine), Michael Blackie and Erin Lamb (both of Hiram College). A more complete seminar schedule is available online. The cost of participation in the seminar is $475 inclusive of 4 nights lodging, breakfasts, lunches and 2 evening celebrations, or $300 exclusive of lodging.

This discussion-based and workshop-style seminar can only accommodate a limited number of participants. We cannot guarantee a space available for all interested applicants. If you are interested in attending, please complete the online application by February 25th. We will notify all applicants of their status by March 1st, and will arrange for official registration of accepted applicants shortly thereafter.

For more information, visit http://www.hiram.edu/excellence/litmed/ohh.html or contact Erin Lamb at lambeg@hiram.edu.

(h/t H-DISABILITY)

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Law & Humanities Blog

Call For Papers

Posted: 26 Jan 2011 12:15 PM PST

16TH ANNUAL UBC INTERDISCIPLINARY LEGAL STUDIES

GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE - CREATIVE LAW

May 13-14, 2011, Vancouver

Registration Deadline: April 1, 2011

Submission Deadline: February 4, 2011

The Graduate Law Students' Society of UBC invites graduate students in all disciplines to participate in its 16th annual interdisciplinary academic conference, to be held in Vancouver, Canada, on May 13-14, 2011.

THEME:

The theme for the 2011 conference is Creative Law. The conference is intended to promote reflection on "creativity and the law" in all the possible senses of that phrase: law and its interaction with the arts, including literature and theatre; innovation within the law and innovative uses of the law; the development of new law; legal postmodernism; new and distinctive ways of interpreting law; the relationship between law and religion; the application, adoption or appropriation of law in or by other disciplines and in a thousand other ways. We encourage scholars to critique or apply the law in new and unexpected ways, and in doing so to consider the field of law as one that is bounded not by the strictures of formal law but only by the creativity of the scholar interpreting or applying that law.

We also strongly encourage abstracts that approach law from a more traditional perspective, especially those that consider the ways in which traditional scholarship can respond to the creative impulses of law (and its practitioners), as well as the benefits and limitations of approaching law and legal theory from more traditional perspectives.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Proposals should include the title of the paper, a 250 word abstract, and the student's full institutional affiliation, e-mail address and phone number. Presenters should be current graduate students or have recently completed graduate studies (exceptional proposals from 3rd year LL.B./J.D./B.A. students may be accepted). Early submissions are strongly encouraged as participation is limited. In order to keep registration fees as low as possible, funds cannot be provided to assist with travel or other costs of participation. The general working language of the conference will be English.

Abstract Submission Deadline: February 4, 2011

Please email your abstract to:

Email: lawgradcon@gmail.com

REGISTRATION/CONFERENCE DETAILS:

Registration deadline and fees payable by: April 1, 2011

Conference Dates: Friday - Saturday, May 13 & 14, 2011

Conference Location: The University of British Columbia,

Vancouver, BC

The registration form can be found on the conference

website at:

http://www.law.ubc.ca/events/2011/may/registration.html

Conference organizers can also be contacted at:

Email: lawgradcon@gmail.com

Whodunit? BBC Plans To Answer the Edwin Drood Question This Year

Posted: 26 Jan 2011 12:12 PM PST

The BBC will offer an answer to The Mystery of Edwin Drood in a new adaptation by Gwenyth Hughes. The new version will air on BBC4 later this year.

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Medical Humanities Blog

Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science (SAHMS) 13th Annual Meeting: Program Available

Posted: 26 Jan 2011 09:49 AM PST

The Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science -
SAHMS- will be hosting its 13th annual meeting in Memphis, TN March 4-5, 2011 in the famous Peabody Hotel. SAHMS is comprised of a group of medical humanities scholars, primarily focusing on the history of medicine and science and is an international society, both in membership and the scope of its presentations.

This year's program contains some 60 papers, with topics ranging from ancient to current history of medicine topics, several sessions on history of nursing, history of pharmacy, military medicine, and literature and medicine. The full program and information about registration and hotel rates can be found at:

http://www.sahms.net/HTML/2011_conference.htm

__________________________________________

I have the privilege of presenting at this year's conference, and if last year's conference was any guide, the 13th promises to be a rewarding, productive, and collegial atmosphere for discussing topics related to the history of medicine and science (the latter is intentionally construed quite broadly by the organization, which is one of its strengths, IMO).

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Law & Humanities Blog

Legal Tomfoolery

Posted: 21 Jan 2011 07:27 AM PST

Angela Fernandez, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, has published The Ancient and Honorable Court of Dover: Mock Trials, Fraternal Orders, and Solemn Foolery in Nineteenth-Century New York State. Here is the abstract.

This article is about a fraternal order operating in the first half of the Nineteenth Century in New York called "The Ancient and Honorable Court of Dover." This group organized a mock trial, probably in 1834, to prosecute one of its members. A prosecutor was appointed and the President of the group gave a long speech. At issue was whether or not non-members could participate in the trial. After a description of these records and an account of their discovery, this article explains who the individuals involved in the trial were, Jacksonian politicians and lawyers with connections to the Custom House and the Tammany Society in New York City. It then describes what a "Court of Dover" was, asks about what the offence here was, and explores the connections between this group and the most famous "Ancient and Honorable" society, the Freemasons. It argues that the records of a group like this should be understood as a kind of "legal literature" that is best understood in relationship to the notion of "solemn foolery," a phrase that has been used in connection to the legally-themed theatricals at the Inns of Court.

Download the paper from SSRN at the link.

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Law & Humanities Blog

Jack Bauer and "24": Torture In American Culture

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 02:47 PM PST

Kate Kovarovic, American University Washington College of Law, has published Our 'Jack Bauer' Culture: Eliminating the Ticking Time Bomb Exception to Torture in volume 22 of the Florida Journal of International Law (2010). Here is the abstract.

After eight successful seasons on the air, Americans have come to trust Jack Bauer of 24 to get the job done. Regardless of the circumstances, Jack always succeeds where most men cannot; Jack can always find a way to break a terrorist suspect and obtain the exact information he needs to save the world. Because of this unrealistic portrayal of the successes of torture, Americans have also come to expect that Jack Bauer is not the exception, but the norm. The War on Terror has introduced a new legal theory to the American consciousness: that of the ticking time bomb exception. Despite the country's pledge to uphold the principles of the ICCPR and the Convention against Torture, more and more Americans are rallying around the ticking time bomb exception, which permits government officials to torture a suspect who might possess critical information regarding an imminent security threat. This paper seeks to convey that the ticking time bomb exception is strictly prohibited under national and international law, and to place the ticking time bomb exception in a more realistic context for the American public.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

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Medical Humanities Blog

Slow Blogging

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 08:07 AM PST

Blogging may be slow for the next few days, as I will be traveling to participate in a workshop on ethics and deep-brain stimulation in Bonn, at the Europaische Akademie.

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Medical Humanities Blog

Call for Papers - Charting the Bench and the Bedside: National Conference for Physician-Scholars

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 08:05 AM PST

Charting the Bench and the Bedside:
National Conference for Physician-Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities

Fourth Biennial Conference
April 16-17th, 2011
Chicago, Illinois

Held within the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) Annual Meeting.

The National Conference for Physician-Scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities is a biennial meeting of MD/PhD graduates and trainees whose work focuses on the intersections of the social sciences and humanities with medicine and health. The purpose of this conference is to provide a venue for MD/PhD graduates and trainees to share their scholarship; to connect trainees with established physician-scholars; and to foster dialogue and stewardship over the issues, work, and careers in which humanities and social science physician-scholars engage.

The coordinating committee invites you to submit an abstract of original research for presentation at our April 2011 meeting in Chicago. Research presentations will feature physician-scholars and trainees working in a wide range of disciplines. Preference will be given to research which seeks to integrate clinical and scholarly perspectives in a meaningful way, and which addresses the many articulations among health, culture, and society. We are particularly interested in highlighting the work of trainees and recent graduates, though we encourage individuals at all career stages to submit.

Presentations may take the form of a 15-20 minute talk or a research poster. Please submit only one abstract, indicating the format in which you would like to present. We ask that you limit your submission to 350 words, and that you specify your primary research question, your methodological orientation, and your general conclusions.

Those not selected for research talks will remain eligible for the poster session.

The deadline for abstract submission is February 1st, 2011.

Instructions for registration are available on our conference blog: http://physicianscholars.blogspot.com

We welcome your comments and questions via email: physicianscholars@gmail.com.

Call for Applications: Ferenc Gyorgyey Research Travel Award, Historical Library of the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University

Posted: 17 Jan 2011 07:05 PM PST

The Historical Library of the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University is pleased to announce its fourth annual Ferenc Gyorgyey Research Travel Award for use of the Historical Library.

The Medical Historical Library, located in New Haven, Connecticut, holds one of the country's largest collections of rare medical books,journals, prints, photographs, and pamphlets. Special strengths are the works of Hippocrates, Galen, Vesalius, Boyle, Harvey, Culpeper, Haller, Priestley, and S. Weir Mitchell, and works on anesthesia, and smallpox inoculation and vaccination. The Library owns over fifty medieval and renaissance manuscripts, Arabic and Persian manuscripts, and over 300 medical incunabula. The notable Clements C. Fry Collection of Printsand Drawings has over 2,500 fine prints, drawings, and posters from the 15th century to the present on medical subjects.

The 2011-2012 travel grant is available to historians, medical practitioners, and other researchers who wish to use the collections of the Medical Historical Library. There is a single award of up to $1,500 for one week of research during the academic fiscal year July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012. Funds may be used for transportation, housing, food, and photographic reproductions. The award is limited to residents of the United States and Canada.

Please note: The Medical Historical Library is currently undergoing a construction project that has required a large portion of the 19th century collection to be moved off-site for temporary storage. These materials are not available for research for the duration of this travel award. If your research requires 19th century materials please check the Notice of Collection Availability.

Applicants should send a curriculum vitae and a description of the project including the relevance of the collections of the Historical Library to the project, and two references attesting to the particular project. Preference will be given to applicants beyond commuting distance to the Historical Library. This award is for use of Medical Historical special collections and is not intended for primary use ofspecial collections in other libraries at Yale. An application form can be found on our website: http://www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/about/grant.html.

Applications are due by March 18, 2011. They will be considered by a
committee and the candidates will be informed by May 13, 2011.

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Law & Humanities Blog

New Television Dramas
The Critique of Law In "A Passage To India"
The Right of Publicity In Australia and Singapore
The Legal Interpretation of Art

New Television Dramas

Posted: 14 Jan 2011 11:03 AM PST

This January sees the premiere of two new legal series. "Harry's Law", which stars Linda Bates, premieres January 17 on NBC at 10, 9 Central Time. Harry is a patent lawyer, fired from her firm who begins again as a criminal law attorney. "Fairly Legal" stars Sarah Shahi and premieres on the USA Network on January 20 at 10, 9 Central Time. Kate Reed is an attorney working at her family firm who decides to become a mediator.

The Critique of Law In "A Passage To India"

Posted: 14 Jan 2011 10:58 AM PST

Allen Mendenhall, Auburn University, West Virginia University, Temple University, and Furman University, has published The Oft-Ignored Mr. Turton: The Role of District Collector in a Passage to India as volume 2, no. 44 of Libertarian Papers (2010). Here is the abstract.

E.M. Forster's A Passage to India presents Brahman Hindu jurisprudence as an alternative to British rule of law, a utilitarian jurisprudence that hinges on mercantilism, central planning, and imperialism. Building on John Hasnas's critiques of rule of law and Murray Rothbard's critiques of Benthamite utilitarianism, this essay argues that Forster's depictions of Brahman Hindu in the novel endorse polycentric legal systems. Mr. Turton is the local district collector whose job is to pander to both British and Indian interests; positioned as such, Turton is a site for critique and comparison. Forster uses Turton to show that Brahman Hindu jurisprudence is fair and more effective than British bureaucratic administration. Forster's depictions of Brahman Hindu are not verisimilar, and Brahman Hindu does not recommend a particular jurisprudence. But Forster appropriates Brahman Hindu for aesthetic and political purposes and in so doing advocates a jurisprudence that does not reduce all experience to mathematical calculation. Forster writes against the Benthamite utilitarianism adopted by most colonial administrators in India. A tough figure to pin down politically, Forster celebrates the individual and personal relations: things that British rule of law seeks to suppress.

Download the full text of the paper from SSRN at the link.

The Right of Publicity In Australia and Singapore

Posted: 14 Jan 2011 10:42 AM PST

David Tan, National University of Singapore, has published The Fame Monster Reloaded: The Contemporary Celebrity, Cultural Studies and Passing Off at the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 151 (July 2010). Here is the abstract.

The common law jurisdictions of Australia and Singapore often adopt a conservative approach to recognising newproperty rights, particularly with respect to the human persona, but courts frequently take their cue from developments in the United Kingdom. This article revisits the landmark cases in these jurisdictions which, in declaring that a property right in the goodwill of a celebrity may be protected against unlicensed commercial appropriation, use language evocative of the right of publicity. It examines howthe courts have expanded the passing off action to prevent the unauthorised commercial use of the images of well-known personalities. Finally, by adopting a cultural studies analysis that investigates the semiotic nature of the celebrity sign and its influence on contemporary consumption, this article offers a different perspective to the debate on the protection of image rights.

The full text is not available from SSRN.

The Legal Interpretation of Art

Posted: 14 Jan 2011 10:39 AM PST

Uladzislau Belavusau, European University Institute (Florence, Italy) and University of California, Berkeley, has published Art, Pornography and Foucauldian Reconstruction of Comparative Law at 17 Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 252 (2010). Here is the abstract.

The article inquires into a delicate and often prudish legal problem of erotic art in the paradigmatic dynamics of national law on obscenity and an ever-growing body of international law of cultural heritage. Pornography is a popular legal construction in distinguishing 'high art' from cultural practices, allegedly deprived of artistic value. Yet since when do we know what is the obscene or the pornographic and why do we outlaw certain narratives and visualizations from the realm of freedom of expression? This question remains ultimately vague in national law (predominantly embraced under the heading of boni mores, or 'public morality') and even more scattered in contemporary international law. The latter seems to silence somewhat uncomfortable and outdated developments on pornography of the early 20th century. Consequently, this piece is an attempt to trace the genesis and evolution of the legal interpretation of art in the dichotomy of freedom of expression and pornography.

The full text is not available from SSRN.

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Medical Humanities Blog

On Health Disparities & Inequalities in the U.S.: 2011 Report

Posted: 14 Jan 2011 11:05 AM PST

The Centers for Disease Control (U.S.) have released a supplement to their Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) series, a 116-page report entitled CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report -- United States, 2011.

This report is the first of its kind from the CDC, although the Foreward, authored by CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, notes that it is the first in a "periodic series."

I will likely have much more to say about this Report once I have had a chance to digest it in full, but the Report is obviously a must-read for anyone interested in health equity and the SDOH in the U.S.

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UCL Centre for Digital Humanities

Paper in the brave new digital world: A Painless Introduction

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 05:22 AM PST

The next event in the Painless Introduction series of lunchtime talks will take place on Tuesday, 25 January, in Room G31, UCL Foster Court, 13.05-13.50 hrs. Anne Welsh will speak on Paper in the brave new digital world: In this Painless Introduction Anne Welsh will discuss the impact of the computer on Historical Bibliography (the study [...]

New Year DH Open Forum: DDH 10

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 12:27 AM PST

Happy New Year! We thought we would celebrate the New Year with an open forum down at DDH. Do you have any burning questions about DH? I know I have! DDH Open Forum is an informal gathering of those curious about humanities, technology and everything in between. Anyone can share great ideas or projects they’ve working on, ask [...]

Medical Humanities Blog

Call for Papers: American Society of Bioethics & Humanities 13th Annual Meeting

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:13 AM PST

ASBH 13th Annual Meeting
October 13-16, 2011
Minneapolis, MN
Hyatt Minneapolis
Theme: Generation(s) and Transformation(s)

The theme for the 2011 ASBH annual conference --"Generation(s) and Transformation(s)"--invites participants to explore and analyze all aspects of the concepts of "generation"-from pediatrics to geriatrics, as well as generative and regenerative practices in medicine-and "transformation," from a focus on the changing landscape of healthcare reform to the development of cutting-edge technologies. The medical humanities and bioethics have themselves played a role in generating new ideas and transforming practices within healthcare. Further, both disciplines now have "generations" of practitioners, complete with such issues as generational change/conflict/collaboration and legacies. We invite scholars in the medical humanities and bioethics to submit papers, panels, and workshops that examine not only healthcare practices involving patients young and old, but also explore generation(s) and transformation(s) in light of policy implications, education of learners at all levels, and critical analysis of the disciplines of medical humanities and bioethics.

Here is a link to the guidelines for submission (PDF).

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UCL Centre for Digital Humanities

The History Blogging Project

Posted: 11 Jan 2011 04:02 AM PST

We have had this launch event notice forwarded to us by Yolana Pringle from the University of Oxford. This event is run by postgraduates for postgraduates, so it may be of interest to many of you. Details follow below. The History Blogging Project will be launched at an event hosted by The History Lab on Tuesday [...]

Medical Humanities Blog

On Evidence-Based Policy & Inequalities

Posted: 10 Jan 2011 08:35 AM PST

Over at the excellent Inequalities Blog, which has gotten off to a rip-roaring start, Ben Baumberg has a fascinating post entitled Why evidence-based policy won't tackle inequalities.

There is also some interesting discussion going in the comments, to which yours truly has contributed.

Recommended.

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Law & Humanities Blog

Semiotics, Law, and Copyright

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:18 AM PST

H. Brian Holland, Texas Wesleyan School of Law, is publishing Social Semiotics in the Fair Use Analysis in a forthcoming issue of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology. Here is the abstract.

This article presents an argument for an expansion of fair use, based not on theories of authorship or rights of autonomy but rather on a theory of the audience linked to social practice.

The article asks, in essence, whether audiences determine the meaning, purpose, function, or social benefit of an allegedly infringing work, often regardless of what the work's creator did or intended. If so, does this matter for the purpose of a fair use analysis based on a claim of transformativeness?

Section I of the article sets the doctrinal groundwork for an exploration of social semiotic theory in the fair use inquiry by exploring a few of the more relevant points of controversy in that analysis, including: commerciality, transformativeness, and cognizable market harm. Section II of the article focuses on transformativeness, a concept at the heart of the first factor inquiry into the purpose and character of a defendant's use of the copyrighted work. After exploring the prevailing conception of transformativeness, I propose an alternative – grounded in social semiotic theory – in which social value is manifest in the process of meaning-making that occurs as individuals and interpretive communities engage the work. It is in this process of semiosis that copyright's commitment to the enrichment of society can be best evaluated as a distinct question apart from the creation of new authorial rights. Finally, the pending case of Shepard Fairey v. The Associated Press is used to illustrate how social semiotic theories are applied. Section III of the article looks at how social semiotic theory might be relevant in an analysis of the remaining fair use factors: the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality used; and the effect on actual and potential markets. The article concludes that social semiotics is most helpful in terms of the second factor, the nature of the copyrighted work, with only limited application to the remaining factors. Download the article from SSRN at the link. Read More... Law & Humanities Blog