Neolit Student Conference at the Faculty of Philology, University of Silesia:

Of Scholars and Studies: Representations of Knowledge


The conference invites papers on various cultural and literary representations of knowledge, of people who seek for it, as well as of the processes of gaining/constructing and disseminating it. This necessarily includes the temporal and spatial environments which serve as contexts for the formation and functioning of different types/modes of both socially sanctioned and socially suspicious knowledge(s). The discursive embeddedness of the idea of what counts as valid/forbidden knowledge often coincides with such notions as objectivity, matter of fact, expertise, discipline, rationality, evidence as well as with their binary opposites: subjectivity, conjecture, amateurishness, irrationality, intuition and speculation. In connection to the above notions, individuals and groups that aspire to possess and use knowledge very often have their social standing (privileged or underprivileged) defined by means of what they are supposed to know and not know. This may also lead to subversive uses of knowledge disturbing the mainstream status quo.

For further inspiration, we suggest the following topics:

- representations and attributes of scholars/researchers/scientists/experts in literature, film, and other arts in different historical periods
- continuity and change in defining/understanding the concept of knowledge(s) and/versus disciplines
- locations of knowledge: schools, universities, societies, libraries, laboratories, museums, etc.
- education and social hierarchies based on knowledge criteria
- technologies of disseminating and archivising knowledge (knowledge and the media)
- knowledge and material culture
- craft and artisanship (techne)
- forbidden and harmful knowledge
- scams, hoaxes and con men
- knowledge and secrecy
- knowledge and ethics
- alternative modes of knowing (intuition, precognition, premonition, forecasting)

Abstracts of papers, of max. 200 words should be forwarded by e-mail to: neolit@us.edu.pl Deadline for submission is 25 March 2013. Presentations should last maximum 30 minutes (including discussion and questions). Notification of acceptance will be sent by 30 March 2013. The conference will take place at the Faculty of Philology in Sosnowiec, 5-6 April.