Law and Humanities
Roundtable 2020
CALL FOR PAPERS
University of Southampton, Friday, July 3, 2020 Theme: Law, the Senses and Beyond
This second
annual Law and Humanities roundtable
invites original paper presentations on the relationship between law and the
senses, marking 250 years since the birth of Beethoven. Beethoven’s life and
music are marked by acute ambivalences towards political power (initially
dedicating his Symphony No.3 to Napoléon Bonaparte and then furiously
withdrawing that dedication upon learning that Napoleon had declared himself
‘Emperor’), and towards community and social norms (the composer was [in
Goethe’s words] ‘an utterly untamed personality’ who often found ‘the world
detestable’ but nevertheless joyfully celebrated solidarity in the choral
refrain of his Ninth Symphony – now the anthem of the European Union), as well
as by uncanny triumph over his own sensory deprivation in his later years. All
of these represent a timely provocation to scholars to reflect on how we experience
law, justice and power: about the role and limitations of the senses in this
regard, and the ways that law signifies beyond that which can be seen, heard,
touched, felt and smelled.
Therefore,
interdisciplinary humanities-focused paper presentations are invited for an
intimate roundtable event on themes that speak to notions of, for example:
- Law and acoustics: what can be heard, and not
heard, in legal proceedings?
- Legal
vistas, signs and symbolism: which aspects of law are conspicuous by their
visibility, and which by their invisibility?
-
Law and
touch: how does law physically touch us (roughly or otherwise), and
in what ways does it physically withdraw?
-
Law’s taste and its smell: is it the fine red wine on
a judge’s dining table, or the salt spray on a boat carrying undocumented migrants?
If you would
like to present a paper at this workshop, please send your title and abstract (up to 500 words) by Friday 13th December 2019 to David Gurnham
(School of Law, University of Southampton - d.gurnham@soton.ac.uk), Stephanie Jones
(Department of English, Southampton - S.J.Jones@soton.ac.uk), or Gary Watt (School of
Law, University of Warwick -g.watt@warwick.ac.uk).
Law and Humanities also
welcomes submissions of full-length articles, and the editors are happy to
discuss with presenters at this workshop how their piece might be worked up for
submission. Please note however that publication cannot be guaranteed since all
submissions are peer reviewed.
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