Cfp: IGEL 2010, International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature and Media, Utrecht University, July 7-11, 2010.

Debate about the relevance of both the Social Sciences and the Humanities is getting more pragmatic and businesslike. The Dutch Government, for instance, stresses that these Faculties should focus on making their research more useful and work on making research findings available to society (AWT, 2007). In the United Kingdom we hear similar voices calling for valorization. In its response, the British Academy has warned against evaluating Humanities and the Social Sciences purely on the basis of direct and economic profit. But there is much deliberation about how to define the desired (direct or indirect) impact of alpha and gamma research. A number of scholars reflect on what the social purposes of university research and training should be; some wonder what kind of edification the Humanities provide, and speculate on what graduates of for instance literature might contribute to society (e.g., Nussbaum 1997, Paulson 2001). However, few of the claims are supported by empirical research. IGEL’s unique combination of members from the Humanities (e.g., literary studies, media studies) and the Social Sciences (e.g., sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists) makes it an excellent forum for exchange and cooperation to make our research socially useful. Some use it to work together on testing hypotheses formulated by literary theorists. Others explore the relevance of laboratory studies for complex stimuli like movies and literary texts. Still others study behavior within social institutes in order to inform other disciplines like literary history. Most of these studies have a valorization potential, some more implicit than others. During the 2004 IGEL conference in Edmonton, Sybil Moser made this issue focal point of a discussion in a session about the relevance of empirical research of literature and media to society at large. The 2010 conference follows up on that discussion, inviting keynote speakers and other participants to reflect on the practical implications of their findings, the potential of IGEL research in terms of what it could mean to people working in education, government, and NGO’s. Many of the conference contributions will pertain to studies that are socially relevant. Speakers will reflect on how to make results usable for organizations and individuals outside academia. The sessions and symposia will contribute to a better understanding of the potential functions of literature and media in society, what it means to the lives of individuals, how our research could help to enhance literacy and literary participation, how it might contribute to the conservation of cultural heritage, the accessibility and distribution of ideas, what our research could mean to literary education or to the understanding of learning and persuasion processes. IGEL invites you to send in suggestions for conference papers, symposia, and posters on the following topics and related fields: Literary reading processes (emotion, cognition, personality, etc.); The social role of literature and related media (e.g. film, theatre, Internet, multimedia, virtual reality); Literature and media from an evolutionary perspective; Early literary / media socialization; Pedagogical and educational aspect of literature and the media; The processes of literary/media production, distribution and reception; The role of literary and other cultural institutions: past, present and future; The empirical study of historical reception and historical readers; Historical reception studies; Digital methods of research on literature and the media (corpus studies, hypertext models, etc.). Visit the conference homepage here: http://www2.hum.uu.nl/congres/igel/papers.html.