Call for papers, travel conference (fwd)

[Francois Quiviger]

	OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY:  HUMANITIES RESEARCH CENTRE

	CALL FOR PAPERS FOR A ONE-DAY CONFERENCE ON:

	PATHOLOGIES OF TRAVEL

	SATURDAY 26th OCTOBER 1996


Travel has been represented as a blessing and a curse, as improving and 
wasteful: if the speed and ease of modern travel bring undreamt of 
opportunites for many, at the same time, the burgeoning transport 
infrastructure brings forth the worst excesses of environmental 
degradation and exploitation. Travel both demonstrates the health and 
stength of western technological and social organisation, and symbolises 
its deepest malaises. To view travel as evidence of a pathology is not, 
however, novel. Travel has long been associated with personal and social 
ailments and their remedies. The act of pilgrimage has carried the 
curative power of personal and national salvation across cultures and 
time. Exploration has sought scientific, medical and economic remedies 
for the social and technological ills of the western world. Travel has 
been a metaphor for regeneration that is at once personal, psychological 
and aesthetic. This conference provides an opportunity to bring together 
social and cultural historians, and historians of science and medicine.

Proposals for papers are invited from the disciplines represented in the 
organisation of the conference: Art History, History, Historical and 
Cultural Geography, Literary Studies. We would prefer papers to deal with 
topics within the 17th century to the early 20th century. The following 
themes are suggested, but others may be addressed:

Travel as an illness; Wanderlust and its discontents; Travel for health; 
Travel as therapy; Trends in medication for travel and prophylaxis whilst 
abroad; The 'Stendhal syndrome' and cognate phenomena; Exploration / 
expeditions / investigation of disease abroad; Illnesses related to new 
technologies of travel.

Proposals should take the form of a brief abstract, and should be sent by 
June 21st 1996 (or as soon as possible thereafter) to:

Richard Wrigley                          tel. 01865 483577
School of Humanities,                    fax. 01865 484082
Oxford Brookes University,               E-mail: rwrigley at brookes.ac.uk
Gipsy Lane,
Headington
Oxford OX3 OBP




	0xford Brookes University Humanities Research Centre 
	in collaboration with the Humanities MA Programme.