The Society for Phenomenology and Media (SPM) is pleased to receive abstracts (200 words maximum) for consideration of inclusion in its 19th annual international conference. The conference will be sponsored and hosted by the Free University of Brussels (VUB), Belgium.

Proposals for 3-person panels are also accepted. These should be organized around specific media — for example: film, the Internet, mobile communication, medieval manuscripts, print media (books, newspapers, and magazines), stage drama, television, visual art, dance, etc. Panel proposals should include three papers, one of them by the panel organizer. Individual abstract submissions are assigned to a panel by the conference host.

The overarching theme of this year’s conference will be ‘Living in the Anthropocene.’ According to many climate and environmentalist scientists, we have entered a new phase in history: the anthropocene, in which the human (anthropos) has become the most influential factor, impacting significantly upon the earth’s atmosphere and biosphere – often in destructive ways. The notion of the anthropocene faces us with pressing questions concerning the status of technology, capitalism, industrialization, societal organization, and many more. At the conference, we want to investigate the anthropocene concept in the light of media – an underexposed angle up until now – and vice versa.

We kindly ask contributors to align their submission with the conference theme, but welcome proposals about all areas covered by the Society.
The Society for Phenomenology and Media encourages interdisciplinary approaches and theoretical diversity. Individual papers and panels need not be limited to phenomenological approaches. In the past, papers have come from diverse theoretical perspectives, including critical theory, cultural studies, hermeneutics, Marxism, New Historicism, post-colonial theory, pragmatism, semiotics, speech-act theory, and so on. Participants have come from a wide range of disciplines: philosophy, media studies, communications, psychology, history, political science, sociology, rhetoric, literary theory, cognitive science, cultural studies, and other fields.