CfP: Minds and Brains in Everyday Life - June 2016, IASH Edinburgh
Minds and Brains in Everyday Life:
Embedding and Negotiating Scientific Concepts in Popular Discourses
Symposium, to be held on 8 and 9 June 2016
The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Hope Park Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9NW
Call for Papers
The aim of this 2-day symposium is to enable an interdisciplinary
discussion of how the mind and brain have, historically and in
contemporary society, figured in everyday understandings of ourselves.
The symposium will address questions such as: How are the mind and brain
conceptualized, imagined and quantified in everyday life? How do
(neuro)psychological discourses influence the understanding of the mind
and brain outside of expert circles? How do these inform concepts of the
self, social practices and social relationships in fields such as
education, parenting, mental health and law? How do ideas of the mind
and brain figure in popular media discourses and with what consequences?
Finally, how can we use such analyses to reflect on historical and
contemporary configurations of humanity?
There are open slots for presentations by researchers from a wide range
of disciplines including, but not limited to, sociology, neuroscience,
history of science and knowledge, science and technology studies,
philosophy, arts and literature, and psychology. We welcome proposals
for 20–30 minute presentations.
Please send abstracts of up to 500 words as Word attachments by March
6th, 2016. Please include your full name, a short CV, affiliation, email
address, phone number, and the title of your presentation.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by March 18th, 2016.
Abstracts should be sent to the organisers:
Tineke Broer: tineke.broer@ed.ac.uk
Susanne Schregel: s.schregel@uni-koeln.de
Detailed outline
Throughout history, the mind, the brain, and the qualities that have
been ascribed to them, have fascinated scientists and the public alike.
While concepts of the mind and the brain are partly shaped by our
everyday experience, scientific debates have contributed much to our
understanding of cognitive and mental capacities. The rise of modern
psychology and psychological testing since the late 19th century for
instance promoted the idea that cognitive capacities could be possessed
to different and quantifiable degrees. The invention of the IQ in
particular contributed to the idea that intelligence could be measured
and quantified within a wider public. Furthermore, neuroscientific
discourses are being increasingly adopted in public life, and taken to
provide objective information about human development and capabilities.
This has already had tangible consequences for approaches to parenting,
education, mental health, and law, among others.
Not surprisingly, the configuration of everyday understandings and
everyday life (or, in a Foucauldian sense, of subjectivities) through
psychological and neuroscientific concepts has been a prominent
analytical and empirical issue across social history, the history of
knowledge and science as well as social studies of science, albeit in
different ways. The aim of this symposium is to connect these diverse
fields of study and enable joint discussions of how the mind and brain
have, historically and in the contemporary era, figured in everyday
understandings of ourselves. We ask questions such as: How are the mind
and brain conceptualized, imagined and quantified in everyday life? How
do (neuro)psychological discourses influence the understanding of the
mind and brain outside of expert circles? How do they inform concepts of
the self, social practices and social relationships, in fields such as
education, parenting, mental health and law? How do ideas of the mind
and brain figure in popular media discourses and with what consequences?
Finally, how can we use such analyses to reflect on historical and
contemporary configurations of humanity?
To enable a joint discussion, we particularly suggest five foci of attention:
1. Forums: A starting point of discussions about the mind and
brain in everyday life is the analysis of the forums in which such
debates evolve. This does not just imply the question of where popular
discourses around mind and brain can be found; we also need to
understand how knowledge about mental and cognitive capacities and
characteristics circulates between scientific and everyday
understandings, and the transformations of knowledge these travels
imply. Since the 20th century in particular, the relation between
science/psychology and the public has been highly mediated. For
instance, some of the major controversies around intelligence testing
took place in the (popular) media. In a similar vein, everyday
interpretations and practices around the mind and the brain today are
guided by popular publications and by policy discourses. We therefore
invite papers that scrutinise the forums of public engagement with
science, including the ways in which popular discourses may influence
scientific conceptualizations of mind and brain. Concrete examples of
such forums could be: newspapers, popular books, self-help literature,
letters to the editor, radio, talk shows, or parenting programmes and
policy documents drawing on (recent) psychological and neuroscientific
research.
2. Modes of speaking/modes of authorisation: A further question relates
to what kinds of publics are (co-)constituted within such forums, how
these publics engage with scientific discourses and with what
consequences, and in particular, what modes of speaking they employ when
discussing the mind and the brain. Modes of speaking could vary from
being objective through to being ironic, relating to modes of
authorisation or empowerment. In our view, addressing questions like
these may help to understand the relevance of discourses about mind and
brain beyond a simplistic model of top-down power, and beyond putting
citizens in the role of either ‘accepting’ or ‘rejecting’ scientific
discourses.
3. Imaginaries of the mind and the brain: With our third focus, we wish
to draw attention to imaginaries of the mind and the brain. How can we
speak about and make sense of the mind and the brain? What images are
available for scientific and non-expert discourses alike? Do citizens
draw on a dualistic understanding of the mind and the brain: for
example, are they mostly materialistic in their views, or do they adopt
yet another position? New brain imaging techniques and applications such
as neurofeedback (where people learn to influence their brain waves in
order to control mood or reach other goals) may be used in creative and
unexpected ways by people in order to conceptualise their brain, and
current sociological research has started to analyse these
conceptualisations in relation to different techniques. Psychological
interpretations have also given rise to certain social ‘characters’ such
as the ‘gifted child’ or the ‘underachiever’. Thus, discourses about
mind and brain link to culturally rich and complex ways of constituting
meaning, and we invite papers that explore such understandings,
metaphors and imaginaries.
4. Marketing minds and brains: Commercial interests have capitalised on
scientific and popular interest surrounding minds and brains, and,
particularly, the drive to optimise these. In the 1960s, for instance, a
bestselling book title encouraged its readers to ‘Know Your Own I.Q.’
(Eysenck 1962). Another publication in the 1970s called upon
particularly worried – or especially ambitious – parents to test their
children’s intelligence (Serebriakoff/Langer 1979). Not even pets were
spared, as books like the ‘Definitive I.Q. Test for Cats and I.Q. Test
for Cat Owners’ (Miller 1992) illustrate. Recently, so-called ‘brain
training games’ have attracted a large market of older and younger
people alike, in which the aim is for people to improve their ‘brain
age’. Hence, the profitability of cognitive and brain discourses is an
interesting, if controversial, phenomenon. It may lead to a range of
questions concerning, for example, the relation between science and the
market, products as a mediator for scientific concepts, and the way in
which these discourses and products can strengthen ideas around
self-improvement and remaining healthy.
5. The status of science, knowledge production, and everyday life:
Finally, we invite papers that reflect on the status of
(neuro)psychological sciences, knowledge production and everyday life.
Currently, scholars such as Brian Wynne and Nikolas Rose have argued
that science is simultaneously highly regarded and at times the subject
of public scrutiny and scepticism. Accepting, but also critically
engaging with this ambivalence, and looking at the ways in which
scientific concepts are negotiated by a wider public is highly relevant
in order to understand the complex relations between science, everyday
life, and subjectivities. We therefore encourage applications that
contribute to continuing debates on the political character of knowledge
and the co-construction of human subjects in and through knowledge
practices from an everyday perspective.
There are open slots for presentations by researchers from a wide range
of disciplines including, but not limited to, sociology, neuroscience,
the history of science and knowledge, science and technology studies,
philosophy, arts and literature, and psychology. We welcome proposals
for 20–30 minute presentations.
While our examples in this outline are mainly from the 20th century
onwards, the symposium is not limited to this time period, and we
welcome papers addressing previous periods, or even the future (e.g. by
using science fiction). Similarly, our examples are mostly situated in
Western Europe and the USA, but we would welcome papers discussing
configurations of the mind and brain in other countries.
Please send abstracts of up to 500 words as Word attachments by March
6th, 2016. Please include your full name, a short CV, affiliation, phone
number, and the title of your presentation. Notifications of acceptance
will be sent by March 18th, 2016.
Abstracts should be sent to the organisers:
Tineke Broer: tineke.broer@ed.ac.uk
Susanne Schregel: s.schregel@uni-koeln.de
The Symposium will take place in the Institute for Advanced Studies in
the Humanities Edinburgh. The Institute for Advanced Studies in the
Humanities was established in 1969 to promote interdisciplinary research
in the humanities and social sciences at the University of Edinburgh.
It provides an international, interdisciplinary and autonomous space for
discussion and debate.
This Symposium is funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh Susan Manning
Workshops, in memory of IASH’s former Director, Susan Manning, and the
EURIAS Fellowship program/Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions – COFUND
Pro¬gramme – FP7.
For more information, please see