PGR/ECR Symposium

28th June 2018

Newcastle University

Keynote Speaker: Dr Caroline Sumpter, QUB

The Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860s were a turning point in nineteenth-century state sanctions regarding morality. From this decade, public debates about the boundaries of morality in the United Kingdom, and the role of state intervention, underwent profound changes through the later nineteenth century, and the nation’s involvement in conflicts of the twentieth century. This symposium considers the boundaries of morality – in relation to sex, death, disease and conflict – and the role of state sanction or intervention from the Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860s through to the abolition of capital punishment in the 1960s.

This one-day interdisciplinary symposium invites papers that interrogate boundaries of moral values in themes and contexts of sex, death, disease, and conflict; the fluidity of moral boundaries in different contexts and spaces, including physical and textual; and evolving gendered definitions of moral boundaries. These subjects include considerations of social and cultural constructions of morality, portrayals of moral boundaries in fiction and other media, and legislative developments in moral attitudes. We welcome papers from those working in the fields of Literature, History, Politics, Law, Film, Media, Geography, Sociology, and Gender Studies.

There is no attendance fee, and lunch will be provided. The event is particularly aimed at postgraduate and early career researchers.

Please send abstracts of 250 words for 20-minute papers to morality.symposium.ncl@gmail.com by Friday 30th March 2018.

This event is supported by funding from Newcastle University Gender Research Group.