Travelling, Transmission and Transgression - International Interdisciplinary Conference on February 13-14, 2025 in Gdańsk, Poland

ABOUT CONFERENCE:

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          Experiencing one’s life as a perpetual change rather than something constant has become more and more frequent in the contemporary world. Travelling has gained new dimensions – it is no longer associated merely with tourism, but it often turns out to be a way of life or even a figure of human condition. The homo viator of our times intentionally moves from country to country, rents apartments and does not posses one, changes his or her occupations and work places, meets still new people and is generally well trained in being flexible, mobile, and open to metamorphoses. Travelling, in its both literal and metaphorical meaning, has much to do with transmission and transgression as it enables crossing the geographical, physical, cultural, social, and psychological borders. During our conference, we would like to discuss all these – and many other – aspects of travelling and transgressive experiences.​

           We want to describe those phenomena in their multifarious aspects: psychological, social, historical, cultural, philosophical, religious, political, and many others. We also want to devote considerable attention to how they appear in artistic practices: literature, film, theatre, or visual arts. That is why we invite researchers representing various academic disciplines, such as anthropology, history, psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology, politics, philosophy, literary studies, theatre studies, film studies, memory studies, gender studies, and postcolonial studies.​

           Different forms of presentations are encouraged, including case studies, theoretical investigations, problem-oriented arguments, and comparative analyses.​

            We will be happy to hear from both experienced scholars and young academics at the beginning of their careers as well as doctoral and graduate students. We also invite all persons interested in participating in the conference as listeners, without giving a presentation.

            We hope that due to its interdisciplinary nature, the conference will bring many interesting observations on and discussions about the role of travelling, transmission, and transgression in the past and in the present-day world.

            Our repertoire of suggested topics includes but is not restricted to:

I. Individual experiences

Travelling as a distraction

Travelling and tourism

Travelling as a way of life

Living in between

Liminal spaces

Limit situations

Transgressive experiences

Borderline personality

Travelling and cognition

Travelling and education

Travelling and spiritual growth

Solo travelling

Travelling and family life

II. Collective experiences

Travelling and multiculturalism

Transmission of cultural values

Travelling and tolerance

Travelling and xenophobia

Transgressive identity of societies

Travelling and migration

Forced travelling

Travelling and economy

Travelling and job market

III. Pandemic experiences

Travelling in the time of COVID-19

Isolation

Social distance

Motionlessness

Transmission of the virus

IV. Past experiences

History of travelling and tourism

Known travellers

Travelling and geographical discoveries

Travelling and colonialism

Travelling and time

V. Artistic experiences

Travel diaries

Travel as a literary motif

Travelling in Bildungsroman

Road movies

Travelling in the media

Travelling artists

Touring theatres

Touring exhibitions

Travel guidebooks

Please submit abstracts (no longer than 300 words) of your proposed 20-minute presentations, together with a short biographical note, by 25 January 2025 to: [email protected]