Call for Papers
ISAA 2022 National Conference
National Library of Australia, Thursday 22 – Friday 23 September 2022
Conference Theme: Crossing Boundaries
One of the things that makes ISAA standout as an organisation is that its membership is made of scholars from a wide variety of fields in the arts, humanities and sciences. ISAA members are aware that there is both interest and value in crossing over the boundaries of the disciplines.
As early as 1959 C P Snow (scientist and novelist) gave his lecture on 'The Two Cultures’ where he maintained that science and the humanities which represented "the intellectual life of the whole of western society" had become split into 'two cultures' and that this division was a major handicap to both. More recently Judith Brett, in: ‘Doing Politics. Writing on Public Life’ (Text Publishing, 2021). laments the ’turf wars’ that have sprung up isolating and alienating subjects in the sciences and the humanities.
Here are a few examples to consider in ‘crossing boundaries’ but just as often it takes someone special to realise that what was considered a ‘boundary’ does not actually exist.
- Ann Moyal’s innovative book on the platypus showed how the growth of scientific knowledge interacted with historical and cultural presuppositions;
- there is a strong visual aspect in the understanding of organic chemistry
- music and mathematics have links which have been explored from Bach to Schoenberg.
- some astronomers ask fundamental questions about life.
- Some areas have intricate connections, often not acknowledged, across disciplines: at various times law, philosophy, ethics, and theology have had points of intersection. And where do various forms of psychology with their different pre-suppositions fit in?
- Music is an area where there are apparently clear boundaries, such as ‘Baroque’ or ‘Hillbilly’ but there are just as many forms where ‘folk’ is brought into classical or Rap into the Musical as is the case for ‘Hamilton’.
- Under what conditions are boundaries, like those on sexual practices, broken down and under what conditions could they be re-imposed?
Submitting Abstracts
Abstracts of 100 words should be submitted to Ian Keese, email keeseian@gmail.com by Friday June 24. If you are in doubt about whether your topic meets the theme, please feel free to contact Ian
These abstracts will be considered by a committee and decisions made as soon as possible after the closing date. To provide opportunities for as many members as possible, where there are more papers than spaces in the program, preference will be given to those who have not recently presented a paper.