Deadline: 15 April 2011
Open to: any scholar interested, undergraduate and graduate students
Dates and Venue: 2-3 June 2011, Cracow, Poland
Fee: 30 Euro
“The Uses of Enchantment: Magic In Fairy-Tales, Myths and Stories” II IFSR International Conference
The conference is organized by the Institute for the Study of Religions and will take place on 2-3 June, 2011 at the Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland (in the Collegium Maius building).
This conference will bring together scholars willing to examine the topic of magical enchantment from the perspective of arts, literature, religion and philosophy, both in the past and the present. The conference invites proposals from academics working in a variety of disciplines: arts, humanities, social sciences and religious studies.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
– various theories of myth and ritual as applied to the notion of enchantment
– magic in fiction: from classic fairy-tales to magic realism
– systems of magic in role-playing games, video-games and popular culture as such
– the figure of a magician (wizard, sorcerer, witch, fairy godmother, etc.)
– creatures of magic (tricksters, guardians, sphinxes, magical animals)
– magical transformations of form and/or essence: its mechanisms, purposes and meanings
– magical items and artefacts
– evolution of magic spells: the importance of words, their rhyme and rhythm
– the uses of fairy-tales in culture, art and religion
Application
Scholars are invited to submit an abstract up to 500 words, accompanied by a brief bio to the following e-mail address: bajka@iphils.uj.edu.pl. The deadline for the submissions is Friday, April 15, 2011. The accepted speakers will be notified via e-mail by the end of April. We cordially invite undergraduate and graduate students to apply as we would like to foster dialogue between scholars with a variety of perspectives.
The conference supervisors are: professor Andrzej Szyjewski, Ph.D., and Maciej Czeremski, Ph.D., from the Institute for the Study of Religions, Jagiellonian University. Conference fee is 100 PLN or 30 EURO.
