Norbert Elias, Emotional Styles and Historical Change
An Interdisciplinary Collaboratory

ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, Change Program
University of Adelaide, 14-15 June 2011

Conceptualisation | The Organisers | Program | Registration | Administration | Audio [restricted to attendees]

Conceptualization

This is an international Collaboratory on the historical development of emotional styles in Europe and North America from medieval times to the present. The meeting will focus on the seminal ideas of the sociologist Norbert Elias about changes in emotions and society in his The Civilising Process (1939) and his work more generally.

Besides making substantive contributions to historical knowledge, the collaboratory will address two important theoretical issues:

• What are the drivers of change in western societies' emotional regimes?
• What is the role of collective emotions in socio-historical change?

These questions have been chosen because of their intrinsic importance and their salience for sociologists and anthropologists, as well as historians and students of law, media, politics and religion.

The Organisers

Program Leader: Professor David Lemmings
David Lemmings is Professor of History in the School of History and Politics at the University of Adelaide and Program Leader in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. He is the author of Gentlemen and Barristers: the Inns of Court and the English Bar, 1680-1730 (Oxford, OUP, 1990), and Professors of the Law: Barristers and English Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, OUP, 2000), editor of The British and their Laws in the Eighteenth Century (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005) and (with Claire Walker) Moral Panics, the Media and the Law in Early Modern England (Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009). His English Law and Government in the Long Eighteenth Century: From Command to Consent is in press with Palgrave-Macmillan.

Associate Investigator: Professor Ann Brooks 
Ann Brooks was appointed as Professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies at the University of Adelaide in 2008. She is author of Academic Women (Open University Press, 1997); Postfeminisms: Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms (Routledge, 1997); Gendered Work in Asian Cities: The New Economy and Changing Labour Markets (Ashgate, 2006) and Gender and the Restructured University: Changing Management and Culture in Higher Education (with Alison Mackinnon) (Open University Press, 2001). Her most recent books are: Social Theory in Contemporary Asia: Intimacy, Reflexivity and Identity (Routledge, 2010); Gender, Emotions and Labour Markets (with Theresa Devasahayam) (Routledge, 2010). She is working on her latest book Emotions in Transmigration: Transformation, Movement and Identity (with Ruth Simpson) (forthcoming Palgrave 2011). She has also published in The British Journal of Sociology (2008); Sociology (with Lionel Wee) (2008); Cultural Sociology (with Lionel Wee) (2010); Gender, Work and Organizations (2011) among others. Ann has recently been nominated with Lionel Wee for the Sage Prize for Excellence and Innovation for the best journal article in Cultural Sociology for 2010

Program

Day 1, Tuesday 14 June 2011

Day 2, Wednesday 15 June 2011

Download the full program

Listen to the keynote speakers or session audio files [restricted to Collaboratory attendees]

Keynote Speakers

Barbara H. Rosenwein is Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago and visiting professor at the University of Utrecht (2005), the École Normale Supérieure (2004), and the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (1992). She received her Ph.D. degree in History from the University of Chicago. She is author of many articles and has written several books on Cluny, including To Be the Neighbour of Saint Peter: The Social Meaning of Cluny's Property, 909-1049 (1989) and Negotiating Space: Power, Restraint, and Privileges of Immunity in Early Medieval Europe (1999). On the subject of emotions, she is (among other things) editor of Anger's Past: The Social Uses of an Emotion in the Middle Ages (1998) and author of Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages (2006). She is currently working on a book tentatively entitled Emotions Past: A History, which argues that the history of emotions is best seen as a succession of "emotional communities" - - groups whose members share standards and norms of emotional expression - - some of which recede and others of which come to the fore (for various reasons) over time.

Anthony Elliott was educated at the universities of Melbourne and Cambridge.  He is currently Professor of Sociology at Flinders University, Australia, where he has served as Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).  He is also Visiting Research Professor in Sociology at the Open University, UK and Visiting Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin, Ireland.  He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia. His writings have been published in 17 languages.  He has lectured at about eighty academic and professional institutions worldwide.
The author and editor of over 20 books and 60 articles in scholarly journals, Professor Elliott's most recent books include Making the Cut (Chicago University Press, 2008), The New Individualism (Routledge, 2E,
2009 with Charles Lemert), Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction (Routledge, 2009), Globalization (Routledge, 2010 with Charles Lemert, Daniel Chaffee and Eric Hsu), Mobile Lives (Routledge, 2010 with John Urry) and On Society (Polity, forthcoming with Bryan Turner).  He is the editor of The Routledge Companion to Social Theory (2009) and The Routledge Handbook of Identity Studies (2011)

Nicole Eustace is Associate Professor of History at New York University. She received her B.A. from Yale University and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Passion Is the Gale: Emotion, Power, and the Coming of the American Revolution (UNC Press, 2008). She is currently at work on a study of emotion and political change during the outbreak of the first declared war in the constitutional United States: American Ardour: The Politics of Passion and Population in the War of 1812.

Helmut Kuzmics is Professor of Sociology at the University of Graz/Austria. He was trained in economics (Graz) and sociology (Vienna). He was Gastdozent  in Hannover/Germany (1990), Visiting Scholar in Cambridge/UK (1990/91), and he also taught sociology in Vienna and in Innsbruck/Austria (as Guest Professor 2006). His books include Der Preis der Zivilisation. Die Zwaenge der Moderne im theoretischen Vergleich (1989); Literatur als Soziologie. Zum Verhaeltnis literarischer und gesellschaftlicher Wirklichkeit ( 2003, with Gerald Mozetic); Authority, State and National Character. The Civilizing Process in Austria and England, 1700-1900 (2007, with Roland Axtmann). He is also co-editor of Theorizing Emotions. Sociological Explorations and Applications (2009, with D. Hopkins, J. Kleres and H. Flam) and currently member of the Science Council of the Austrian Ministry of Defence.

Sessions

The session audio files are now available for the Collaboratory attendees to listen to.

Session 1. Emotional Communities and Public/Private Emotions

1. Jennifer A McMahon, ‘The Aesthetics of Emotion: Pleasure, Communication and Community'.
2. Michelle Duffy and Susan Yell, ‘Mediated Public Emotion - Collective Grief and Australian Natural Disasters'.
3. Melissa Raine, ‘"Al the welth of sowle and bodi": Searching for Emotional Communities in Late Medieval England'.
4. Claire McLisky, ‘"He can take away your stony heart, and give you a heart of flesh": Exploring the Emotional Economies of Protestant Missions to Aboriginal People in Nineteenth-Century Australia'.

Session 2. Emotions, Gender and the Happy Life: Shame, Transgression and Public Sympathy

1. Sharon Crozier-De Rosa, ‘An "Uncivilising" Process: Fin-de-siècle celebrity, Marie Corelli's Use of Shame to Deny the New Woman's Unwomanly Aspirations'.
2. Joanne McEwan, ‘Gender, Shame and Changing Constructions of Female Violence in Eighteenth-Century London'.
3. Erica Millar, ‘Abortion, Selflessness and "Happy Objects"'.
4. Mary Holmes, ‘Emotional Reflexivity in Contemporary Friendships: How Elias and Facebook Etiquette can Help Understand It'.

Session 3. Taming the Passions: Catharsis, Politics and Citizenship

1. Lisa Hill, ‘Adam Ferguson's Sociology of Emotion'
2. Michael Woods, ‘From Masculine Virtue to Feminine Vice: Sectional Politics and Changing Views of Jealousy in the Antebellum United States'.
3. Lucy Potter, ‘"In fear and feeling of the like distress": Cathartic Emotions on Early Modern English Stages, 1584-1626'.
4. Carol Johnson, ‘Civilizing Marriage: Norbert Elias, Same-Sex Marriage and the State'

Session 4. Civilizing and Decivilizing Issues in the History of Emotions, Friendship, Violence and the Dark Side of Reflexivity

1. Peter Mayer, ‘Two Faces of Emotional Aggression: Comparative Reflections on "The Civilizing Process"'.
2. Sally Newman, ‘"The Freshman Malady": Rethinking the Ontology of the College "Crush"'.
3. Thomas Scheff, ‘Suppression of Emotion: A Danger to Modern Societies?'.
4. Carly Norman, ‘The Civilising Violence: Collective Emotions, Suburban Communities, and the American Dream in The Virgin Suicides'.

Registration

Registrations are now open. Please fill in the registration form and return to Janet Hart by 3 June 2011.

Venue

 Napier Building, North Terrace Campus,The University of Adelaide, Adelaide

Accommodation

Please note delegates need to make their own accommodation arrangements at the venue of their choice, not necessarily the ones listed below. There are several hotels and apartments within walking distance of the University of Adelaide. The following give an indication of price and facilities. Please book your accommodation as soon as possible to secure your preferred location.

Crowne Plaza
16 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide
www.crowneplaza.com

Mansions on Pulteney
21 Pulteney Street, Adelaide
www.questapartments.com.au

Mantra Hindmarsh Square
55 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide
www.mantra.com.au

Taxi Hire

Adelaide Airport is located approximately 8kms from the City of Adelaide, which takes approximately 15minutes by car. There is a compulsory AUD$2.00 charge on taxi's leaving the airport. The cost of a taxi to the city is approximately AUD$20.00

What to see in Adelaide

Adelaide is a beautiful city that has many interesting things to do within easy distance. Within easy walking distance of the University are such features as:

• Adelaide Cabaret Festival is on from 10 - 25 June 2011
• National Wine Centre
• South Australian Museum
• South Australian Art Gallery, Special exhibition by Patricia Piccinini from 26 April til 26 June 2011.
• Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute

Easy day trips include:

• Adelaide Hills
• Barossa Valley
• Glenelg - take a tram to the coast and browse in the shops, sidewalk cafes or enjoy the beach. 
• McLaren Vale

Important Dates

For Further Information

All enquiries can be forwarded to:
Professor David Lemmings at david.lemmings@adelaide.edu.au
or Janet Hart at janet.hart@adelaide.edu.au