This project explores attention through literature. Join us in Galway, April 2024 for an international conference Mapping Attention, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Submit your abstract by midnight, January 19th.

Mapping Attention: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Abstracts are invited for paper presentations for an interdisciplinary conference on the theories, practices and beneficiaries of attention. Anxiety about, critique of, and interventions into the ‘attention economy’ are widely discussed in philosophical scholarship, educational theory and cultural studies. This conference, which is part of the AIRE Attentive Inquiry Reclaiming Environment research project, funded by the Irish Research Council New Foundations Award, aims to explore attention in three areas: theories of attention, practices of attention and beneficiaries of attention. This project, inspired by the shared focus on attention as a selfless gaze oriented toward reality in Weilian and Murdochian accounts, is creating a Community of Inquiry focused on Murdoch’s novel The Unicorn as a vehicle for thinking about home, environment and care. Reflections on, and results of, this research will be shared within the conference.

Submissions should respond to one of the three strands below:

Yesterday: Theories of attention

How should we understand, critique and conceptualise attention today? There has been a recent renewal of interest in inattention as a moral failure and attention as an aesthetic strategy, and a pedagogical approach. This opens up exciting questions about the possibilities of attending together, the potential political implications of attention and the value of attention as articulated by Murdoch and Weil.

Today: Practices of attention

In a post-modern context where technology is prevailingly present, what strategies of attention are needed? In this section of the conference, we are interested in how attention can be practiced in various contexts: artistic work, educational interventions and radical activism. Here, submissions of projects and practices from artists, educators and activists are welcome.

Tomorrow: Beneficiaries of attention

Who benefits from the kinds of enhanced sensitivity to and understanding of reality that emerges when we successfully attend: paper may focus on (but are not limited to) the natural world, children, marginalised identities and the effects of attention on our present and future selves.

This conference will include the launch of an exhibition of newly commissioned artwork alongside archival materials that explore Iris Murdoch’s relationship to the West of Ireland. This will open on the first evening of the conference.

Submission Requirements:

Please submit an anonymised abstract (max 500 words, including references) for review and a separate document with a brief bio (200 words), institutional affiliation and contact details. Abstracts shouldn’t be more than 500 words including references.  

The subject line of your email should be the thematic strand of the conference you wish to contribute to. Please submit your work to one strand only.

Send your submissions to: attention.y.t.t@gmail.com

Questions regarding the Cfp or research should be addressed to: lucy.elvis@universityofgalway.ie

If you are submitting creative work you may also include one high-resolution (max size: ) image or a video link where relevant.

Key Dates:

Deadline for submissions: Midnight GMT Monday 8th January EXTENDED DEADLINE FRIDAY JANUARY 19th

Confirmation of acceptance: Monday 29th January

Conference dates: Thursday April 18th* – Friday April 19th

*The conference will commence at 10am on the 18th