Call
for Papers
International
Society for the Study of Time (ISST)
Eighteenth
Triennial Conference
June
26-July 1, 2022 / Yamaguchi, Japan
Time
and Measure
Proposals
(300 words) due by August 15, 2021
The
ISST, renowned for its interdisciplinary scope, invites scientists,
scholars, artists and practitioners to explore questions concerning
Time
and Measure
at its 18th
Triennial Conference to be held in collaboration with the Japanese Society for Time Studies (JSTS) and the Research
Institute of Time Studies (RITS) at Yamaguchi University in
South-Western Japan. Our format of plenary presentations delivered
over four days creates a sustained discussion among participants. We
thus expect participants to register for the entirety of the
conference. We shall take a day off mid-conference and provide
participants a choice of time-related excursions in the Yamaguchi
area, the site of crucial events at various turning points in
Japanese history .
Because
of worldwide uncertainty brought about by the pandemic, we shall be
considering whether and how we may allow for online conference
participation. Further information will follow.
For
its 2022 Triennial, the ISST wishes to instigate discussion of all
the kinds of temporal measure—both quantitative and
qualitative—which are the work of our different professional
disciplines and some of which may also prove to be
cross-disciplinary. When asked about time and its measure, most
people would think of clocks: an even progression of numbers. This
view goes back to Aristotle’s definition of time (in Physics
IV)
as “the count [arithmos]
of changing in respect of before and after.” As recent events have
made us aware, however, times of crisis may require other measures.
Political crises or a crisis like the pandemic seem to impose their
own measure of time.
Crisis
thus throws into relief the fact that not all times are
equal—something that musicians, strategists and physicians have
always known; these professionals and others have had to develop
their own systems of taking time’s measure–some dependent on
clocks, some not.
Suggested
Topics
In
what (different/new) ways do physicists, biologists, chemists,
geologists, archeologists, engineers and other scientists take the
measure of things in time? How truth-bearing and/or enduring are
various measurements? What about ‘probabilistic’ measurements of
quantum states? Can
time and space be measured in the same sense? When do quantitative
differences become qualitative? Are lightyears comparable to
nanoseconds?
Is
time (exclusively) defined by its measure?
How
do social scientists generate a metric of temporality? Are
statistical measures more or less basic than positive ones?
How
does temporal measure relate to ethical decisions? Are there
reliable measures for ethical choices in the instant moment and/or
over a human lifetime?
In
what ways do we measure the function of ‘tempi’ in music, poetry,
theatre performance, dance and film? How are measures of time
involved in the visual arts?
How
does temporal mensuration enter or shape narrative discourses in
literature?
We
measure chronologies pretty well. But by what means do we measure
the kind of time that is a kairos?
How
do crises (e.g.,
political
crisis,
catastrophic
climate change, the pandemic) impact the measurement of time?
Other
Suggested Topics:
--time,
measure, money and generosity
--history
as the measure or mismeasure of time
-- the measurement of public vs individual time
--tense/aspect,
mood, person and voice in languages
--measurement as determining our understanding of the measured
--the
limits of measuring time
--cosmic
clocks
Guidelines/Timeline
for Proposals: Proposals will be for 20-minute presentations in
diverse formats: scholarly paper, debate, performance, overview of
creative work, installation, workshop. Proposals for
interdisciplinary panels are especially welcome. (Each paper for a
panel must be approved by the selection committee.) All work will be
presented in English and should strike a balance between expertise in
an area of specialization and accessibility to a general intellectual
audience. Proposals, no more than 300 words in length, are submitted
electronically. The author’s or authors’ name(s) should not
appear in the proposal as the ISST does blind reviewing in selecting
papers for its conferences. The deadline for submission is August 15,
2021, with acceptances communicated by December 15, 2021. Please upload your papers here. The Society
also seeks session chairs, whose names will be included on the
printed conference program.