Conference: Wild or Domesticated – Uncanny in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives to Mind
An interdisciplinary conference organized by Mind and the Other Research Project
Helsinki, Finland (The House of Science and Letters)
September 20-22, 2016
Keynote speakers:
Professor Tanya Luhrmann, University of Stanford
Professor Simo Knuuttila, University of Helsinki
Assistant professor Diana Espirito Santo, The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
For further details, please visit the conference webpage: Wild or Domesticated
Symposium: The Limits of Mimesis
An interdisciplinary symposium at the University of Helsinki, April 29, 2015
Commentator of the papers:
Michael Taussig (Columbia University, USA)
For further details, please see the attached program: The Limits of Mimesis
Seminar: Alterity as a theoretical and methodological challenge for field work
An interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Turku, February 18-20, 2015.
Keynote speakers:
Jon P. Mitchell (University of Sussex, UK)
Maja Petrović-Šteger (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia)
For further details, please see the attached program: Alterity
Conference: Images of Afterlife
An international conference at the University of Turku, October 22–24, 2014.
Images of death and afterlife are rich and manifold in various religious contexts, as well as in artistic, media and other symbolic expressions. Representations of afterlife reflect cultural values, fears and hopes. In the contemporary West collective religious representations are challenged and completed by individual conceptions and beliefs, which, in turn, derive from various cultural sources. How has afterlife – the life and existence of souls and minds (or bodies) after death – been imagined in different contexts and how is it imagined today? What are the contexts in which these images are expressed? Where do afterlife conceptions come from and what is their significance in the societies of the living?
Keynote speakers:
Tony Walter (University of Bath)
Altti Kuusamo (University of Turku)
Jussi Kotkavirta (University of Jyväskylä)
Laura Huttunen (University of Tampere)
For further details, please visit the conference website: Images of Afterlife
Seminar: Interdisciplinarity – possibility and challenge
An international seminar in Helsinki, September 12, 2014.
The seminar was organized in collaboration between Mind and the Other project and the Human Mind research programme of the Academy of Finland.
Workshop facilitators:
Angela Woods (University of Durham)
Mary Robson (University of Durham)
Keynote speakers:
Veronica Strang (University of Durham)
Jussi Pakkasvirta (University of Helsinki)
For further details, please see the following documents: seminar description, seminar schedule
Seminar: Limits of and Beyond Experience
An interdisciplinary seminar organized by the ‘Mind and the Other’ project
University of Turku, April 10–11, 2014
The aim of our international seminar is to discuss the theoretical and methodological possibilities of studying human experience that is at the limit of our understanding or perhaps beyond it. With plenary lectures given by Prof. Robert Desjarlais (Sarah Lawrence College, NY, USA) and Prof. Ülo Valk (University of Tartu, Estonia) this seminar aims at opening up this problem area from a theoretical and methodological perspective and creating a dialogue regarding the understandings of and practices related to human experience that is at the limit of our understanding. It seeks to further conversations and research on topical and vexing questions of the boundary experience especially in relation to recent medical, cultural, political and social developments. Following the lectures, the themes are elaborated upon and discussed in two afternoon workshops.
The guest lecture and the plenary lectures are open for all. Preliminary registration is required for the workshops. For further details, please see the attached program: Limits of and beyond Experience.
April 9, 2014
Guest lecture 16–18 (Sirkkala campus, Janus-hall)
Robert Desjarlais: Hitchhiking Beatitudes: A Personal Cultural History of Rough Travel
Organized by Cultural History, University of Turku
April 10, 2014
First day plenary 10–12 (Sirkkala campus, Janus-hall)
Robert Desjarlais: Strangeness at the Mouth of Death
April 11, 2014
Second day plenary 10–12 (Sirkkala campus, Janus-hall)
Ülo Valk: Narratives of ghosts in contemporary post-soviet Estonia