ISHR

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric (ISHR) will be held in Bologna, Italy, from Monday, July 18th to Friday, July 22, 2011. The biennial Conference of ISHR brings together several hundred specialists in the history of rhetoric from around thirty countries. This will be the first meeting of the Society in Italy since 1993.

SCHOLARLY FOCUS OF THE CONFERENCE

The Society calls for papers that focus on the historical aspect of the theory and practice of rhetoric. In honor of the origin of the University of Bologna the main theme of the Conference will be "Rhetoric and Law". Papers dedicated to this theme will explore points of contact between rhetoric and law and their mutual influence through the centuries.
Papers are also invited on every aspect of the history of rhetoric in all periods and languages and the relationship of rhetoric to poetics, literary theory and criticism, philosophy, politics, art, religion, geographic areas and other elements of the cultural context.

PROCEDURE FOR SUBMISSION

Proposals should be submitted for a 20-minute presentation delivered in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish or Latin. Group proposals are welcome, under the following conditions. The group must consist of 3 speakers dealing with a common theme in order to form a coherent panel. A fourth person responsible for the panel but not delivering a paper of his or her own, has the task of introducing and summarizing the content of the three papers, highlighting the results achieved by the speakers and guiding a preliminary discussion between the panellists before the listeners ask their questions. Each speaker in a panel should submit a proposal form for his or her own paper and send this paper to the head of the panel before the conference; proposals for such papers must specify the panel for which they are intended. In addition, the person who is responsible for the panel must complete and submit a separate form explaining the purpose of the proposed panel.

Proposals for papers and for groups must be submitted on-line (http://www.ishr-web.com/proposition.php).

Please fill out the on-line form carefully. Exceptionally proposals may also be sent by mail to the following address:

Lucia Montefusco,
Dipartimento di Filologia
Classica e Medioevale, via Zamboni 32
40126 Bologna (Italy).

Guidelines for preparing proposals are provided at the bottom of this message. The length of the abstracts must not exceed 350 words.

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS

The deadline for submitting proposals is April 30th, 2010.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out before the end of August 2010. In a few cases participants may require an earlier acceptance date in order to secure funding. We will try to accommodate such requests if they are made with appropriate documentation.

Information about the Conference, including accommodation at negotiated favorable rates, will be provided during the academic year 2010-2011. The conference registration fee is still to be determined; by way of indication it was around 125 euros / 150 US dollars for the previous conferences. Graduate students and scholars from certain countries may be eligible for reduced registration fees.
Looking forward to your participation,

Lucia Montefusco,
President of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric

Guidelines for the preparation of proposals :

The members of ISHR come from many countries and academic disciplines. The following guidelines are intended to make it easier for us to come together and understand one another's proposals. The Program Committee recommends that all proposals contain:
1) a definition - accessible to a non-specialist - of the field of the proposal, including chronological period, language, texts, and other sources;
2) a statement of the problem that will be treated; its place in relation to the present state of research in the field under consideration; its significance for the history of rhetoric;
3) a summary of the stages of argumentation involved in treating the problem;
4) scientific results and advances.