From left: CERN members Dr Sukhmani Khorana, Dr Roger Patulny, Dr Sharon Quah

Congratulations to a fellow CERN member from the University of Wollongong, Dr Sukhmani Khorana who launched her book, The Tastes and Politics of Intercultural Food in Australia. Dr Khorana is the immediate past Co-Convenor of CERN. CERN was a proud supporter of her book launch event on 12 May 2018.

Details on the book : The Tastes and Politics of Intercultural Food in Australia (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018)

Reading Group/Work in Progress seminars

The CERN reading group events kicked off late last year and will continue into 2018. These monthly reading groups are open to staff and HDR students within and beyond UOW. Contact Jordan (jordanmc@uow.edu.au) if you are interested in attending.

In 2018 we will also be hosting two work in progress sessions for CERN members to share their work and receive feedback in a supportive and friendly environment. These sessions will be catered and we are currently seeking volunteers to present their work. Contact Sharon (sharonq@uow.edu.au) if you are interested to participate. 

CERN Writing retreat

We are pleased to announce a one-day writing retreat at the UOW Innovation Campus in early June. The retreat is open to CERN members looking for a peaceful and supportive environment to write without distractions. The event will be fully catered and will be a great way to break through that pesky winter writer’s block. Do look out for more details on CERN website!

HDR Book Prize (for UOW HDR students)

This year we will be awarding 2x $250 book voucher prizes for the best HDR publication (peer-reviewed article or book chapter). In order to be considered, you need to be a HDR student at UOW, and the publication needs to have been published in 2017-2018. You can enter by emailing your publication to Jordan McKenzie (jordanmc@uow.edu.au) before October 31st, 2018. An announcement of results will be made in November. 

The 1st International Conference on Contemporary and Historical Approaches to Emotions was hosted by the UOW CERN, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, The Australian Sociological Association’s Sociology of Emotions and Affect Thematic Group. The conference took place on 5-7 December 2016.

Professions, Citizens, Migrants (or: Crises) and the Media in a “Post-Truth” World

XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology                                                                              Toronto, Canada, on July 15-21, 2018.                                                                            TG08 Society and Emotions

Submission deadline: September 30 2017

https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2018/webprogrampreliminary/Session9140.html

Contemporary sociological research reveals the important role that emotions and power play in institutional and organisational settings, civil society and the media. This is seen in interactions between professionals, public servants, plaintiffs and patients (Bergman Blix and Wettergren 2016; Pérez and Aragón 2011); and how they manifest within organisations in work contexts and in care work (King 2012, Olson and Connor 2015). Given the rise of ‘post-truth’ politics (Brexit, US electoral campaign of 2016), we are keenly interested in how emotions are shaped by and shape public discourse in highly polarized debates. Recent studies have examined how collective emotions manifest in areas such as the mass media (von Scheve and Salmela 2014); and how emotions align with politics in areas such as political power and reflexivity (Demertzis 2013; Heaney and Flam 2013; Archer 2012), and migration studies (Holmes 2004; 2010). This session calls for papers on the interpersonal and organising role emotions play in civic collective action, public policy, and in the operation of online/home workplaces, large businesses, bureaucracies, and institutions. We also welcome papers on the citizen-subject as empathetic, secular, offensive, and/or burnt out; emotions in the mass and social media; feelings in and about the public sphere; emotionalized discourses on migration, financial and economic crises, climate change, terrorism, political authoritarianism; emotions, social attitudes and values. Emergent emotions and power are also of great interest.