Affect Theory Conference: Worldings / Tensions / Futures – October 2015 in Lancaster, PA

Over the course of the last decade especially, it is safe to say that affect, studies of affect, and theories of affect have steadily risen to prominence within and across a variety of academic disciplines, artistic practices, and research approaches. Not without some amount of controversy and pushback, the relatively rapid movement of affect toward the forefront of critical attention has been opening new paths of intellectual inquiry, reshuffling longstanding debates and conceptual formations, and inspiring imaginative cross-fertilizations of disciplinary and aesthetic genres. Now seems a perfect time to pause and take stock. So, let’s do that.

Gathering together many of the leading and emerging voices that have helped give contour and texture to the contemporary discourses of affect, this three-day conference – with a lively mix of plenaries and selected panel-streams – will be devoted to addressing affect from a broad spectrum of vantage points.

Located in and around Millersville University’s Ware Center in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania, this setting will provide a truly intimate and distinctive opportunity to engage in-depth and at length in discussions about the past, present and future state(s) of affect study. Duke University Press will publish work drawn from this conference in a follow-up volume to the Affect Theory Reader (Gregg & Seigworth, 2010).