Disciplining Discourses: Conflict, Conversation and Issues of Authority in Spanish Cultural and Intellectual Life 1870-1950

Description

Convenors:
Alison Sinclair (University of Cambridge)
Richard Cleminson (University of Leeds)

This conference is the third of a series dealing with cultural and intellectual phenomena of early twentieth-century Spain, (the two previous conferences were 'The World League of Sexual Reform' in November 2000 and 'Alternative Discourses in Early Twentieth-Century Spain: Intellectuals, dissent and Sub-cultures of Mind and Body' in May 2002). It is part of a project of re-mapping Spanish intellectual and cultural life, with emphasis on the inclusion of discourses, authorities and sub-groups hitherto largely excluded from official accounts. It focuses on a number of different areas: on the degree to which individuals and groups had significant contacts and overlaps (the participation of doctors and lawyers in politics, of theologians in sexual reform, of medical experts in literature, of hygienists in the field of popular education, to mention but four areas); discourses of degeneration, criminality and the body; intellectual life, populism and culture, with a focus on high/low interfaces and including the use of the periódico mural in the Civil War; the interface between scientific discourse and national identity; revolutions in sexual politics and behaviours.

The conference brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines, and countries, including the UK, the US and Spain. In a context where there is increasing (but not yet secure and confident) work of an inter-disciplinary nature currently taking place in the humanities, we believe that this type of conference is a practical step to test and extend our intellectual boundaries.