‘With the benefit of the past two centuries of scientific work and thought, can one define pain?’ The question was asked by the neuroscientist Edward R. Perl (Nature Reviews: Neuroscience, 8, 2007). He concluded that ‘it seems reasonable to propose pain to be both a specific sensation and an emotion’. With that, the question of physiological pain opens up to those who study the history of emotions, which in turn gives way to new possibilities of understanding the historical and cultural contingencies of physical pain. The statement also begs the question of the extent to which emotion is in fact pain, if pain is in part emotion. Should the histories of anger, fear, anxiety, grief and compassion be studied as varieties of pain? In what ways have they been understood to have a physiological component? Likewise in histories in which physical pain plays a prominent part – the history of medicine notably – how far should our understanding of pain be influenced by the study of emotionologies that determine how the feeling of pain is expressed? How have emotional contexts affected the experience of pain?

This one-day conference will approach these questions by focusing broadly on the dynamics of the emotional, cultural and medical history of pain in the modern period. The conference aims to foster discussion on the importance of emotion as it relates to physical pain and on emotions themselves as varieties of pain, among experts working on the history of science/medicine, the history of the body, and the history of emotions, with perspectives from a variety of national contexts. Possible paper topics include, but are not limited to:

• Pain and emotion in the laboratory
• Emotional pain and physiology
• Aesthetics/sensation
• Measuring pain, clinically and/or in the vernacular, in historical context
• Imagining pain in others (humans/animals): compassion, sympathy, empathy
• Emotions as pain: grief, anxiety, fear, anger, etc.
• Expressions of the feeling(s) of pain
• Influence of emotions on bodily pain
• Psychology and pain
• Pain and sentiment(ality)
• Turning off (emotional) pain: brutality, callousness, anaesthetics

Please send abstracts of up to 500 words and a short CV by email to the Birkbeck Pain Project (painproject@bbk.ac.uk) by May 1st, 2012. Questions may be directed to the Pain Project and/or to Rob Boddice (rob.boddice@gmail.com). The workshop will take place at Birkbeck, London University – further information including registration details will be available here (http://www.bbk.ac.uk/bih/ ) in May 2012. There is no fee to attend or register for the Workshop. More information regarding The Birkbeck Pain Project is available on the Project website (http://www.bbk.ac.uk/history/our-research/birkbeckpainproject). Funded by the Wellcome Trust

The International Journal of MCH and AIDS (IJMA) invites contributions from public health practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and experts in maternal and child health and HIV/AIDS around the world for its inaugural issue scheduled to publish in June 2012. IJMA is a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal that publishes original research articles, review articles, clinical studies, evaluation studies, and policy analyses in all areas of maternal, neonatal, infant, child health, (MCH) and HIV/AIDS in developing countries. IJMA focuses on the social determinants of health and disease as well as on the disparities in the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases affecting infants, children, women, adults, and families in developing countries.Based in Washington, DC, USA, IJMA provides a platform through which researchers, as well as program and policy makers, can learn about the various factors that contribute to the health and well-being of mothers, infants, children, and adults and how the HIV/AIDS is decimating the gains in those sectors. The journal focuses on empirical findings from low and middle-income countries exploring trends and patterns at international, national, and local levels.

Research articles and rigorous meta-analyses are welcome. Ideas for review articles on MCH and HIV/AIDS in developing countries will be considered.IJMA covers, but is not limited, to the following broad topic areas:

Life expectancy, cause-specific mortality, and human development, Maternal, neonatal, infant, child, and youth mortality and morbidity, Determinants and consequences of childhood and adolescent obesity, Quality of life and mental health disparities affecting MCH and HIV/AIDS populations, Social, behavioral, and biological determinants of MCH and HIV/AIDS and well-being, Disparities in health and well-being based on gender, race, ethnicity, immigrant status, Disparities in health based on social class, education, income, disability status, etc, Region and/or country specific studies, Program development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, Cross-national research on MCH and HIV/AIDS issues across the world, Issues of resilience among populations impacted by HIV/AIDS, Applications of surveillance, trend, and multilevel methods in MCH and AIDS Use of novel approaches in both quantitative and qualitative research studies, Book reviews on MCH and HIV/AIDS issues and social determinants of health.

Manuscripts are accepted on a rolling basis however, the deadline for the inaugural issue (June 2012) is March 31, 2012. Manuscripts that do not meet the immediate deadline of a particular issue are automatically considered for the next issue. Prospective authors should carefully review the Author Instructions located on the journal’s website at www.mchandaids.org. For questions, email: editorinchief@mchandaids.org

The theme of the Congress is ‘Knowledge at Work.’ We construe the theme broadly to include studies of the creation, dissemination and deployment of knowledge and practice in science, technology and medicine across all periods, and to encompass a variety of methodological and historiographical approaches. The call for Symposia is now open. Details are at: http://www.ichstm2013.com/call/

The deadline for symposia submissions is Monday 30 April 2012. The call for individual papers will be issued in May 2012, and will be widely circulated. Information about iCHSTM2013 will be regularly updated on the website as plans develop: please bookmark the site and check regularly for the latest news! Enquiries about any aspect of iCHSTM2013 may be sent to: enquiries@ichstm2013.com

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/hjfc

Guest Editors: Sandra Petronio, IUPUI, and Mary Claire Morr Serewicz, University of Denver

Mission of Special Issue: This special issue is geared toward investigations into family issues surrounding the management of disclosure, confidentiality, and overall privacy regulation using the Communication Privacy Management (CPM) perspective. Given the challenges families face with the array of privacy concerns across the life span, this volume targets the application of CPM within a family context to better grasp these current-day problems that family members encounter. Though not exhaustive, CPM applications of such matters as disclosing genetic testing results to family members, navigating privacy boundaries after divorce and in step-families, coping with online privacy regulation for parents and children, marital and partner privacy dilemmas, decision making and disclosure anxieties in end of life choices, intercultural differences and similarities in privacy management for family life, and the privacy predicaments family members face across the life course represent examples of areas appropriate for this special issue. All methodologies are welcome. The manuscripts must actively use the CPM perspective. Manuscripts should be vetted by colleagues prior to submission to achieve the highest caliber of work to be considered. Because this is a special issue, only one round of revisions is possible.

Editorial Board: The Special Issue Editorial Board will include members currently on the JFC board who have an expertise in CPM theory in addition to inviting other CPM scholars to be members of the special issue board. As an outcome, the following individuals will serve as board review members: Loreen Olson, Tamara Afifi, Dawn Braithwaite, John Caughlin, Kathleen Galvin, Karla Mason Bergen, Jennifer Bute, Elizabeth Suter, Aimee Miller-Ott, Jack Sargent, Mark DiCorcia, and Ashley Duggan.

Submissions: Please use the Journal of Family Communication on-line submission process. The manuscripts should be no longer than 7,000 words including references, endnotes, and tables and follow all other criteria stipulated in the journal’s submission parameters found in the front pages of the journal or online.

Manuscripts Due: March 1, 2012

For more information please contact: Mary Claire Morr Serewicz, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Department of Communication Studies, 2000 E. Asbury Ave., University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208, Phone: 303-871-4332, Office: Sturm Hall 293, mserewic@du.edu

Deadline: February 15th, 2012

The 2012 Colorado Healthcare Ethics Forum Conference will be held April 26th and 27th, 2012 at The Stonebrook Manor Event Center and Gardens in Thornton, Colorado. This year’s theme is Borders and Barriers: Mapping a Moral Path. Ethics is a process of choosing among different paths, each path having its own unique obstacles and challenges. Some obstacles are moral in nature as we attempt to address conflicts among ethical principles or different methods of assessing the moral dimensions of a situation. Other challenges relate to conflicts among deeply held beliefs, values and preferences among patients, families, providers and the community at large. Finally, many obstacles are practical such as those involving scarce resources, limited time, lack of knowledge and uncertain outcomes. Borders are the diverse lines we often must cross when making ethical decisions including legal and regulatory requirements or competing political, social, religious and moral beliefs. Borders also include the fine lines between patients and families, providers and/or the organization. Barriers include all of the practical realities that seem to challenge our efforts at moral action including ineffective communication, lack of support, scarce resources and limited options.

The two day conference will have a Hot Topics track that will focus on high profile issues in the healthcare headlines and an Issues in Practice track that will focus on highly applied topics for individual and ethics committee development. Proposals are sought on a wide range of topics. Suggestions include:

• Health care reform (e.g., financial constraints, access, quality, community based health care, accountable care organizations)
• Allocation of resources (e.g., drug shortages, high cost treatment, new technologies)
• Setting-specific topics (long term care, hospice, behavioral health, military healthcare)
• Patient-centered topics (e.g., undocumented and/or indigent patients, patient compliance, spiritual care in different cultural and religious traditions)
• Provider-centered topics (e.g., limits of provider conscience, compassion fatigue, moral distress)
• Organization-centered topics (e.g., organizational ethics and social responsibility, quality management, privacy)
• Vulnerable populations (cultural differences, children, research subjects)
• Effective communication (e.g. difficult conversations, conflict management, language barriers)
• Ethics committee development and performance (e.g., decision-making, consultation, leadership)
• Moral theories, concepts and decision making

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Colorado Healthcare Ethics Forum is an active and diverse community of health professionals and laypersons in Colorado who work collaboratively to raise the awareness of ethical issues, promote ethical practice and respond to current and future ethical challenges in the delivery of health care. The annual CHEF conference attracts 150-175 participants annually and is well recognized throughout the Rocky Mountain region. For more on the vision, mission and values of CHEF, visit our website at http://coloradoethicsforum.org/  .

Please submit written proposals to Deb Bennett-Woods at presentations@coloradoethicsconference.org  no later than February 15, 2012. Proposals should include the following:

• Presentation type (Individual / Panel / Workshop). Individual and Panel presentations are typically scheduled for 60 minutes. Workshops may be proposed for longer periods, generally 2 hours.
• Name, CV and a brief biography of presenter(s). (Note: Brief bios should be no more than 75 words.)
• An abstract of the presentation, no longer than a single page, setting forth the issue, the presenter’s thesis, and the approach to be taken.
• Any special presentation requirements (audio/visual, seating arrangements, etc) and limitations on availability for those dates.

In addition to requesting proposals, we encourage you to pass along any suggestions for speakers or presentations with which you may be familiar that would be a good match for this year’s conference.

Location: France | Call for Papers Deadline: February 10, 2012

The purpose of this conference is twofold: firstly, to engage researchers with different cultural, political, philosophical, religious backgrounds in a debate on the close relation between entity and identity in bioethics; and secondly, to obtain a better theoretical understanding of the identities of those that engage in bioethical debates. The International Conference will take place at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris from 23 to 24 April 2012 at and it is organized by Ars Identitatis Cultural Research Association. The proceedings will be published (after peer review): some in paperback format, the others in electronic format. Ars Identitatis encourages interdisciplinary debates, that is why we are inviting anyone who could contribute to this debate (Professors, Researchers, Journalists, NGO activists, Lawyers, Clerics, etc.). Submissions from graduate students are also encouraged. We accept both Panel proposals and Individual abstracts. Individual abstracts should be of no more than 450 words in length. Those who intend to send individual abstracts are kindly requested to submit also a short bio note. The person who submits a panel proposal is kindly requested to send us a short Curriculum Vitae (one page) together with a presentation of the panel and the abstracts. The other panelists should send only a short bio-note. Each panel proposal should contain at least two abstracts. The deadline for sending abstracts is February 10 but we encourage early submissions, in order to allow the selection commission to have enough time for deliberation. We will acknowledge receipt of your abstract. In case you don’t receive any reply from us after 3 days, please resend your abstract.

Ars Identitatis is an independent non-profit association. We are making efforts to keep as low as possible the logistics costs related to the conference and to the publication production process.

Please send your materials and address your enquiries to Ms. Silvia Stoica (President of Ars Identitatis) Mr. Ionut Untea (PhD candidate, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes) and Ms. Andrada Maran (Ecole Polytechnique) at: registration@identitatis.org

For updates, please visit http://www.ars.identitatis.org/

Silvia Stoica, Ars Identitatis Cultiral Research Association, 49 Bd. de Clichy, 75009, Paris, France

The article highlights the importance of a scholar’s carefully reading and diligently following editors’ instructions, especially regarding copy editing changes.

Submissions can include:

• Scholarly articles written in engaging language for a general audience of the intellectually curious, with references to substantiate research
• Essays sharing a personal perspective on general or controversial topics, presenting a balanced and thoughtful point of view
• Personal narratives captivating for their visceral, first-hand experience
• Short fiction that is engaging in style and thought-provoking in nature
• Poetry, eloquent and thoughtful, appealing to the conscience and the intellect
• Art, in any medium, that reflects a uniqueness of style and perspective and that can be either a process, outcome or both

We DO NOT accept research papers, clinical studies, or unsolicited book or film reviews.

Further information at: http://www.hektoeninternational.org/aboutus.html

General guidelines for submission of abstracts: Papers, posters and symposia will be selected that best exemplify the state of nursing science in the particular area in which the work was completed. Only abstracts derived from completed research will be accepted. Abstracts should clearly specify the contributions of the work to the current state of nursing science. Areas of special interest include research technologies and health innovation. We encourage Authors to submit multiple abstracts due to an increase in presentation opportunities at this years meeting.

Review and selection: The 2012 Abstract Review Committee will determine the final selection of abstracts based on scores and recommendations from peer reviewers. Reviews will be completed based on submitter-identified abstract categories. Abstracts must be submitted electronically via the online process which can be accessed at http://eabstracts.postergenius.com/cans2012/  or by visiting the Council’s website at: www.nursingscience.org

Timeline: The online abstract submission process ends at 11:59 PM (EST) on February 15, 2012. The review process will begin in late February and announcements are scheduled to take place in May/June 2012.

For more information: The abstract submission process is self-explanatory once you arrive on the website–click on the ‘Submit New Abstract’ box and begin the process. You are able to go in and edit your abstract through February 15 by clicking on the ‘Edit Previous Submission’ box. After February 15, the abstract is considered final and will be reviewed based on the content provided. If you should have specific questions that are not addressed please email: support@scigentech.com  For additional conference information, you are also encouraged to visit the Council’s website at http://www.nursingscience.org

Your 250-word abstract should include:

• Title: A brief statement of the nature of the investigation or purpose of the project.
• Authors: All authors and affiliations.
• Aims: The overall purpose, research question, or study hypothesis.
• Methods: The study or project design and methods (sample, procedures, measures, and/or data analysis).
• Results: The study or project findings or products.
• Conclusions: The overall impact of findings and relevance to nursing or healthcare science.