CONFERENCE THEME: "Connectedness and Alienation: The 21st Century Enigma"
Being connected through social networking sites has become an accepted form of communication in today's digitalized world. People can spend hours a day talking on mobile phones, on Skype, or on the Internet, which gives the impression that we are a more connected world than ever before. And communication is lauded. Because of the massive information flow we can call ourselves perhaps the most connected age in history. But is this connectedness, however, real or illusory?

Quantity of communication does not guarantee quality. For example, to many sensitive people, when they call a number and hear the words "Please listen to the following options" the sense of connectedness suddenly becomes alienating. The crude mechanics entailed can make people feel suspicious, isolated, and even threatened by an invisible structure they cannot penetrate.

A raft of serious existential issues arises out of this. What impact does this have on the self whose identity in the time/space continuum, in the rapidly changing environment, and in these manufactured structures, depends for its development on interaction with perceived reality? What becomes the definition of the human? And what of the awareness of the transcendent in the human spirit from which ethics and aesthetics depend for their existence? Far from being questions of the present moment, these are parameters that will dominate the central problem of human self-understanding as we progress further into the uncharted waters of a highly uncertain future.

Dates

Deadline for submission of abstracts (250 words): February 1 2013
Results of abstract reviews returned to authors: Usually within two weeks of submission
Deadline for submission of full papers: May 1 2013
Deadline for full conference registration payment for all presenters: March 1 2013