Call for papers

As a historical locus of artistic creation, the city of Paris is a special location for an ISGS conference, inspiring a reflection on the interplay between three key notions, Gesture – Creativity – Multimodality.

The art of mime was born in Paris at the Théâtre des Funambules in the 19^th century, while Etienne-Jules Marey and the Lumière brothers’ first cinematographic experiments enabled the inscription of movement on film. Going even further back in time, the creation of the first sign language school in Paris in 1760 is another landmark in the history of bodily communication.

Today, Paris remains a place where both artists and scholars explore the creative potential of gesture: its exceptional museums and cultural events invite us to ponder over the symbolic use of gesture in painting, music (with conductors’ gestures for instance), sign language poetry, dance or theatre.

The 7th edition of ISGS thus especially encourages contributions on the role of gesture in artistic creation, the multimodal creativity of bodily expression, and the combined used of gesture/sign with other artistic media (dance, painting, sculpture, photography, music, cinema).

The conference also welcomes all topics on bodily communication, studied in all settings, and from all theoretical and disciplinary perspectives.

Abstract submission

We invite abstracts (450 words maximum, excluding references) of unpublished work for individual papers, posters, and theme panels. Please only copy the abstract in the reserved bow on the submission interface. You can submit a more complete document at the end of your submission as an attachment. It must remain anonymous. Remove any reference to the author(s).

Each author must submit his/her abstract in the abstract section. If you want to add references, tables, graphs, illustrations, you can ATTACH a word or pdf document at the end of the submission. We recommand you indicate that you have added a document and what it contains in the comments section of the submission interface.

Paper presentation slots will be 30 minutes, with 20 minutes for presentations, 5 minutes for discussion, 5 minutes to change rooms and presenters. The chair person will be in charge of making sure the timing is respected.

Theme panels are welcome. They should focus on a well-defined research topic. Each panel will be allocated 2 hours, which should include opening and closing remarks, individual papers, discussants and general discussion. Panels should consist of four talks, which must be submitted individually as paper presentations. Each individual abstract should indicate the name of the proposed theme panel. If a theme panel is not accepted as a whole, individual submissions will be considered for standard paper presentations.

The coordinators  of a symposium must submit a general summary describing the panel and its research aims as well as the titles of all the presentations to be included and the name of the discussant (if there is one), his/her relevance for the issues involved. The type of presentation chosen must be « symposium ». In the comments section, the title of the symposium must be repeated. Each contributor to the symposium submits his or her contribution and must specify that it is for a symposium. He or she also indicates the title of the symposium in the comments section. 

In order to ensure that your symposium is reviewed as a whole, each organizer can send Aliyah.Morgenstern@gmail.com a word document with all the information (summary of the whole symposium, titles for each presentation, discussant, and all the abstracts).

Posters are intended as a format for reports on work in progress, and are an opportunity for more extended interaction. Posters will be displayed during poster sessions, with ample opportunity for discussion.

Each author may submit no more than three abstracts and no more than one abstract as first author.

Important dates

November 16^th, 2015: deadline for all submissions

January 25^th, 2016: notification of acceptance

July 18^th-22^nd 2016: conference, starting in the afternoon on July 18^th, closing in the afternoon on July 22^nd.

Conference language

The conference language is English. International Sign (IS) interpreters and French sign language interpreters will be available.