News Mapping Attention: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. International Conference & Pre-Conference Workshop April 17-19th 2024

On April 18th and 19th the discipline of philosophy within the School of History and Philosophy will welcome scholars to present their research on attention in theory and in practice.   

About: Against the backdrop 'attention economy' where our ability to attend is often overtaken by technology, post-modern fixations with self-optimisation, or the demands of work, this conference explores how we think about, radically reorient and develop our abilities to attend to the world to others.    Join us for this conference where scholars interested in theorising and practising attention will come together to explore the theoretical language we use to talk and think about attending, the practices through which attention might be developed and those that benefit (other humans, non-human animals and the wider world) once we develop and grow this human capacity.   

Keynote Speakers:  Silvia Panizza (ITA/IRE)  Megan Laverty (USA)  Nora Ward (IRE)    This conference is part of the second phase of the research project AIRE Attentive Inquiry Reclaiming Environment which is funded by the IRC New Foundations Award.   

About the research project:  AIRE means ATTENTION and CARE in Irish. This project uses philosophical dialogue to explore how we care for and about others, ourselves and the environment through a facilitated reading group, an international conference, and commissioned art, and an archival exhibition.  

2023 is the 60th anniversary of the novel The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch. Set in a fictionalised vision of the Burren, a unique landscape in the West of Ireland, this beautiful book explores love, loss, guilt and isolation. The themes of this book will be investigated by two philosophical reading groups, and Murdoch's account of attention will be explored through an international conference and an exhibition.   To register for the conference click here: https://forms.office.com/e/Ld3dBt4zQa

Pre-Conference Workshop: 

On April 17^th Facilitators from the Strother School of Radical Attention will deliver an Attention Lab on campus for post-graduate students, researchers, conference participants, local creatives and staff. 

This workshop which comprises of guided attention practices and group discussion will be an opportunity to think about attention and knowledge production, an urgent issue for post-graduate students seeking to make a contribution to knowledge and/or those working creatively.

This event is supported by the University of Galway Post-graduate Research Environment funding.

To register for the AttentionLab, email: lucy.elvis@universityofgalway.ie