Exploring the Scandalous: Scandal As a Catalyst of Progress?
University of Vienna
Vienna, Austria
https://anglistik.univie.ac.at/scandal/
Conference Dates: evening of September 24-September 26, 2025
Abstract Deadline: March 15, 2025 (500-700 words and a short list of references)
Abstract Selection: mid-April, 2025
Conference Fees: 65 Euros; reduced (PhD students; postdocs without access to funds): 35 Euros

The Greek word for the trigger-sensitive part in a trap which snaps shut when touched is “scandalon”. For any modern understanding of a scandal, not only is an exploration of its triggers and mechanisms relevant, but questions such as “Who sees what?” and “What effect does ‘being seen’ have on intersectional power relations?” are crucial, as well. For a scandal to occur, a moral system against which someone offends must be in place, as well as a community/an audience that finds out about it and cares enough to feel offended by the respective breach, which usually requires some media involvement. In our scholarly engagement with the production and impact of the scandalous, we might ask ourselves: What happens to a scandal when the moral system within which it first occurred changes? What happens when the respective legal system lags behind a society’s moral code that has already changed? What happens when, in a social and cultural environment feeding on scandal, we stop caring altogether? What roles can and do the media play in informing and/or producing and/or manipulating the community that is necessary to create a scandal? It is tempting to stop at describing any given scandal, perhaps participate in the outrage it caused, or perhaps shake one’s head in incomprehension over the fact that an event caused a scandal at all. This conference, however, is most interested in taking a look at the structures behind scandals in diverse Anglophone and/or German-speaking contexts of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries in order to explore their function as catalysts of change. Specifically, this conference would like to zoom in on their potential role as catalysts of change for ‘the better’, which of course presupposes a particular perspective that needs to be considered, perhaps exposed as biased and countered by different perspective/s.
Given that the academic publishing market is increasingly moving away from edited volumes and
towards special issues in highly rated journals, organizers are adjusting the genre of the traditional CFP by asking for more detailed abstracts and streamlining them (as well as the potential talks and journal articles resulting from these abstracts). Thus, we aim to arrive at a coherent selection of 12 to 14 journal issue contributions (length TBA).
The conference’s temporal frame encompasses the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, whereas the transdisciplinary perspective will be limited to scandals from the Anglophone and the German-speaking cultural spheres, focusing on literary, (pop)cultural, social, political, and economic contexts.
The conference aims to approach an international, peer-reviewed journal (TBA) that publishes articles in English with a plan for a special issue in which the contributions adhere to the same structure. They would like each talk/finished article to name and/or outline the chosen scandal; mention the triggers (events, contexts etc.) that caused it; outline the participating discourses; discuss the media and/or institutions involved; characterize the relevant audience/s of the scandal; and discuss its effects and results.
This structure also determines what organizers are looking for in the abstracts. They expect them to answer the following questions to help select a group that promises coherence as well as synergies: To which academic field does the proposed talk aim to contribute? What is the scandal (including key information such as dates and ‘players’, field, historical, and socio-cultural context)? What is/are the key concept/s on which you will draw to theorize your chosen scandal or its underlying structures? Which discourses are central or peripheral to it? Who were the audiences of this particular scandal, and did they get involved in any form? For instance, did they form movements in the scandal’s wake? Which media and institutions created the audiences involved and sustained their attention? What changed after the chosen scandal? When did those change/s occur and within which contexts? What were the scandal’s short-term and long-term effects? While we do not expect you to answer all of these questions, please try to address as many as possible.
Please add to your abstract a brief bio-bibliographical note (100 words) and your email address, and send it as an email attachment (.doc or .pdf) to all three conference organizers: sandra.mayer@oeaw.ac.at, barbara.straumann@es.uzh.ch, and sylvia.mieszkowski@univie.ac.at.