The International Society for the Study of Time announces its thirteenth triennial conference, from July 28th to August 3rd 2007, on the theme of Time: Limits and Constraints.  The ISST was founded by J.T. Fraser in 1966 as a scholarly society dedicated to the ‘interdisciplinary study of time.’  The ISST conferences create a unique environment of intellectual exchange, by combining a highly productive conference theme with a location in a suitably memorable environment.  Recent conferences include Time and Uncertainty (Castello de Gargonza, Tuscany, 2001) and Time and Memory (Clare College, Cambridge, UK, 2004).  Selected papers from each conference are published in a series entitled The Study of Time, with Time and Memory, (Volume XII), currently in press.  The ISST also disseminates work through the associated publication KronoScope: Journal for the Study of Time (Brill Academic Publishers) and Time’s News, the organization’s newsletter for members.

The 2007 conference will take place in an exclusive cluster of buildings in the Asilomar Conference Grounds, on the tip of California’s Monterey Peninsula. Set in 107 acres of natural Monterey pines, graceful shores and meandering dunes beside the Pacific Ocean, in a region teeming with wild animal and plant life, Asilomar is an architectural sandwich: a showcase for the works of two major US architects from distinctively different periods in 20th century history. It has the largest single collection of Arts and Crafts style buildings, now designated a National Historic Landmark, completed between 1913 and 1928 by California’s first licensed woman architect,  Julia Morgan (who also designed Hearst Castle). Seven further complexes were designed and built in the style of that 1950s/60s by John Carl Warnecke, internationally known inter alia as the designer of the memorial for President John F Kennedy.

Call For Papers

The theme of the Society’s thirteenth conference is Time: Limits and Constraints.  Limits and constraints are rich terms that suggest many lines of conceptual and applied investigation into the study of time across all academic disciplines and fields of creative endeavor.  These words have important technical or specific meanings in different contexts, as well as a range of interesting definitions and connotations in general usage.  Though seemingly synonymous with limitation and constriction, limits and constraints also serve as boundary conditions that enable or induce change and novelty.  Limits and constraints of temporal processes are as important and powerful for what they produce as what they prevent; they demarcate the parameters of emergence as much as endings. 

The ISST encourages scholarship that interprets its conference themes in original ways.  The open-ended subject-headings listed below are meant to provoke reflection and help generate stimulating proposals for papers, rather than to limit the approaches taken or constrain thinking minds.  Proposals that address questions of time, constraints and limits from synthetic, interdisciplinary viewpoints will be given special consideration.

• Definitions and distinctions of limits and constraints in and across disciplines
• Temporal limits as limits of a world or umwelt
• Temporal constraints and the limits of the human or ‘post-human’
• Constraints and creativity / limits and innovation
• Limits of temporal measurement and their implications
• History: limits and constraints
• Globalization mapped according to temporal limits and constraints
• The role of constraints in self-organization and emergence
• Narrative forms as temporal constraints
• Rhythm, refrain, restraint, constraints
• Temporal limits and freedom
• Ecological limits and the development of post-industrial society
• Biologically constrained evolution / technology’s ‘liberation’ from constraints
• Evolutionary adaptation as a constraint on cultural evolution
• The limits of short-term desires versus long-term goals
• Stretching limits of human life through medical and technological advances
• Tragedy as accommodation of moral constraints and human limits
• Constraint-based writing and creativity
• Artistic schools and periods as constraints or limits
• Embedded systems of constraints and limits
• The limits of top-down vs. bottom-up temporal models
Presentation/paper proposals are called for from all fields of scholarly investigation and all forms of creative expression.  Diverse formats welcome: scholarly paper, cross-disciplinary panel discussion, debate, performance/overview of creative work, installations etc., workshop, poster.  Panels may pre-circulate papers and feature discussion among participants.  Each individual paper for a panel must be approved by the selection committee.  All work will be presented in English, and should strike a balance between area of specialization and accessibility to a general intellectual audience.

Proposals should be approximately 300 words in length, and include the presenter’s field of specialization and academic/professional affiliation.  Proposals should be submitted electronically to the Executive Secretary at ISST@studyoftime.org with the author’s name as file name.  Author’s name(s) should not appear in the proposal, as the ISST does blind reviewing in selecting papers for its conferences.

The deadline for submission has been extended to July 30th, 2006. 

Conference participants must be ISST members.  For membership information and application procedures, click Membership Application. Membership includes subscriptions to the ISST circular Time’s News and KronoScope: Journal for the Study of Time.

The Society also seeks session chairs, whose names will be included on the printed program.

Asilomar

Situated 105 miles South of San Francisco Airport, 310 miles North from LAX, and with its own local Montery Peninsula Airport,  Asilomar is within minutes of Monterey, Carmel and Pebble Beach, with local attractions including the legendary Cannery Row and Fisherman’s Wharf. It offers  the delights of the Monterey  Bay Aquarium, many restaurants,  and prodigious opportunities for walking, biking, swimming and golf. Even more than Castello de Gargonza and Cambridge, Asilomar is a wonderful place to bring children, for those who want to include the ISST conference in their family holiday plans. For adults it offers a privileged seaside retreat from the distractions of the day-to-day world, with all the pleasures of outdoor life including a Coastal Trail, sports facilities, barbecues and evening campfires -  plus state-of-the-art conference facilities and full electronic connectivity for those who need it. It has a temperate maritime climate all year round. We believe it will prove a magical venue.