The Taboo Conference series is an interdisciplinary conference aimed at bringing together scholars of various aspects of taboo in a variety of academic fields.
For its 4th edition, The Taboo Conference series will specifically address the intricacies of taboo and/in the media in its various occurrences from the points of view of production, performance, and perception/reception and in the broadest spectrum of print and virtual media. The subject of taboo and/in the media seems to have become especially relevant in the last few years, in which political correctness at both the institutional and individual level has been seen, on the one hand, as a crucial tool in protecting people from verbal abuse and in preventing the reinforcement of stereotypes and, on the other, as a set of measures and a way of thinking which significantly curtail free speech in many aspects of the public sphere.
The 2018 conference seeks to explore the shifting boundaries of the acceptability of taboo in their various incarnations as produced and perceived in today’s media landscape, from cinema and television, to news, videogames, and different kinds of online content.
Keynote speakers:
- Debra Aarons - University of New South Wales, Australia
- Sharon Lockyer - Brunel University London, UK
- Martin Rowson - Chair of the British Cartoonists' Association