Intensive graduate seminar

Everyday Moods, Affects and Attunements
3–4 ECTS credits

Hosting Institutions: Nordic Summer University research circle Heterologies of the Everyday; Estonian Literary Museum; University of Tartu; Estonian Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts, Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory

The last decade has witnessed a shift of academic interest from the individual or collective subject towards emotional states, moods, and affects. Motivated by ‘the affective turn’ in the human sciences, this interdisciplinary seminar will explore the role of moods, affects and attunements in different spheres connected to everyday existence. Different problems in the sphere of the everyday will be discussed, including natural and built environments, cultural representations, entertainment, advertising, and human relations.

Invited speakers include: Ben Highmore (University of Sussex), Jonathan Flatley (Wayne State University), Tim Edensor (Manchester Metropolitan University), Epp Annus (Estonian Literary Museum / Ohio State University), Britta Brenna (University of Oslo), Anna-Lena Carlsson (Maelardalen University), Carsten Friberg (Aalborg University), Ossi Naukkarinen (Aalto University), Xavier Pla (University of Girona), Noora Pyyry (University of Helsinki), Bryony Randall (University of Glasgow), Dan Eugen Ratiu (Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca), Jennie Schaeffer (Maelardalen University), Tõnu Viik (Tallinn University), Raine Vasquez (Helsinki University).

Seminar consists of:
1) lectures and discussions conducted by Estonian and guest lecturers;
2) six thematic sessions (phenomenology of moods and affects; affective places and spaces; everyday aesthetics; intensified everyday life in fiction and visual arts; the role of affect in late modernity; moods, mediation and public memory).

Students are expected to do preparatory reading, participate in the full study programme, and submit a symposium diary (this can be a reflexion or summary of presentations most relevant to the student, about 2000 words) by March 21.

Preliminary program (PDF)

Requirements for participation

PhD students can participate with or without giving a presentation. Presentations will be scheduled according to the thematic sessions of the symposium.

Interested graduate students (maximum 15) can apply for the seminar by sending a short introduction specifying their education and research interests to ktkdk@ut.ee by February 6, 2014. Please specify your preferred way of participation (with/without presentation). Students who wish to present a paper should submit an abstract of 200 words by February 6, 2014 and should indicate the session most appropriate for their presentation. The program includes 4–5 student presentations. ECTS points will be awarded on the following conditions:
3 ECTS participation in the full seminar programme and completion of a short symposium diary
+ 1 ECTS making a presentation.

Reading material (obligatory and suggested) will be made available together with notifications of acceptance, and will be sent no later than February 13, 2014. The working language of the seminar is English. Participation in the course is free of charge; accommodation and travel costs of the students of GSCSA will be reimbursed.

The course will be held in conjunction with the Winter symposium organized by the Nordic Summer University research circle Heterologies of the Everyday.

The research circle (founded in 2012, coordinators Epp Annus and Arto Haapala) analyses the experience of the everyday in its developments from the post WWII period to the present era, with a special emphasis on the following research areas: quotidian spaces and the temporality of the everyday; affectivity of the everyday life, materialities of affect; moods and attunements as formative of our everyday experience; everyday redistribution of the sensible; aesthetic values in everyday life. This is an interdisciplinary project that works at the intersection of cultural studies, philosophy, literary criticism, art criticism, film studies, urban studies, anthropology, and human geography.

Nordic Summer University (NSU) is an independent and open academic institution which organizes research networks crossing academic and national borders. NSU is a democratic institution organized and run by its participants through different research circles.

The event is supported by the European Union through the European Social Fund (Estonian Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts) and by Nordic Council of Ministers through Nordic Summer University Network.