Conference "Exploring the Scandalous: Scandal as a Catalyst of Progress?", Vienna

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. For the purpose of this conference, however, we are 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, we 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.
The conference will take place at the University of Vienna from 24 September 2025 to 26 September 2025. Abstracts are due by 15 March 2025. For further details on how to submit, see the full CfP below or follow this link.