Conference 2020
The Lost Sock: Approaching a New Paradigm
Call for papers
15 minutes
The International Academy of Hosiery Studies (Hackney) takes great pleasure in inviting members and associates to its first conference: Reconstructing the Paradigm; the existential recuperation of the gestalt of the uncovered foot.
There will be an exhaustive series of talks and papers on numerous aspects of hosiery, and specifically its unexplained absence. All our work will explore this profoundly topical subject from an historical, cultural, philosophical, post-modernist, Marxist, and literary perspective.
The loss of a sock is both a profound moment, and a mundane interlude. For some it may even be a transcendental experience.
Papers will explore imagined foot coverings, by engaging with stories of remembered socks. Indigenous elders will share tales of long house and campfire. The lost sock will be explored as catalyst for conflicts in an unredeemed consensus. What can this simple foot covering say about the cultures that made it necessary? Has this slight foot artefact surreptitiously subsumed the discourse? Taken over the gestalt?
We will look at historical contexts and cultural responses to sock loss: from the existential challenge of notions of performative contrition to unexplained euphoria in rainforest sock loss rituals. What can we discover about meaning and purpose from contemplating this universal condition? Is it a sock lost or a sock retained? A half pair full or a half pair empty? Contributions of papers are solicited from the academic community, the arts, individuals and other interested parties. Papers will be selected by a panel of potential experts.
Note: Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the prestigious biennial conference of the IASS (Hackney) will this year be carried out by Zoom.
Academic papers need be from 2,999-3,000 words, and contain exhaustive citations. However, anecdotal presentations, multi-media, live music, film, poetry and the plastic arts are also solicited, without size limit. Papers and video pieces are particularly sought from performance artists.
A list of the papers reviewed by the selection committee includes:
Postmodernist studies
A pair of socks: The violence of a hetero-authoritarian construct
Lady Godiva: A history of protest against male domination of the female foot
Whose sock in my sleeping bag? A critical rereading of On The Road
Sock loss in a time of coronavirus
Socks in the city: Understanding television’s most popular series
[More papers urgently sought]
Mathematics
Euclid’s breakthrough on the triangle- The incompatibility of three sided constructs and paired footwear
The topology of lost sock coordinates; the x, y, p conundrum
Philosophy
Can a sock be ever truly lost?
Descartes “I have two socks therefore I am”: The limits of a philosophy based on the merely temporarily possible
Historical research
Sock pairing in the Tudor court
The Opium Wars from the perspective of 21st century Hosiery Studies
The Texas book depository and the missing sock
The Odyssey from the perspective of more recent research into Aegean sock cults
Sock loss studies and the Domesday book
Lenin’s lost sock: a psycho-analytical examination of the Bolshevik revolution
The Stalin Effect: Purges in the Soviet Sock Academy 1931-35
Social studies
Losing a loved one: Sock loss within post modernist theory, a re-evaluation
Suburban isolation as a metaphor for separated hosiery
Line drying techniques and their influence on rates of sock loss
The sock as a symbol of place
Changing attitudes to sexuality: The status of the male sock versus the female sock
Stockings: Are they socks? A feminist perspective
A charity to reunite separated socks- a forlorn hope?
Comparative Hosiery
Ghost socks- The diminished role of the god of lost socks in sandal wearing cultures
Did Jesus wear socks?
St Francis of Assisi: a life determined by early experiences of sock deprivation?
The Apocrypha and lost references to the covered foot
Attitudes to unpaired socks in New Guinea Cargo Cults
Hosiery and the Protestant revolt
Socks in the 18th century Welsh chapel
Brain sciences
Lost socks, poignant memories and delaying the onset of dementia
Psychology
Socks in the mind: Missing footwear, memory and nostalgia
Children with a single sock: How early experiences of sock deprivation may affect development
Sock loss anger: Performative influences on life expectancy
Education
Understanding sock loss- a key stage in childhood development
Sock loss studies – has it a place in the national curriculum?
Has the growth of Hosiery Studies aggravated educational inequalities?
Parenthood
With no siblings to blame, do single children lack emotional outlets for sock loss?
Information Technology
The Sock’s Odyssey: The sock matching game storming the on-line world
The search for a sock matching app: can social media reunite our hosiery?
Reuniting tagged socks: Is the world’s computational capacity up to the task?
Universal sock tagging and privacy: A price worth paying?
Department of Language, Literature and Linguistics
Poetic images of the covered foot in early Arab literature
Lady Chatterley’s Lover- images of part-covered feet in the unexpurgated edition
Captain Ahab and the role of hosiery in the tale of the white whale
Pirate literature: The peg leg as a symbol of unmatched hosiery
Absence: Sock loss and mourning: an existential perspective
The singled stockinged foot: Depiction of the half dressed female foot as a indicator of imminent sexual activity in Victorian art
Daffodils as a symbol for a foot covering- reassessing Wordsworth’s work
Biological sciences
Do socks mate for life?
Examples of foot covering in the Bonobo of the Congolese rainforest
Sock loss rates on the Beagle: A neglected aspect of Darwin’s breakthrough on evolution
Business studies
When Marks met Spencer: Combining differing attitudes to hosiery into a twentieth century icon
When Pri joined Mark: Offshoring and the disdain for socks as a symbol of certitude
Coronavirus
Can unpaired socks replace face masks?
Social Distancing as a catalyst for divergent hosiery?
Lock-down, laundrette closures and libertarian attitudes: considerations for a review of external factors on median sock loss rate theory
Politics
Donald Trump: Has he lost his sock?
Were losses on the NY Sock Exchange the reason Donald Trump lost the presidency?
Brexit
EU hosiery policies in the run up to the referendum
We also expect papers by fellows of IAHS
Architecture
Dr Jonathon Spoon PhD: Designing Space for Loss: Architecture’s failure to remove hidden spaces destined to shelter lost socks
Transportation
Anorak: London Transport Lost Property: Fluctuations in rates of sock loss, and their historical implications
Ranching
Dr Bill Pillman, rancher: Reducing sock loss and increasing profitability on marginal ranch land
Conspiracy theories
Dr Hu Yu Luk: Did coronavirus start in the Wuhan sock market?
The London Sock Orchestra will perform a specially commissioned piece Requiem for Socks of Yesteryear
Simon Waters FMOSC, Conference Lead; Emeritus Professor of Hosiery Studies
IAHS (H)
Merchandise
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