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Conferences

2003 Property Rights in the Body
Convenors: Dr Cameron Stuart (Macquarie University) and Dr Nancy E. Wright (CISPR)

2004 Land, Visual Culture and Property Rights Symposium
Convenor: Dr Therese Davis

2005     Moral Panics, the Media and the Law: An International Symposium
              28-29 September 2005 University House, Newcastle.
              Convenors: David Lemmings, Nancy E. Wright and Kate Lindsay

Most adults living in Australia and other western societies who consume the popular press and mass electronic media have experienced a moral panic, where an outbreak of public anxiety, focussed by the press and by government reaction, constructs ideas about ‘deviance’ and measures to solve ‘social problems.’ Moral panics have a long history, but it is arguable that the moral ‘law and order’ version originated in eighteenth-century England, with the conjunction of a mass circulation press, the middle-class public, and regular parliamentary sessions.

The principal rationale for this two-day symposium was to test the foregoing hypothesis and to place the issue of eighteenth-century moral panics and their connections with the law in a broader context. The meeting brought together a group of early modern scholars who considered the production of moral panics in early modern England (1500-1800). International speakers included: Dr Malcolm Gaskill (University of Cambridge, UK) and Professor Randall McGowen (University of Oregon, USA).

Moral Panics, The Media and The Law: An International Symposium was sponsored by CISPR and the ARC Network for Early European Research (NEER).

Dr Nancy E. Wright, Director,
Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Property Rights
Email: nancy.wright@newcastle.edu.au
Telephone: 61-2-49215171
Facsimile: 61-2-49216933