Pre-Conference - ISRE 2022. Online registration by Cvent

The main ISRE conference and associated pre-conferences each provide exciting opportunities to meet international colleagues, present your work, and stay up-to-date with the latest developments in emotion research. ISRE members study emotions from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives, including psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, sociology, linguistics, affective computing, history, anthropology, and design. The Pre-Conference chairs are excited to announce the pre-conferences for ISRE 2022. We had many strong, interesting proposals submitted, and the following six were selected.

Affective Computing Pre-Conference at ISRE 2022 (AC@ISRE 2022)

Organizers: Joost Broekens (Leiden) and Mohammad Soleymani (USC)

This pre-conference attempts to support the increasing interest in the interdisciplinary study of emotion in which computational modelling as well as computational analysis play an important role. Various relevant talks will be given, with an emphasis on state-of-the-art research on computational techniques for understanding, recognizing and shaping human emotion, and emphasizes ways to strengthen interdisciplinary connections between the computational and human sciences of emotion. Speakers will discuss the latest research on computational methods inspired by the affective sciences, as well as how such methods can transform research in affective science.

Norms and Deviations in Emotions

Organizers: Sarah Arnaud (Antwerp), Amanda Evans (Antwerp), Juliette Vazard (Geneva), Kris Goffin (Antwerp & Leuven), Laura Silva (Geneva) and Oli Odoffin (Antwerp)

This pre-conference focuses on deviations related to affect, cognition, and interactions thereof, focusing particularly on borderline personality, OCD, autism, eating disorders, bipolar disorders, and anxiety disorders. Various relevant topics will be discussed, including what constitutes a deviation from the proper functioning of emotional processes, and the extent to which the affective and cognitive differences involved in these conditions are value-laden. Addressing these issues requires uncovering underlying normative assumptions about how emotions are typically supposed to function, as well as assumptions about what it means to have "affective and/or cognitive differences." Through the analysis of the emotional deviations of specific psychiatric categories, we aim to uncover underlying normative claims about the mind, and show that identifying them can clarify the characterization of emotional deviations.

Affect, Places and Spaces

Organizers: Mary Carman (Witwatersrand) and Peace Kiguwa (Witwatersrand)

This pre-conference explores how context is essential to understanding emotion. In particular, discussions will examine the connections between affect, places and spaces from different disciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, critical psychology and diversity studies. Relevant topics will be discussed, including the affective base of events of violence, from protests in places of higher education to racialised affective economies in townships, or to examining the role of hope in nation-building in political contexts of fracture; as well as whether disruptive emotions, such as the anger witnessed in protest movements, can be justified within contextually-relevant evaluative frameworks that promote harmony or solidarity, or whether a politics of compassion could inadvertently be a politics of harm. The driving aims are to draw attention to how analyses of affect, places and spaces can influence understandings of emotion, as well as to illustrate how research from diverse cultural and social contexts can enrich the wider emotion community.

A Multidisciplinary Investigation of Affectivism

Organizers: Daniel Dukes (Geneva & Fribourg), Disa Sauter (Amsterdam) and David Sander (Geneva)

This pre-conference will address the question of whether or not we are in the era of affectivism. "Affectivism" is defined as “the approach in which inclusion of affective processes in [models of behaviour, mind, and brain], not only explains affective phenomena but, critically, further enhances the power to explain cognition and behaviour.” Various relevant talks will be given, including by researchers in several key disciplines (anthropology, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, and sociology). Indeed, it is highly likely that the beginnings of affectivism are multifaceted: it would be plainly wrong to argue that one discipline is entirely responsible for spearheading the burgeoning interest in the affective processes across so many disciplines. However, it is perhaps possible to imagine an increasingly interdisciplinary future for the affective sciences: where we are headed may be more shared than how we got here.

Emotions in Organizational and Social Media Communication

Organizers: Anat Rafaeli (Technion Israel), Alexander Maedche (Karlsruhe), Ivo Benke (Karlsruhe) and Ryan L. Boyd (Lancaster)

This pre-conference workshop will discuss modeling of emotions in virtual communication in organizations and social media and demonstrate implementation of automated tools to research emotional dynamics in such organizational communication. The workshop will integrate academic presentations with demonstrations of new industry tools and opportunities to highlight the research opportunities availed by the fast-moving landscape of digitized emotion sciences. The workshop’s discussion will review developing and testing theory about displayed and felt emotions in virtual communication in organizations, meaning communication that includes the use of text- and video-based technology. We will specifically describe analyses of social media communication, of emotions in conversations among coworkers in remote locations and emotions in conversations between customers and customer service agents.

Emotional Development Preconference: Contextualizing Emotional Development

Organizer: Eric Walle (UC Merced)

This pre-conference incorporates research from a range of disciplines to contextualize emotional development. Specifically, the presented research will highlight how emotions and their development can be better contextualized by considering the influences of evolutionary adaptiveness, societal structure, cultural and cross-cultural norms, race and bias, and temporal dynamics of interpersonal interactions. Topics to be highlighted include the adaptive functions that emotions afford, how societies influence the transmission of emotions and values, and how culture, acculturation, and race impact the development of emotions. Taken together, this theme will push the boundaries of how researchers contextualize development, consider how various contexts interact with one another, and stimulate discussion and collaboration to integrate research across disciplines.