The conference will explore 1. The erotic as a bridge in the context of personal relationships; 2. The erotic as a bridge in the context of social, cultural and historical behaviour; 3. The erotic as a bridge in the context in intellectual enquiry. The Joys of the Erotic: Building Human Connections
An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Project
Friday 29th June 2018 – Saturday 30th June 2018
Palermo, Italy
The erotic. A complex, tangled, and ephemeral web of meeting points, interfaces and intersections at the centre of human experiences. It informs our lives, shapes our perceptions and pulls us toward one another while being itself shaped by shifting tastes and perceptions. Shrouded in mystery, it is tantalising, alluring and dangerous all at once. Eroticism is frequently displayed in film, embedded in music, intimated in art and literature, as well as in the advertising on city streets, travel shows and fashion events. Above all, it builds pathways which bring us closer to each other.
African-American lesbian poet and activist Audre Lorde believes the erotic provides “the power which comes from sharing deeply any pursuit with another person.” Sharing physical, emotional or intellectual joy “forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.” The shared joy of the erotic offers a bridge that allows us to make connections between and among people across various gender, racial, social, cultural, and political divides.
In fact the erotic is many things: a meeting point of intimacy, sensuality, arousal, sexuality, longing and desire; an interface between aesthetics, form, taste, art; a driver of photography, visual imagery and tactile textures; a component of music, performance, dance, fluidity, and movement; the object of fashion, design, marketing and social mass appeal; a unique avenue for ethical, political, social, economic, cultural, psychological, and philosophical insights and perspectives. The erotic unites, highlights, undermines and subverts the emotional and intellectual; it stands at the heart of (sexual) relationships, orientations, acts and behaviours and remains compellingly unique to us all.
Traditionally seen as socially taboo and often associated with fear and shame, the erotic continues to erupt, thrusting itself into popular culture by any means possible. By providing a forum for ideas, arguments and experiences that might otherwise not receive attention, we aim to explore the erotic, those who study it, and those who allow it to build those bridges as an outreach to others.
This fully inclusive and accessible interdisciplinary conference aims to explore the challenging, paradoxical and ambiguous nature of the ‘erotic’ which finds a resonance inside us all. It has three overarching themes: 1. The erotic as a bridge in the context of human and personal relationships; 2. The erotic as a bridge in the context of social, cultural and historical behaviour; 3. The erotic as a bridge in the context in intellectual enquiry.
Key themes to be explored include – but are not limited to –
Inclusive interdisciplinary approaches to eroticism and the erotic
Histories of the erotic
Local, national, international and global perspectives on the erotic
The erotic imagination: literature, art, music, theatre and cinema
Politics and the erotic
Economics and the commercialization of eroticism
Public spaces and the eroticism
Virtual spaces and eroticism
The law, crime and the erotic
Madness and eroticism (e.g. Elizabeth Bathory)
The erotics of death
Exploring women who write and read gay erotica
Erotic encounters with the non-human: inanimate objects, sex dolls and erotic robots
Eroticized combat (e.g. the Trojan war myth)
Erotic imagery (pictures, art, sculpture, photography, body art, selfies)
The erotic and education
The erotic and identity: disability, ethnicity, gender, class and otherness
The eroticized, and de-eroticized body
The erotic, pornography and exploitation
The erotic, ethics and philosophy
The erotic: absence, control and excess
The erotic and sexual representation
The role of eroticism in relationships: romance, desire, arousal, excitement
Eroticism and fantasy or role playing
The erotic and the perverse; eroticism & fetishism
The psychology of the erotic
Religion and the erotic
The erotic in popular culture
Our main goal is to facilitate dialogue and spark innovative collaborations and discussions at an international level, in a dynamic and interactive setting. Thus, we welcome participants from all relevant disciplines, professions and vocations (NGO personnel, aid workers, researchers, mental and physical health professionals, educators, human rights activists, counselors, social workers, policy makers, journalists, lawyers, politicians, business owners, military personnel, customs workers and members of the border patrol, labour specialists, historians, sociologists, psychologists, economists, anthropologists, ethnographers social media experts, artists and many more)
What to Send
The aim of this interdisciplinary conference and collaborative networking event is to bring people together and encourage creative conversations in the context of a variety of formats: papers, seminars, workshops, performances, poster presentations, panels, q&a’s, roundtables etc.
300 word proposals, presentations, abstracts and other forms of contribution and participation should be submitted by Friday 19th January 2018. Other forms of participation should be discussed in advance with the Organising Chair.
All submissions will be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Development Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.
You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Friday 2nd February 2018.
If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 11th May 2018.
Abstracts and proposals may be in Word, PDF, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in the programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Joys of the Erotic Submission
Where to Send
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chair and the Project Administrator:
Dr Natalia Kaloh Vid: natalia@progressiveconnexions.net
Project Administrator: palermojoys@progressiveconnexions.net Calendar of time-lines and deadlines
Friday 19th January 2018
Proposal Submission deadline
Friday 2nd February 2018
Acceptance/Rejection notification
Friday 23rd February 2018
Booking Form Submissions
by Friday 9th March 2018
Invoices issued
w/b Monday 12th March 2018
Circulation of Draft Programme
Monday 9th April 2018
Final date for payment
Friday 27th April 2018
Circulation of Revised Programme
Friday 11th May 2018
Final programme to website and to printing.
Friday 18th May 2018
Full draft of presentation to be submitted.
