Please excuse cross-posting

The deadline for submissions has been briefly extended

Traces of the erotic are all around us, embodied in images, music, advertising, stories, inter-personal interactions, dreams and desires. Whether expressed in symbolic or literal form, the erotic has captured human imagination across time and cultures, shaping our understanding and experience of pleasure and intimacy along the way. While there is no denying that the erotic has an irresistible appeal, it is also viewed as a taboo to be suppressed or hidden.

But what is the role of erotic desire in an individual’s everyday life? How does it inform the way we interact with others in private and public contexts? What is the function of eroticism in romantic relationships and can romance exist without eroticism? What does it mean when an individual’s notion of erotic pleasure is considered taboo within their society? To what extent have changing notions of taboo affected our relationship with the erotic? How do art, literature, film, television, music and other creative outlets inform our understanding of and experiences with the erotic? What are the public policy implications of our relationship with the erotic? Is the erotic always related to pleasure?

The conference on the Erotic aims to provide a platform for participants from diverse contexts and backgrounds to participate in dynamic inter-disciplinary dialogues on a range of critical issues. The focus of this year’s meeting will centre on bodies, desires and practices. In order to ensure a fully inter-disciplinary conversation, the organisers invite participation by academics, clinicians and medical practitioners, business people (including escort agencies, the sex industry), educators, civil servants, representatives from the volunteer sector and NGOs, creative practitioners (artists, filmmakers, musicians, writers), lawyers, scholars and others interested in the topic.

Presentations, informal talks, performances, workshops, directed discussions, screenings and other types of interactive engagement might address themes such as:

Cultural Attitudes Toward Erotic Desires and Practices
Media portrayals (both journalistic and narrative-based)
Acceptable vs. unacceptable types of erotic desires and practices
Double standards around attitudes toward erotic pleasures for men and erotic pleasures for women
Attitudes toward children’s experiences of erotic bodies and desires
Cross-cultural attitudes toward erotic desires and practices
Historical/comparative analysis of cultural attitudes toward eroticism
Impact of religion on attitudes toward bodies, erotic desires and practices
Social media, erotic desires and portals for erotic practices

The Economics of Erotic Desires and Practices
Geographies of the erotic: spaces and places of erotic desires and practices
Fashion and erotic desires
Clothing erotic practices
Erotic industries: examples, operations and implications
Sex workers: exploitation, autonomy, pleasure, policing, people-trafficking and sexual slavery
The 50 Shades of Gray effect on the sex industry
Pornography and erotic desires
Regulating the sex industry
Cross-cultural and historical industry analyses

Psychological and Medical Perspectives on Erotic Desires and Practices
Physiological processes on and in bodies and erotic desires
Consequences of erotic practices; sex sent me to the ER
Relationship between erotic pleasure, love and romance
Coping with the absence of erotic pleasure
Bodies, desires, fetishes and obsessions
Relationship between erotic desires, practices and mental health
Crime and the erotic
Enhancing erotic desires: medical advances and technologies

Erotic Desires and Practices in Politics and the Law
Politics and the erotic
Good sex, bad sex.
Legal and legislative provisions for regulating the pursuit of erotic practices
Sadomasochism, dominatrix, spanking, the eroticization of pain and other practices
Erotic practices and damaged bodies
Challenges of dealing with erotic desires in virtual environments
The state, the law, the private and public: ‘abnormality’, ‘perversity’ and ‘immorality’
Human rights, erotic desires and practices
Activists, NGOs and social movements related to issues dealing with erotic desires and practices

Erotic Desires, Appreciation and Education
Strategies for erotic education
Erotic Bodies, Desires, Practices and the Arts
Erotic Bodies, desires, practices and the Humanities
Erotic Bodies, desires, practices and the social sciences
Sex education, the erotic, teaching the curriculum and schools
Researching erotic bodies, desires and practices
Approaches to talking about erotic desires and practices in non-academic contexts

Critical and Creative Issues in Erotic Desires and Practices
Race and erotic bodies, desires and practices
Inequality and erotic bodies, desires and practices
Fantasy and the erotic
Storytelling and erotic desires and practices
Disability and erotic bodies, desires and practices
Nudity and the erotic
Erotic desires, practices and homosexuality
Erotic desires, practices and transgendered experiences
The erotic and class identity
Power, shame and physical violence in erotic contexts and encounters

The Advisory Group welcomes the submission of proposals for short workshops, practitioner-based activities, performances, and pre-formed panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings; photographic essays; installations; interactive talks and alternative presentation styles that encourage engagement.

Call for Cross-Over Presentations
The Exploring the Erotic project will be meeting at the same time as two other projects: Love Letters and Exploring Sexuality and Spirituality. All three groups will share at least one creative workshop in common led by a poetess who writes sensual and erotic poetry. In addition we welcome submissions which cross the divide between two or even all three project areas. If you would like to be considered for a cross project session, please mark your submission “Crossover Submission”.

Workshop
As part of the conference, there will be an afternoon workshop focusing on “Reading Erotic Poetry“. The workshop is an ongoing project within the Exploring the Erotic project. You will explore the ways in which poems can accommodate the erotic, moving from subtle erotic love expressions over blunt eroticism to hard pornographic features in erotic poetry.

What to Send
300 word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution should be submitted by Friday 14th August 2015.
All submissions be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project 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 28th August 2015.
If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 11th December 2015.

Abstracts may be in Word, 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 programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Exploring the Erotic Abstract Submission

Where to Send
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs:

This event is part of an emerging inclusive interdisciplinary research and publishing project which overlaps projects working in the areas of Sexuality, Spirituality, Gender and other related areas. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

It is anticipated that a number of publishing options will arise from the work of the project generally and from the meeting of Exploring the Erotic stream in particular. Minimally there will be a digital eBook resulting from the conference meeting. Other options, some of which might include digital publications, paperbacks and a journal will be explored during the meeting itself.

Ethos
Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation. Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.