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- Deadline: 31 May 2025 Gender equality and diversity in science between institutional change and symbolic politics (working title) Universities and other research institutions contribute to the reproduction and transformation of power relations and structures in society through the production of knowledge about and for society. These places of knowledge production, therefore, play a key role in the context of gender equality and diversity: the way in which gender and diversity are approached and implemented in academia not only influences the structure and culture of academic institutions themselves but also makes a significant contribution to developments in society. This is why demands for gender equality and diversity in academia - both concerning researchers and research content - are still timely, even several decades after the introduction of the first gender equality measures and the institutionalisation of gender studies. Despite the legal and institutional anchoring of gender equality and numerous programmes to promote gender equality and diversity, these issues are still highly contested - now more than ever. For instance, the representation of women and marginalised groups among professors and diversity in research content (e.g., Gender-, Trans- and Diversity Studies) only increases very slowly. Discrimination and power structures persist, and successes in both areas are very fragile – a phenomenon that is also referred to as the ‘gender equality paradox’ (Hark and Hofbauer 2023). A striking development in recent years is the increasing (and often strategic) linking of equality and diversity with the promise of excellence and innovation, as well as with improved international competitiveness. It seems that framing equality and diversity policies with neoliberal arguments of the economic usability of diversity (e.g., diverse perspectives increasing the quality and social relevance of research, closing gender data gaps – in cases where they impact the economy –, or finding solutions for social challenges) increases their acceptance and popularity. The editors of the special issue are Laura Eigenmann, Patricia Graf and Kathrin Zippel. We invite submissions of one- to two-page abstracts by May 31, 2025, to be sent to laura.eigenmann@fu-berlin.de, patricia.graf@businessschool-berlin.de, gender-soz@polsoz.fu-berlin.de or the editorial office redaktion@femina-politica.de. Femina Politica is a feminist academic journal that promotes scholarly work by women and people with marginalised gender identities(such as trans*, inter*, non-binary, or gender-nonconforming persons) both within and outside academia. We invite the submission of high-quality abstracts and particularly welcome contributions that go beyond white, Eurocentric, cis-heteronormative feminism.
- Deadline: 31 May 2025 Since the 1960s, emancipated, pluralistic and independent youth cultures are on the rise. Even though they are mostly male-dominated, questions of masculinity have rarely been explored until now. Our aim is to close this gap by connecting sociological knowledge with visual culture which seem to be closely and ambivalently related. Therefore, we would like to examine how, when young men are concerned, sociology and visual culture interact. We are interested in the sociological and photographic discourses of adolescent masculinities, their function in creating knowledge about male adolescence and its visual representation. How do scientific knowledge and artistic/visual knowledge on male adolescents relate to one another? How do they differ? To examine the visual and discursive conditions that make young men visible since the 1960s, we are planning three workshops in 2026. January 15-16, 2026 - Adolescent Masculinities I: Sexuality, Vulnerability and the Body March 19-20, 2026 - Adolescent Masculinities II: Homosociality and Hierarchization June 11-12, 2026 - Adolescent Masculinities III: Knowledge, Empowerment and Institutions
- Deadline: 01 June 2025 Education in Trans*formation. Institutional innovation towards intersectional trans* pedagogies The last few years have seen a rapid increase in public conversations about the phenomenon of trans*/transgender people, or those whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex assigned them at birth, and how societies should accommodate trans* people. The project Education in Trans*formation draws the attention to trans* children and adolescents in education, a crucial area of discrimination for trans* persons highlighted by the European Commission recently. The overall aim of the project is to provide a complex and nuanced articulation of what it may mean to be, think, and teach trans* students in educational settings and to develop a framework for full access for trans* students to education in conversation with different actors in the field of education. The project examines public mandatory primary and secondary all-day schools in large cities in German and French-speaking Switzerland that are situated in different socio-economic, racial, ethnic and religious contexts. This study explores the experiences of trans* students and trans* activist organisations in education, and scrutinises the potential and limitations of international best practices in trans* inclusive pedagogies by means of a qualitative, in-depth analysis. With an intersectional perspective on gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, class, sexuality and ability, this project seeks to break new ground in analysing, theorising and initiating pedagogical practices and institutional transformation in education to facilitate broader accessibility to education.
- Deadline: 22 June 2025 Feminism in Politics – Politics in Feminism CfP // GENDER. Journal for Gender, Culture and Society The current call focuses on the “politicity” of feminisms as an interventionist practice. The focus is on how feminist movements intervene in political conflicts and contribute to recognizing and changing power relations and the associated structures and norms. We welcome contributions especially from the fields of political philosophy and theory, research on feminisms in the Global South, and the history of feminisms. Editors are Bettina Dennerlein, Katrin Meyer, and Helena Rust. We cordially invite you to submit an abstract by 22 June 2025.
- Deadline: 30 June 2025 Call for Papers: Thinking agriculture from the margins: Intersectional perspectives The old image of the farm was a white, male-centered unit of production. Over the years the role of women, of migrant workers, of queers, were made visible. As contributions of “the margins” gain recognition, new social and ecological relationships are gaining prominence—reshaping how we think about agriculture, sustainability, and justice. With this Call for Papers we encourage scholars to (re)think agriculture from the margins. What alternative models exist beyond traditional family farming and extractivist agricultural systems? And how might marginalized perspectives—such as those of queer, racialized, and migrantized individuals—contribute to the development of sustainable and socially just agricultural practices? Furthermore, how do issues of racism, disability, and social justice intersect with access to farmland and natural resources? These critical questions lie at the heart of our Call for Papers, which seeks to explore intersectional approaches to sustainable agriculture. This call invites scholars and practitioners to engage with the socio-ecological dimensions of sustainability, centering marginalized perspectives that challenge dominant narratives and foster more inclusive, resilient agricultural practices. We welcome contributions that critically engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes: Gendered and Sexual Relations How do patriarchal structures, heterosexuality, and hegemonic gender roles shape rural life and agricultural labor? What alternative models and practices challenge these structures to promote more just gender and sexual relations? Queer Perspectives on Farm Life and Work What are the experiences of queer individuals in farming spaces? How do they contribute to just and sustainable agricultural practices? What challenges do they face, and what strategies of empowerment and co-existence have they developed? Migration and Racism in Agriculture How do migration and racialized/ethnicized structures influence agriculture? How can these dynamics be addressed to foster just working and living conditions? Disability and Agriculture How are disabled individuals involved in agriculture? How can disability-inclusive agricultural practices contribute to sustainable and adaptive farming models? Human and More-Than-Human Relationships How do marginalized perspectives conceptualize relationships between humans, animals, plants, and the soil? What role do these relationships play in shaping sustainable and just farming livelihoods? Practical Examples and Case Studies What existing projects and initiatives promote sustainability and justice in agriculture? What challenges and successes can be identified from these efforts?
- Deadline: 30 June 2025 The Body, Anatomy, and Aesthetics In a 2022 article, one of a number of related works, and drawing on the work of Didier Deleule and François Guery (2014)– the late art theorist Marina Vishmidt critiqued the manner in which an analysis of ‘bodies’ seemed to be overly focused on the register of vulnerability, or the post-structuralist, discursive, or psychoanalytic dimensions, thus relegating bodies excessively to the realm of the abstract, to the exclusion of the concrete. Anatomy, with regards to both its aesthetic and scientific purposes, also has abstract and concrete dimensions – as innovative recent work analyzing anatomy within its broader social and historical contexts demonstrate. See, for example, the recent special issue of The Anatomical Record (Laitman and Smith, 2022), or the work of Michael Sappol (2004; 2024). This CfA is specifically interested in the body, inclusive of anatomy, and will seek to not only situate and read the body and anatomy within specific political economic contexts (which are not solely confined to capitalism, although this is a proposed focus) – but also, how those contexts produce the body (see, for example, Blayney et al., 2022) and anatomy themselves, and how this may be reflected back or interpreted through specific aesthetic works. This therefore additionally entails looking at the relationship between the abstract and the concrete – and therefore, for example, how the abstract of aesthetics, amongst other things, may relate back in a dialectical, mutually interlinked relationship with the concrete of the economy. In addition, this CfA wishes to concretize the body and anatomy, in both their individual and collective registers, and how the abstract and the concrete dialectically shape and produce each other in relation to the body and anatomy. In so doing, the interplay and distinction between the private body and the body that appears in the public sphere (see, for example, Butler, 2011), how this might be reflected in aesthetic works, and what this tells us about the public sphere – will also be considered. This CfA is therefore interested in articles that explore, but are not limited to: The body in aesthetic works and its relation to the public sphere Anatomy, aesthetics, and the public sphere The history of anatomy Queer, intersex, and trans anatomies Race, gender, class, and anatomy and the body in relation to the public sphere The evolution of the representation and understanding of queer, intersex, and trans bodies The production and mediation of the body within specific political economic contexts, including capitalism Urban design and the production and mediation of the body
- Deadline: 30 June 2025 Call for Contributions: 11. Interdisziplinärer Workshop Kritische Sexarbeitsforschung 14. bis 16. November 2025 Wien, Österreich Die aus dem Netzwerk Kritische Sexarbeitsforschung gegründete Gesellschaft für Sexarbeits- und Prostitutionsforschung vernetzt Forschende verschiedener Disziplinen miteinander. Sie fördert eine interdisziplinäre wissenschaftliche Thematisierung und Auseinandersetzung mit Prostitution und Sexarbeit sowie die Entwicklung neuer Forschungsperspektiven auf das Themenfeld. Auch der diesjährige Workshop bietet Studierenden und Wissenschaftler:innen in der Qualifikationsphase einen kollektiven Raum, um die eigenen aktuellen Arbeiten zum Thema abseits von etablierten, stigmatisierenden und kriminalisierenden Diskursen und Debatten diskutieren zu können. Die thematische Rahmung ist hierbei bewusst offen gehalten und orientiert sich am Input der Beteiligten.
- Deadline: 31 July 2025 Colloque interdisciplinaire, du 20 au 21 mars 2025, au CNAM Paris Avec la «révolution numérique» (Cardon, 2019) amorcée dans les années 2000, la recherche en sociologie du travail s’efforce de rendre compte des effets induits par l’usage croissant des dispositifs numériques et des nouvelles technologies sur les structures de l’emploi, les organisations du travail, les conditions de travail, ainsi que sur son articulation avec la vie privée. Du côté de l’emploi, l’essor des plateformes numériques a fait émerger de nombreuses «zones grises de l’emploi» (Bernard & Abdelnour, 2018; Bureau et al., 2019; Azaïs et al., 2017) venant brouiller les frontières entre salariat et travail indépendant (Supiot 2000; Dupuy & Larré, 1998). Le développement des outils numériques de gestion et de communication est également venu transformer les modalités de contrôle et d’encadrement des travailleur·ses; et bouleverser – avec la progression du télétravail notamment (Schütz, 2021; Le Gagneur, 2023) – les frontières spatiales et temporelles du travail (Benedetto-Meyer & Boboc, 2021), amenant les travailleur·ses à repenser leurs modalités d’articulation des temps sociaux (Pizarro Erazo, Viera Giraldo & Landour, 2023). Ces éléments ont des répercussions sur le travail en lui-même, qui peut être amené à changer de nature, mais également sur les conditions de travail et la santé des travailleur·ses, qui peuvent se trouver améliorées (notamment par l’automatisation de certaines tâches dites «pénibles») mais aussi détériorées par l’intensification du travail. Ce colloque vise ainsi à faire le point sur les formes et les effets des transformations du travail, de l’emploi et des organisations à l’ère numérique. Comment le travail et l’emploi se transforment-ils, face à l’arrivée de nouveaux outils et modes de communication? Ces évolutions représentent-elles des gains, ou au contraire des pertes de droit, pour celles et ceux qui travaillent? Dans quelles mesure les évolutions numériques du travail et de l’emploi servent-elles les organisations? Comment ces mutations de l’univers professionnel viennent- elles modifier les organisations familiales et domestiques? Si le statut d’emploi influe sur le travail et ses conditions, comment cette équation se renouvelle-t-elle (ou non) face à l’accroissement des usages numériques? Et comment peut-on lire les usages, vécus et représentations sur ces transformations au prisme des rapports sociaux? Ce colloque se veut offrir un lieu de mise en discussion des interpénétrations multiples entre travail, emploi et numérique à travers une grille de lecture intersectionnelle. Nous encourageons pour cela les contributeur·ices à analyser la diversité des effets produits par le numérique en fonction des rapports de domination de classe, de genre, de race, d’âge ou de handicap qui traversent les organisations de travail et dans lesquels les individus sont pris. Ce colloque ambitionne également de favoriser le croisement entre différents regards disciplinaires, qui constituent une approche fructueuse pour mettre à l’épreuve la façon dont les usages des technologies numériques agissent sur le travail et l’emploi (Greenan et al., 2010 ; Bobiller Chaumon et al., 2022). Aussi, les communications de toutes les disciplines (sociologie, économique, gestion, psychologie, droit, histoire) sont les bienvenues et pourront s’inscrire dans un ou plusieurs des axes suivants: Axe 1 : Le numérique comme outil de rationalisation du travail Axe 2 : Les dispositifs numériques comme instruments de mise au travail Axe 3 : Les effets des technologies sur l’articulation des temps sociaux Axe 4 : Les travailleur·ses du numérique Axe 5 : Flexibilisation de l’emploi à l’heure du numérique Axe 6 : Conditions de travail et santé à l’épreuve du numérique Modalités pratiques du colloque Les personnes intéressées pour intervenir sont invitées à déposer une proposition de communication, de 3 500 à 4 000 signes (hors bibliographie) qui présentera le titre, l’objet, la problématique, la méthode utilisée et le ou les axes dans lesquels elles s’insèrent. Les propositions devront être déposées avant le 31 juillet 2024 sur la plateforme Sciencesconf en suivant la procédure suivante : Le dépôt de votre proposition nécessite au préalable la création d’un compte sur cette plateforme : https://portal.sciencesconf.org/user/createaccount Vous pourrez ensuite procéder au dépôt de votre proposition de communication en vous connectant au site du colloque : https://travnum2025.sciencesconf.org/, dans la rubrique Dépôts/Déposer un résumé et en recopiant votre texte rédigé dans le cadre prévu à cet effet. Pour tout renseignement, vous pouvez écrire à l’adresse suivante: travnum2025@sciencesconf.org Après notification d’acceptation (fin septembre 2024), les textes complets des communications retenues (30 000-35 000 signes tout compris) seront attendus pour le 1er février 2025. Ce colloque fera l’objet par la suite d’une valorisation sous forme d’un ouvrage collectif. Calendrier Dépôts de propositions de communication : le 31 juillet 2025 Réponse du comité : fin septembre Dépôts du texte final des communications : le 1er février 2025 Inscriptions gratuites en ligne : du 15 octobre 2024 au 1er mars 2025 Déroulement du colloque : les 20 et 21 mars 2025
- Deadline: 01 August 2025 Demokratie stärken. Feministische Perspektiven auf Geschlecht, Politik und Gesellschaft 14. Landesweiter Tag der Genderforschung in Sachsen-Anhalt am 20.11.2025 Das Erstarken rechtpopulistischer und antifeministischer Positionen bleibt nicht ohne Folgen für Geschlechtergerechtigkeit. Nicht nur aus globaler Perspektive, sondern auch mit Blick auf die Entwicklungen in Deutschland und Sachsen-Anhalt werden gleichstellungspolitische Erfolge zunehmend in Frage gestellt. Finanzielle Unterstützung von Programmen für Frauen und marginalisierte Gruppen stehen zur Disposition, Hate Speech gegen Frauen und LGBTIQ+-Personen nimmt zu, politische Teilhabe von Frauen wird erschwert. Auch Wissenschaftlerinnen und speziell Genderforscher*innen sehen sich zunehmend Anfeindungen ausgesetzt. Gerade in Sachsen-Anhalt sind geschlechterpolitische Debatten eng mit Fragen nach sozialer Gerechtigkeit, ökonomischer Entwicklung und politischer Partizipation verknüpft. Die Diskussion um Wechselwirkungen zwischen demokratischen Strukturen, Geschlechterverhältnissen und gesellschaftlichem Zusammenhalt ist daher nicht nur von hoher Relevanz, sondern auch von großer Dringlichkeit. Die Auseinandersetzung mit Antifeminismus, demokratiefeindlichen Tendenzen und Strategien der Gegenwehr ist daher von besonderer Bedeutung. Gender Studies leisten hierzu einen wichtigen Beitrag, indem sie demokratische Strukturen kritisch analysieren und Perspektiven für eine gerechte und inklusive Gesellschaft aufzeigen. Der 14. Landesweite Tag der Genderforschung verortet sich vor diesem Hintergrund an den Schnittstellen von Gender-, Demokratie- und Partizipationsforschung und widmet sich der Frage, wie feministische Perspektiven zur Stärkung demokratischer Strukturen und zur Bekämpfung demokratiefeindlicher Tendenzen beitragen können. Willkommen sind Beiträge, die sich u.a. mit folgenden Fragestellungen auseinandersetzen: Verantwortung der Wissenschaft für eine starke Demokratie Feministische Widerstandsformen und -bewegungen Antifeminismus, Rechtspopulismus und Bedrohungen der Demokratie Community-Empowerment als demokratiefördernde Strategie Auswirkungen von Desinformation und populistischen Narrativen auf Geschlechtergerechtigkeit Intersektionale Perspektiven auf demokratische und antidemokratische Bewegungen Wissenschaftliche Institutionen als Orte der Sicherheit und des Schutzes: Strategien gegen Angriffe auf die Genderforschung und marginalisierte Wissenschaftler*innen Auswirkungen der politischen Situation auf Strukturen und Institutionen der Genderforschung
- Deadline: 10 September 2025 CALL FOR PAPER Creative Bodies—Creative Minds The fourth international, interdisciplinary conference in gender research University of Graz, 30-31 March 2026 Since its inception in 2018, the interdisciplinary conference in gender research Creative Bodies—Creative Minds has, in its three cycles, brought together scholars, practitioners, and activists to explore the relationship between gender and creativity in a variety of fields. They engaged with everyday and vernacular creativities, including material and intangible DIY forms, creative self-fashioning, coping strategies, and resourceful adaptations to social and political circumstances by communities, groups, and individuals. These encounters have treated creativity as a social and collective process that is power-dependent and deeply gendered. The fourth conference aims to continue this line of inquiry by exploring more closely the relationship between creativity, vulnerability, and subversion. The last decade has seen an increasing focus on vulnerability in the humanities and social sciences, even what we could term a “vulnerability turn” in some disciplines, such as in cultural and gender studies. “Vulnerability” has also come to an increased usage in political rhetoric, policies, and everyday language. However, the concept of vulnerability has come under increasing academic, political and public scrutiny, highlighting its ambiguity, with both positive and negative connotations. Critical research has also discussed the (mis)uses of the concept in political debates and in concrete social policies, where it often deepens social marginalisation and vulnerability instead of reducing it. Gender studies and feminist scholars, in particular, have persuasively exposed the androcentric and paternalistic bias in the cultural understanding of vulnerability as a condition of passivity and lack of agency in need of remedy. Instead, they have emphasized the relational nature of vulnerability that makes it a universal dimension of human existence, bringing attention to its social and situational aspects. Exploring vulnerability in relation to resistance has been powerful in revealing the agentic potential of vulnerability to challenge oppression, inequality, and injustice, as witnessed, for example, in the mobilizations and democratic struggles of the last decade in Southeastern Europe. The fourth Creative Bodies—Creative Minds conference in 2026 invites interdisciplinary contributions that explore the entanglements between creativity, vulnerability, subversion and gender in different socio-cultural, political, economic and everyday settings. Keynote speakers: Isla Cowan, Independent Playwright and Theatre Maker, Edinburgh Jennifer Ramme, Department of Sociology, University of Graz The areas of interest include, but are not limited to: Everyday creativity, vulnerability, subversion and gender Creativity as a response to restrictive biopolitics and gender norms Intersectional approaches to creativity, vulnerability and subversion (race, ethnicity, age, class, gender, sexuality, ability) Collective creativities in contesting collective vulnerabilities Creativity, vulnerability and subversion in education, arts, and activism Material, temporal, situational, and relational aspects of creativity, vulnerability and subversion Creativity, vulnerability and subversion in the digital realm Creative subversion– subverting creativity imperatives Creative methodologies and creative research in social sciences and humanities Creative addresses of gendered vulnerabilities in medicine, science, and technology
- Deadline: 15 September 2025 Beyond Avatars: Exploring LGBTIQ+ Narratives, Representation, and Communities in Video Games" LGBTIQ+ Studies, Communication & Culture Journal Abstract: The rise of video games in mass culture has established this cultural product as a key medium for exploring, representing, and experiencing LGBTIQ+ identities and narratives. From the inclusion or absence of queer characters and narratives that challenge traditional gender roles (Shaw, 2015; Phillips, 2020) to the ways in which LGBTIQ+ communities use video games as tools for expression, resilience, and self-discovery (Blanco-Fernández & Moreno, 2023), this medium provides a fertile field for critical scholarship. Traditionally criticised for the dominance of cis-hetero male users and behaviours, the development and evolution of the video game industry across its various branches has brought visibility to voices beyond heteronormativity (Ruberg, 2020). Academics such as Shaw and Friesem (2016), Ruberg (2017), and Belmonte Ávila and Encarnación-Pinedo (2024) have explored LGBTIQ+ representation in video games and gamer culture. This special issue aims to gather innovative research and interdisciplinary perspectives situated at the intersection of Queer and Game Studies. We invite contributions reflecting on the ways gender and sexual diversity are represented in video games; exploring how LGBTIQ+ individuals transform their gaming experiences; and interrogating the ways queer communities find a sense of belonging and engage in cultural activism through this medium. Reviews relevant to the special issue’s theme are also welcome. Should you have any questions, please address them to lucia.rodriguez@ucl.ac.uk, sergiogu@ucm.es, and mvicent@ubu.es. Topics of Interest Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics: Representations of LGBTIQ+ characters and narratives in video games Inclusive game design: challenges and opportunities LGBTIQ+ gamers' experiences and gaming practices Queer game mechanics Problematic gaming and gender identity Hate speech: toxicity, homophobia, and transphobia in gaming communities Studies on avatars, character customization, and queer identity expressions Use of video games in LGBTIQ+ education and media literacy The impact of streaming platforms and LGBTIQ+ fandoms on gamer culture Presence of LGBTIQ+ individuals in the video game industry Languages Proposals in Spanish and English are accepted. Submission Guidelines Editorial standards: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ESLG/about All research articles should follow the IMRaD structure: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions. Timeline – Key Dates Deadline for research papers: September 15, 2025 Deadline for book reviews: December 1, 2025 Publication of the special issue: February 2026 Special Issue Editors Sergio Gutiérrez Manjón – Lecturer of Audiovisual Communication at Complutense University of Madrid. Research focuses on Game Studies, digital communication, and media literacy. Secretary of the Spanish Society for Video Game Sciences (SECiVi). Lucia Gloria Vázquez Rodriguez – Lecturer of Digital Media at University College London. Researcher in Feminist Media Studies and Queer Film and Television, with extensive publications on queer communication. Member of the ReMAP research group (UCL) and the UNESCO-UNITWIN Network on Gender, Media, and ICTs. Mireya Vicent Ibañez – Lecturer of Video Games and Audiovisual Communication at the University of Burgos. Research focuses on Game Studies and digital media, with a particular interest in hate speech. Note: No payment will be required from authors for submission or publication.
- Deadline: 15 October 2025 Democratization of the Senses – Senses of Democracy: Emancipation as Experience of Equality in Hierarchical Otherwise Sensorial Spaces An International and Transdisciplinary Conference Organized by the Department of Sports Science and Motologie and the Department of Studies in Culture and History April 4 – 6, 2025 at the University of Marburg Recent studies from Radical Democracy Theory have not only critiqued the reduction of democratic processes to a representative, juridico-economic, or institutional act (cf. Agamben 2012:12; Balibar 2012; Mouffe 2005), but have paved the way for an ontic framing of “the democratic” itself. Politics, then, is no longer understood as a mere space of negotiation, as a “system of producing and deploying collectively binding decisions” (Comtesse et al. 2019; Friedrichs 2021: 24). The focus shifts to the epistemic institutions that precede democracy and the political (cf. Friedrichs 2021: 24; Rancière 2016; Rancière 2002; Abbas 2019; Marchart 2019). Particularly those discourses on democratic theory that follow Jacques Rancière seek to understand democracy as holistic process. Concepts like “democracy of the senses” (Butler 2010), “sensory citizenship” (Trnka et al. 2013), “senses of democracy” (Masiello 2018), “democracy as sensual space” (Dietrich 2022: 90), “political aesthesis” (Friedrichs 2021), “posthumanist democracy as a form of life” (Spahn/Wieners 2023), or the understanding of the pollical field as “somato-sensorial gestalt” (Linke 2006) point toward a novel understanding of democracy. Such approaches focus on the sensual prerequisites for the existence of a space for negotiations among equals and on the question which (non-human) actors are excluded from it. Moreover, they question a concept of understanding that is built exclusively on rational thinking. Jacques Rancière’s often cited phrase of a “(new) division of the sensual” (Ranciere 2008; 2008a; 2016) can thus be taken as call for the further integration of a somatic-sensual dimension into the discourse on democracy and participation. The interdisciplinary conference aims to explore how a sensual-meaningful, socio-somatic understanding of the democratic as a form of experience may look like (without furthering a dichotomy of logos and sensus). If indeed sensual perception and, consequently, the experience of relations of power and domination differ among social groups and if, in turn, political life is constituted by using the senses (cf. Ranciere 2002; 2008; 2008a; 2016; Bünger/Trautmann 2012; Trnka u.a. 2013; Vannini u.a. 2014; Kwek/Sefert 2016), then we must pay attention to a democratization of the senses in everyday social and political practices to account for the senses of democracy. The perception of different cultural constructions in social movement contexts and their somaticsensual inscriptions is only made possible by the existence of democracy. For this reason, democracy is a primordial precondition for dissident somatic reflections. The conference will focus on the question if and how the late-capitalist, Western modular and hierarchical understanding of the senses as (intertwined) expression of ocular-, logo-, androand anthropo-centrism (cf. Howes 2006; Mraczny 2012; Kwek/Seyfert 2016; Hubermann 2023) entails a hierarchical pre-structuring of the democratic political field. Visual culture, for example, produces “specific practices, discourses, and ways of speaking that encompass various fields and privilege them before others” (Marzny 2012, 197). At the same time, it becomes apparent that an understanding of democracy that considers the logos as superior to the sensus, excludes the articulation of somatic-affective discomfort from the democratic sensorium. The non-human Other is thus all but silenced. Equally little research has been done on the sensual-somatic basis of the animation of collective affects in both human and non-human contexts. The question arises how these affects produce a sensorium in a possibly discriminating way and how they are involved in sensorial-sensual processes of ordering and dividing (Slaby 2019; Ahmed 2004, 2014; Bucher 2017, 2018; Beer 2017). For this reason, the conference will focus on the analysis of the hegemonic use of the senses, particularly the visual sense. It aims to explore avenues toward a democratization of the senses through the irritation of the visual sense by the deployment of other senses. Based on our assumption that political emancipation hinges less on marginalized groups’ lack of knowledge than on their lack of opportunity to gain diverse experiences (cf. Rancière 2016), the conference also aims to open an egalitarian space of speech and experience. Equality is understood in terms of “enabling the juxtaposition of two voices” (Ranciere 2008, 11) and as the “fact of mutual understanding” (ibid., 14). The conference will provide hierarchically-different sensorial spaces and situations, thus creating, as we hope, a condition for political emancipation. This arrangement enables the sensorial perception in bodily interiors and interstices as a political public where sensorial inequality is collectively negotiated. We ask, how can we come to terms with the sensually and socially hierarchical distinction between meaning and the senses, as well as with the production of diverse sensual situations (not only) among humans? And how can strategies toward achieving a sensually accessible emancipation be developed? The conference format seeks to deconstruct dominant visual structures. We explicitly ask for multi-sensorial contributions like audio walks, sound installations and interjections, collective walks, and conversations. Lecture performances are equally welcome as sensorimotor and perception-oriented field trips, both with and without experiences of touch, considering and negotiating sensual-affective boundaries. To experiment with sensual didactics and irritate the fond habit of following the order of “eyes-seeing-thinking”, we discourage the classical lecture format and the showing of visual material in favor of otherwise-sensorial approaches. Please submit abstracts of maximal two pages or an audio format alike by Oct. 15th, 2024 to wuttig@uni-marburg.de and ellen.thuma@uni-marburg.de.
- Deadline: 15 October 2025 In recent years, social differences and inequities in sport have been discussed under the term of diversity. Analyses in Sport Studies have focused on the participation of people with disabilities in sport, the way in which sport organisations deal with gender and sexual diversity, the social construction of differences or various forms of discrimination in sport, such as racism, classism or sexism. It also becomes apparent that debates on social inclusion/exclusion, marginalisation and hierarchies stimulate discussions about seemingly obvious aspects of sport: fairness, equal opportunities, winning and losing, the categorisation of athletes into performance classes.