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Newsletter: March 2020

Welcome to the March edition of the bimonthly Progressive Connexions Interdisciplinary Life newsletter.

Upcoming…

Unfortunately, due to both WHO information and national restrictions on travel, we have had to postpone our April conferences, which were planned for Lisbon on April 4th and 5th. We are so sorry that this happened! However, we are thrilled to let you know that we have moved them to autumn. If you were planning to come, please keep an eye on your inboxes for more information, and don’t be afraid to reach out to Network Director Rob Fisher or Director of Programmes Teresa Cutler-Broyles if you have any questions or concerns. 

 

Previously

At the beginning of March, Progressive Connexions reconvened in beautiful Prague. It was an intimate conference package, with two events running. But what powerhouse events they were! The two subjects were Kink and the Erotic, and The Art of Being Human: Humour, Friendship, Music, and Death. 

Both of these were subjects that brought in an enormous diversity of disciplinary background and specific research interest, and some people were wary at first about presentations that seemed a million miles away from their own work. But people soon opened up and found connections between their research and subjects that, on the face, seemed utterly unrelated. As always, our goal with these conferences is to bring people in touch with new approaches and perspectives! It was a delight to see people becoming excited about new ideas, and also offering respect and constructive, curious feedback to papers that were outside their wheelhouse.

If you want an inside perspective on the Kink and the Erotic conference, Susanne Schotanus wrote a blog post about the event, which you can read here.

 

Currently…

Progressive Connexions is excited to be working with Emerald Publishers to develop publications based on the amazing interdisciplinary experiences that take place at our conferences. We recently released the first book in the Interdisciplinary Connexions series, Music & Death: Interdisciplinary Readings and Perspectives, edited by Marie Josephine Bennett and David Gracon. Currently in the writing process is a collected volume on Kink, from last year’s Kink and Sex Technology conference, and a selection of very exciting proposals are being worked on from the last year’s events. These books take a variety of shapes – we welcome edited collections, small groups of collaborators, and creative approaches to sharing your research! If you are interested in publishing, get in touch with our Director of Publications Susanne Schotanus at susanne@progressiveconnexions.net.

We encourage our writers to share the experience of publishing with us and Emerald. Openness about people’s processes is one of the great things social media has brought to the academic world. Use the hashtag #ProConPubs so we can see your posts!

Stay tuned for information about our fall 2020 conferences. The current climate means that we want to plan carefully. But be assured that we are absolutely committed to bringing you a beautiful array of interdisciplinary opportunities in 2020. Follow us on social media to make sure you don’t miss any announcements about our upcoming events.

 

In our Network…

Currently open: Kink delegate L. Faith Pramuk is running a conference on Esotericism and the Varieties of Transformation in beautiful Amsterdam. It is a student conference, but with an expansive definition of students, so don’t be afraid to apply!

For those craving more kinkiness after the Kink & the Erotic conference (or if you didn’t make it to the conference this time), you could explore some other resources on susanneschotanus.space, a portfolio/resource page by Director of Publications Susanne Schotanus, in her role as Kink conference-goer.

If you want something to read in the low-conference period, recently published from our Director of Programmes Teresa Cutler-Broyles comes The Big Top on the Big Screen, an exploration of circuses on film. You can find out about it on her Amazon page here: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00AAHWD44

Prof. Vijay Singh read a paper in the Interdisciplinary.net conference on Fear, Horror, and Terror, on the tortures and self immolations of Tibetan monks and nuns under Chinese hegemony. He could not publish this lecture but he used it as subject for a public lecture he recently gave in the USA as part of my Fulbright scholar in Residence fellowship.

Elena Nistor, one of the event leaders for March’s Art of Being Human conference, is currently working on a study about images of London in contemporary British women’s poetry. Seán Moran, the other Being Human leader, is enjoying a different kind of success – as a viral video star. Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan tweeted a video of Seán playing one of his songs on the flute in Paris! You can read about Seán’s experience in his column “Destined in Delhi,” published in Philosophy Now magazine.

Finally, our Advertising Coordinator, Lorraine Rumson, will be stepping up to a new role as Director of Communications. She’ll be doing new work on our website, the books of abstracts and other papers that conference-goers receive, and our alliances with other projects. And, of course, she’ll still be doing this newsletter!

 

We want YOU!

Have you done something exciting with a project you brought to a Progressive Connexions conference? Brought it to another conference? Expanded it into a publication, lecture, or new project? Want to have it featured in the newsletter? Email lorraine@progressiveconnexions.net so she can share it with our network!

 

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