Few relationships are as significant as our friendships. The Buddha was once asked by his cousin, Ananda, “Is friendship part of the path?” The Buddha’s response, “No Ananda, friendship is the whole path,” suggesting the momentous power and meaning attributed to friendships. Certainly, close friendships can be as just as important to us as familial bonds. Conversely, the absence of friends can cause feelings of loneliness and isolation. Although the general psychological and biological benefits of friendship have been well documented, the actual experience of friendship is a deeply personal one. Not only do we each have our own views on what friendship means, we each have our own approach to choosing our friends.

Because of this element of subjectivity, friendship is a complex concept that deserves more extensive exploration of personal experiences and the ways in which it shapes, and is shaped by, social norms. The interplay between the way friendship is understood in a particular society and the way it is experienced by individuals raises a variety of questions: how do friendships form; what is the basis for the ‘attraction’ that underpins them; what purposes do they serve; why has friendship come to be regarded as a universal ‘good’; how do meanings of friendship change over time; what does it mean to be a “good friend”; what tangible things can be done to promote friendship as a social value; how might the conduct among friends be harnessed for the communal good more broadly; and more.

This inaugural inclusive conference aims to explore these and other facets of friendship through an inter-disciplinary dialogue that transcends the boundaries of the intellectual, the emotional and the personal with a view to forming a selective and innovative publication to engender further research and collaboration.

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The death of a lover, child, spouse, partner, parent, friend is the loss of someone unique and irreplaceable – a presence in our lives never to be seen, held, heard or felt again. The tragic loss of familiar, iconic, well loved public figures and celebrities, the unexpected deaths of people through murder, violence or terrorism, heart rending loss through illness, disease or natural disasters all remind us of the fragility and vulnerability of our lives. In times like these music is often our companion providing comfort in the incomprehensibility of loss.

Music &….Death is a continuing series of inclusive interdisciplinary and international projects focusing on the many roles of music within human living, thinking and feeling. This event is open to the exploration of all historical and contemporary genres of music to map the ways in which music imagines, expresses, confronts, wrestles and gives us ways of responding to and coping with dying, death, grief and remembrance. Subject to the presentations and discussions which take place at the meeting, there is a possibility for a publication to emerge with the aim of engendering further interdisciplinary collaboration and discussion.

This conference is open to all academic fields of inquiry from ethnomusicology, music, folklore, cultural studies, media studies, communication studies, sociology, anthropology, religious studies and so on.  It is welcoming of graduate students and professors of all rank, as well as non-academic and independent researchers, writers, performers and media artists.  It is anticipated that a broad number of participants will represent a variety of different nationalities, thus adding to the cross disciplinary nature of the discussions, presentations and conference as a whole.

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Expanding on the inaugural meeting, the second global meeting on Kink is an inclusive interdisciplinary exploration and investigation of the sometimes conflicting ways kink is portrayed and practiced in people’s lives, with a view to forming a publication emerging from the discussions with the aim of engendering further interdisciplinary collaboration and discussion.. We aim to forge advanced discussions between academics, scholars, professionals and practitioners to highlight these different perspectives, and foster new and exciting possibilities for future work and collaboration.

The meeting encourages the bringing together of both the centre and the fringes, creating a safe space in which to discuss, analyse, think about, ask and answer questions about the ways that kink has been and continues to be a viable, healthy, exciting and safe expression of sexuality, and to examine taboos, stigma, discriminatory practices, biases and assumptions made about those who practice it.

We aim to create a lasting network of professionals in all fields related to this topic who will continue to share ideas, research findings, best practices, understandings, and perspectives in the global arena. We recognise that our focus in this Call is for the most part a Western perspective, and we hope to rectify that through the work brought forth at this conference, and into the future.

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Tantalizing, alluring and dangerous all at once, the erotic is one of the many great mysteries of the human experience. It crosses racial, ethnic, social, socio-economic, political, educational and age-related boundaries. It causes intense joy and excruciating pain. And it motivates demonstrations of both love and madness, and everything in between. Fragments of letters between long-separated lovers… carved phalluses and voluptuous stone goddesses… music that makes our hearts yearn for something we cannot name… desire and passion that courses through us at the mention of another… all of this and more informs our lives, shapes our perceptions, and guides our relationships. The erotic unites, highlights, undermines and subverts; it stands at the heart of (sexual) relationships, orientations, acts and behaviours; and it remains a compelling force even as it is often seen as socially taboo and sometimes associated with fear and shame.

Grappling with ‘the erotic’ is often difficult. We are often paralyzed by the force of it, afraid of it, conditioned by society to ignore or downplay it, and yet we have a curious and fascinating range of relationships with it. Perhaps the erotic is a yearning toward connection, toward touch, toward a symbiosis of some kind. Do we all wish, consciously or unconsciously, to connect with the erotic? Are we drawn toward it? Could the erotic be considered a bridge between people, between us and them, between you and me? Is it the only true connection, underlying everything else, or is it an overlying dynamic?

Building on the dialogues from our first project meeting in 2018, which focused on The Joys of the Erotic, our second project meeting will provide a space for exploring eroticism through interdisciplinary approaches with a view to forming a publication to engender further research and collaboration. These approaches recognise eroticism as the 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 and fluidity; 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.

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Humour seems to be an essential feature of human life – ‘the ability to be amused by things, the way in which people see that some things are amusing, or the quality of being amusing’ (Merriam-Webster). It is not just about jokes but a way of looking at the world. Individually, it is beneficial to health, relieving negative energy and invigorating the mind and the body. Socially, it is an indicator of frankness and sociability. Economically, it generates communication, improves teamwork and increases efficiency. Politically, it is an important form of protest and disobedience. Historically, it has proven to be a powerful weapon in times of crisis. And it can be wielded negatively, as a weapon or entrée into dark social arenas such as racism or hatred.

Possibly the most pervasive and accessible form of humour is comedy. In the 21^st century the entertainment industry has expanded significantly in what some see as the pre-planned ‘professionalisation’ of humour. Television shows explore situation comedy, stand up comedians attract huge numbers to live shows. Humour is carefully channelled, calculated, designed to evoke or provoke laughter and in the process reveals important differences between the two. The ability to provoke laughter, provide amusement or find humour in situations is common across cultures and societies, even though humour works in different ways and on different levels: age, education, gender, ethnicity, space and place all play a part in the things people find funny.

Although humour appears in many forms and styles, it is based on the element of surprise intended to produce a reaction. It can send a message, reveal something new about an otherwise unquestioned event or situation, or about ourselves and our worldview. Through surprise and contradiction, humour can shift the ordinary into the extraordinary, break taboos, transgress boundaries, or call into question our otherwise steadfast beliefs. And while many of its functions are positive, humour can also allow individuals or cultures to elide disturbing facts about social inequality, ignore or downplay injustices and perpetuate stereotypes. Not infrequently, a form of humour more akin to aggressiveness, that incorporates malice, can be used to cause intentional harm, shame and exercise control. Essentially, it can be a technology of power, providing an avenue for expression of prejudice, bias, and bigotry.

Dealing with the complex and often unexpected situations of life, humour takes many forms and meanings.  It can include absurdity, banter, buffoonery, burlesque, comedy, derision, facetiousness, farce, foolery, irony, jocularity, mimicry, mockery, parody, puns, ridicule, sarcasm, satire, scorn, slapstick, spoonerism, taunts, tease, waggishness, witticism. Sometimes it is positive, sympathetic, or constructive; other times it can hurt, harm and damage. It can be playful or serious. It can be an act of resistance or outright rebellion; it can be inappropriate and uncontrolled. It can be repressive or subversive, self-deprecating or ironic. We laugh to release tension, to feel more positive, more energised. We laugh to show our confidence or satisfaction or as in indication of excitement, delight, good spirits and happiness.

The second meeting of this inclusive interdisciplinary project will seek to explore the various facets of humour and to map how humour works. We will examine why we laugh, how we laugh and what purpose humour serves. Alongside the discussions is an intention to form a publication to engender further collaboration and discussion. We aim to bring together participants from a wide range of disciplines, professions, and vocations to create a unique, interdisciplinary event that will explore the serious topic of humour in all its wondrous forms. Our goal is to examine the intersections between humour and the human, and to look beneath the surface and beyond the laughter to examine the reasons why we laugh and why we respond with humour to persons, events and situations.

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What is it to be human? How can we best live our lives in today’s complex world?  What values show humanity at its finest, and how can these be cultivated?

As part of our series of events ‘Interdisciplinary Perspectives On Social Values’, we will explore these questions under the conference theme ‘The Art of Being Human’. We begin this series by considering four positive aspects of the human condition: forgiveness, decency, trust, and gratitude. While this is an arbitrary list, chosen from a much longer inventory of humanity’s better attributes, it is a useful starting point for discussion. All four features are beneficial to the people with whom we interact, and they are good for us also. When we forgive someone, it is not only the transgressor who gains: a burden is removed from our own shoulders too. Similarly, acting decently, trusting others, and showing gratitude all have deeply personal benefits as well as improving the lives of those around us. At the same time, these actions are fraught with challenges and limitations that warrant closer consideration and analysis.

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