Intimate Utopias: What do they look like, and how do we get there?
Room – Roscoe 2.2
Luke Brunning (University of Leeds); Sophie Goddard (University of Leeds)
There have been many attempts to imagine utopian societies, but these efforts often focus on changes to the public sphere; to how we work, how society is structured, and how we will be governed. Less attention has been directed to changes in our intimate lives. This workshop aims to explore the future of intimacy in all its forms – from friendship, family life, romantic relationships or collegiality. What does good intimacy look like? What social, legal, cultural, or personal changes are required to enact these futures? How are we currently being held-back? Is utopian intimacy possible?
We invite proposals of no more than 500 words, for a presentation of approximately 30 minutes, to engage with the utopian politics of intimacy. Here is a non-exclusive list of some indicative themes:
Possible topics
- Intimacy online
- Intimacy and augmented reality
- Chatbots and intimacy: therapy, love and Digital Duplicates
- Robots: sex, love, friendship
- Fertility technologies
- Social norms of intimacy: e.g. amatonormativity, sex-negativity etc.
- Relationship styles: relationship anarchy, polyamory, aromanticism
- Relationship ideals: love, friendship, collegiality
- Intimate practices: consent, communication, designing relationships
- Alternatives to/abolition of the family
- Intimacy and architecture: cities and buildings; schools, prisons, workplaces
- Intimacy and fantasy: BDSM, imaginary friendships, porn
- Paying for intimacy
- The role of the state in relationships
- The role of religion in relationships
- Methodology: ideal vs. non-ideal approaches to intimacy
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Wednesday 3rd September
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11:00-12:30 |
Central registration |
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12:30-13:30 |
Lunch |
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13:45 |
Introductions |
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14:00-16:00 |
Session 1- Consent ● Lucy Shanahan – (University of Leeds) – ‘Ideal Consensual Non-Consensual Sex’
● Laurin Tirpitz – (Humboldt University) – ‘(Sexual) Consent – Finally a liberation for all?’ |
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16:00-16:30 |
Tea and Coffee Break |
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16:30-17:30 |
Session 2 – Self-esteem ● Sanat Sogani – (Central European University) – ‘Why Personal Relationships Cannot And Should Not Bear The Weight Of Supporting People’s Self-Esteem’ |
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17:45-19:00 |
Wine Reception |
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19:30 |
Conference Dinner |
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Thursday 4th September
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9:30-11:30 |
Session 3 – Intimacy and AI ● Jasmine Gunkel – (University of Western Ontario) – ‘AI, Pseudointimacy, and Why Intimacy Matters’
● Max Lewis – (Yale University) – ‘AI, Intimacy, and Narrative Agency’ |
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11:30-12:00 |
Tea and Coffee Break (optional) |
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12:00-13:00 |
Session 4 – Self-disclosure ● Alex Fisher – (Tilburg University) – ‘The Ethics of Self-Disclosure in Online Dating’ |
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13:00-14:00 |
Lunch |
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14:00-16:00 |
Session 5 – Posthumous intimacy ● Nathan Barrett – (University of Leeds) – ‘Till Death (Don’t) Us Part: Sex, Robots, and the Ethics of Posthumous Intimacy’
● Helena Ward – (University of Oxford) – ‘Conversations with Grief-Bots’ |
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16:00-16:30 |
Tea and Coffee Break (optional) |
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5pm |
Pub (Venue TBC) |
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7pm |
Workshop Dinner |
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Friday 5th September
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9:30-11:30 |
Session 6 – Dating apps ● Erinne Paisley – (University of Copenhagen) – ‘“Send Me a Screenshot!” Collective Feminist Sense-Making in Dating App Cultures’
● Sam Mace – (University of Leeds) – ‘Swiping left on internet dating- A case for deliberative in-person dating’ |
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11:30-12:00 |
Tea and Coffee Break (optional) |
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12:00-13:00 |
Session 7 – Friendship ● George Surtees – (University of Sheffield) – ‘On Valuing Aesthetic Features of Your Friend’ |
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13:00-14:00 |
Lunch |
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14:00 |
End of workshop (or coffee / pub) |
