New forms of intimacy: An international conference on intimacies and sexualities at the changing interfaces between private and public

Both studies of masculinities and queer studies are simultaneously a part of and an attempt at describing and analyzing the more complex and differentiated practices of gender, sexuality and intimacy developed during these thirty years. Feminist/pro-feminist studies of masculinities have questioned the position of men as a hegemonic gender. Queer studies have brought the subject of sexuality into the foreground of contemporary research and theory, highlighting and questioning heteronormativity in the disciplines and in the wider social formation.<br> <br> The conference draws on theories and perspectives from these two research areas, and on new approaches in gender studies more widely, to develop tools for the analysis of the new social and cultural practices of intimacy and sexuality, as well as new mechanisms of inclusion/exclusion. It is a particular challenge to forge stories and analyses of these changes that are sensitive to the specificities of cultural and national contexts.<br> <br> We have invited speakers to consider these questions from their perspective, within their own national and disciplinary context, and beyond. The conference will focus on new configurations and representations of intimacy, gender, sexuality and family-life related to ongoing changes in the relationship between private and public. A further objective is to combine new theoretical perspectives with understandings of the political situation of today's gender politics. The conference invokes inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches. How do we create relations of love, care, bonding and intimacy within and beyond the traditional family under new social and economical circumstances? Where do we find new practices of love, intimacy, sexuality and communities? How is intimacy and sexuality formulated in the representational/aesthetical regimes in a late capitalist consumer and media culture? We need new knowledge, approaches and stories to understand the ongoing changes within intimacy, sexuality and the private/public binary. The conference aims to address and problematize some of these new stories.<br>