LUCAS Conference Bodies Matter 2021

Since global antiquity, the body has played a central role in culture and society. From physical figures to political metaphors, objects of analysis to sources of value, bodies take multiple forms. They ground emotions, desires and identities, and are inflected by technology. They connect to histories of place and space, both online and offline, and are framed by political, environmental, spiritual, and other discourses. All too often, conceptions of the body have been to delimit or exclude bodies deemed “other” for reasons of race, gender, class or other markers of identity. Never isolated, bodies are also arranged into larger units, from cultural groups to nation states. Thinking through the body not only reshapes our body of knowledge, it also moves us to rethink our lives otherwise in a time of political, ecological and health crises.

In keeping with these critical tendencies, Bodies Matter presents a unique opportunity for all interested parties to explore the multiple actions, states and meanings of bodies from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Thinking through the body does not only reshape our body of knowledge, it also moves us to rethink our lives otherwise in a time of political, ecological, and public healthcare emergency.

By drawing attention to such concerns, we would like to invite participants from a wide spectrum of disciplines to contribute to this intriguing field of inquiry.

Program - All times are CEST

Thursday, 15 April 2021
9:10 – 9:20 - Introduction and practicalities by Conference Committee
9:20 – 9:30 - Welcome by Sybille Lammes (Academic Director, LUCAS)
9:30 – 10:30 - Keynote by prof. Elleke Boehmer (Oxford University), Queer and decadent bodies in Louis Couperus and Sarojini Naidu, 1890s
10:30 - 11:00 - Break
11:00 – 11:15 - Helen Westgeest (Leiden University), ‘Parasitism’ as critical concept in Tau Lewis’s Flesh-Tone Mask to discuss skin tone bias
11:15 – 11:30 - Glyn Muitjens (Leiden University), Defining skin: A lexical approach to the ancient Greek body
11:30 – 11:50 - Discussion
11:50 – 13:00 - Lunch
13:00 – 13:15 - Juliane Röleke (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Mother Ireland and her „Soldier Dolls“: Republican Paramilitary „Punishment“ Attacks and the Female Body in Northern Ireland 1971 – 1979
13:15 – 13:30 - Mireia Pérez-Carretero & Jordi Serrano-Muñoz (National Autonomous University of México & Colegio de México), Transmutation of the disappeared body: Representations of the Ayotzinapa missing students in the press and literature
13:30 – 13:50 - Discussion
13:50 – 14:10 - Break
14:10 – 14:25 - Andries Hiskes (Leiden University), Caesural cuts: objectification and bodily autonomy of the disabled and self-harming body in A Little Life
14:25 – 14:40 - Isabel Fontbona Mola (University of Girona), Destroying the binary materiality while rewriting bodies through bodybuilding
14:40 – 15:00 - Discussion

Friday, 16 April 2021
9:00 – 9:10 - Brief welcome by Conference Committee
9:10 – 10:00 - Keynote by dr. Willemijn Ruberg (Utrecht University), Forensic bodies: bodily (in)violability in modern criminal investigation
10:00 – 10:30 - Break
10:30 – 10:45 - Ohad Ben Shimon (Utrecht University), A living community: Theorizing immunity from the autoimmune
10:45 – 11:00 - Shiyu Gao (University of Edinburgh), Reshaping the technological body in the COVID-19 pandemic
11:00 – 11:20 - Discussion
11:20 – 12:30 - Lunch
12:30 – 12:45 - Patrícia Martins Marcos (University of California, San Diego), Naturalizing bodily bondage: Skin color, corporeal complexion, and the anatomy of race in the Portuguese Atlantic
12:45 – 13:00 - Ana Nenadovic (Freie Universität Berlin), Queering the unity of mind and body: Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater and Rita Indiana’s Tentacle
13:00 – 13:20 - Discussion
13:20 – 13:40 - Break
13:40 – 13:55 - Franziska Haug (Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main), ‘I am afraid. I am female, I am male, double’: The materialization of queer bodies in capitalist times
13:55 – 14:10 - Martin Beck (Universität der Künste Berlin), ‘Irruption of the Corporeal’: On the aesthetics and politics of abjection in post-digital video art
14:10 – 14:30 - Discussion
14:30 – 15:30 - Concluding remarks by prof. Frans-Willem Korsten (Leiden University)

The conference will be held online (time zone UTC/GMT +2).
Registered attendees will receive an email notification 24 hours prior to the conference with the Zoom link to join the event.
To register, click:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lucas-conference-bodies-matter-2021-tickets-140839036349