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Call for papers: 'PERVERT STUDIES': CONSIDERATIONS OF THE SOCIAL LIFE OF SEX, PLEASURE & THE EROTIC =====================================================================
Session Organizers: Jamie Paquin & Katherine Osterlund (York University) A session of the 2005 Canadian Anthropology and Sociology Association (CSAA) Annual Meetings, London, Ontario, Canada; May 31st - June 3rd 2005 You are invited to submit an abstract of a paper for oral presentation of approximately 20 minutes in length.
Initial abstract and letter of intent due Dec 31st, but NO LATER THAN JANUARY 10TH, 2005.
Note: If you require presentation software (e.g. powerpoint) you must indicate this with your Abstract/LOI
Complete paper due APRIL 29TH, 2005.
For inquiries and/or to submit abstracts please email: kathyo at yorku.ca Conference information and list of sessions: http://www.csaa.ca/AnnualMeeting/2005CallEnglish.htm
===================================================================== 'Pervert Studies': Considerations of the social life of sex, pleasure and the erotic
Feminist, gay and lesbian, transgender and queer studies have done much to contest and reveal many forms of sexual persecution, subjectification, discrimination and misconception. The task today includes extending this critical engagement with sexual epistemologies, discourses and norms which preclude or degrade the otherwise meaningful and pleasurable practices of what Rubin calls 'erotic deviants' (1986). Highly refined, even reified systems of categories may now obscure the range of practices, processes, and realities that are the object of an expanded sociology of the erotic. The time has come to speak of the erotic in all its dispositional variations and forms, to bring thought and creative analysis to bear upon those domains of erotic desire and/or conduct still in the shadows. To consider the seen and unseen of current sexual epistemologies and assess their effects.
The pervert may be defined as 'one who has forsaken a doctrine or system regarded as true for one esteemed false' (Oxford English Dictionary). We propose the field of 'pervert studies' as an impetus to be fully engaged in questioning this logic of truth and falsehood regarding erotic practice, fantasy and desire, in order to create a space for ideas and open discussion of erotic conduct, commitments and personas that are held meaningful by participants and practitioners.
Pervert Studies invites theoretical or empirically-based reflection on issues including, but not limited to:
· The constitution of erotic subjectivity: practices, processes, 'structure' and 'agency' · Who are some still stigmatized erotic populations? How are these stigmas framed and contested? · What is the practice? The pleasure? The context in which it is cultivated and experienced? · Has critical sexuality studies gone far enough its investigation of eroticism? Has it created new sexual villains even as it redeemed others? · Perversions on the books: Sexual law/social 'laws'; Minors; Money · Space and place, pleasure and practice · Methodological issues in the study of the erotic