Bodies of Belief: Somaesthetics of Faith and Liberation

The Center for Body, Mind, and Culture of Florida Atlantic University invite paper proposals for a conference on “Bodies of Belief: Somaesthetics of Faith and Liberation” that will be held November 8-9, 2023 at FAU’s Boca Raton campus. The conference’s call for papers is as follows:

Bodies of Belief: Somaesthetics of Faith and Liberation

Human bodies are shaped not only by their genetic endowment but also by the belief frameworks of the cultures in which they develop and function. Such embodied beliefs vary from unarticulated background assumptions to ritual religious practices and explicit ideologies formulated in laws and enforced by social institutions. Our shared embodied beliefs generate collaborative action that holds our societies together. However, the beliefs we embody also transcend and defy established social norms and conventional knowledge; they include items of faith and commitment that are nonconformist or even antagonistic to the societal mainstream. More than a mere instrument of compliance or submissive worship, the soma can become a site and tool of liberation and transcultural understanding. How can somaesthetic reflection, critique, and practice transform our culturally shaped bodies from conservative repositories of entrenched habits, repressive constraints, and prejudiced attitudes to vehicles of liberation, expanded consciousness, and compassion?

The conference will explore the ways through which beliefs and their corresponding values are embodied and somatically contested or transformed in such fields as religion, ethics, politics, gender, and the arts. We therefore welcome contributions from diverse disciplinary perspectives in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts. Selected papers may be developed for publication in The Journal of Somaesthetics (https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/JOS) or in an edited book based on the conference to be published in the Brill book series Studies in Somaesthetics: https://brill.com/view/serial/SIS

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Charles Johnson, Professor Emeritus University of Washington (Seattle), novelist, essayist, literary scholar, and philosopher.

Please email your abstract and CV to both shuster1@fau.edu and khollow4@fau.edu. The deadline for submission of abstracts is August, 2023. Notifications of acceptances will be sent out September 20th, 2022.

Parking Information

You can register your license plate and pay online using the following link:

All permits | Florida Atlantic University (fau.edu)

The conference will take place in the Culture and Society Building (CU) which also houses the Living Room Theater. Please use the following link for a map of campus:

Campus Map

Parking Garage II (PK 88) has available parking and is a 5-10 minute walk to the conference building.