Sexuality

The conference seeks to explore the past and current status of men and women around the world, to examine the ways in which society is shaped by gender and to situate gender in relation to the full scope of human affairs.

We invite doctoral and early career researchers to present on themes of identity, belonging and activism at a one-day event. Our keynote speakers include Professor Anne-Marie Fortier (Lancaster) and Dr Elisabetta Zontini (Nottingham). The Enquire Conference is organised by postgraduate research students from the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the university and draws in participants from across the country. With this year’s theme, we aim to explore links between identity, lived experiences of belonging to local and global communities, and the structural barriers that may make inclusion difficult, particularly for marginalised groups.

Exploring the relationship between sexuality and personhood, this project seeks to understand how sex and sexuality shape citizenship, belonging, identity, and expression. Embracing an ethos of cultural humility, we wish to explore how sexual citizenship manifests organically within and across communities and cultures.

This fully inclusive and accessible interdisciplinary conference aims to explore the challenging, paradoxical and ambiguous nature of the ‘erotic’ which finds a resonance inside us all. It has three overarching themes: 1. The erotic as a bridge in the context of human and personal relationships; 2. The erotic as a bridge in the context of social, cultural and historical behaviour; 3. The erotic as a bridge in the context in intellectual enquiry.