Following the Affective Turn PGR Symposium

Following the Affective Turn PGR Symposium - 17th September 2021, The University of Brighton

​Following the Affective Turn is an interdisciplinary techne research project that invites new work and reflection on the current state of affect studies. Responding to conversations generated around reading groups where we have revisited Sara Ahmed’s The Cultural Politics of Emotion and a forthcoming lecture series, we hope to discuss the role of affect in various areas of scholarship, art and activism.

Join the team in Brighton where they will share their research and support each other in a friendly and informal environment. Considering the social, political, ethical and aesthetic potentials of affect theory, this symposium offers a supportive space to present new work that engages with the study of emotion, following the affective turn to feel out all its resonances, limitations, implications and possibilities. 

Papers on intersections with affect across eras, genres, disciplines and mediums are welcome. Topics may include (but needn’t be limited to): 

• Queer affects

• Race and affect theory

• Feelings around space and place

• Postcolonial affects

• Affect and intimacies 

• Collective emotions

• Ecologies and economies of feeling

• Affect and the body

• The field of affect theory

• Affects, politics and labour

• Temporal feelings 

• Ambivalence, disaffectation and absences

• Technology, AI and biopolitics

• Becomings

How to apply: 

Individual papers should be 15 minutes long. To apply, please send an abstract of no more than 300 words along with a short bio (100 words) to followingaffect@gmail.com by 5pm BST, Friday 16 July.

If you would like to organise a roundtable discussion or panel, please email followingaffect@gmail.com with a proposal of no more than 400 words along with short bios of participants (100 words) by 5pm BST, Friday 9th July.