Welcome to the December edition of the bimonthly Progressive Connexions Interdisciplinary Life newsletter.
Upcoming…
For months, now, we’ve been trying to figure out a way to bring the energy of Progressive Connexions conferences to the digital world. The supportive and collaborative environments we foster in our face-to-face events don’t easily translate into a series of Zoom calls. But now, we are finally able to report that we have developed a system that we believe will bring the Progressive Connexions spirit into the online space. We are working with ShockLogic to host online conferences that have the collaborative options and atmosphere of a Progressive Connexions event, and for most of 2021, our conferences will be held online. If you applied for one of the conferences that was planned for March or April 2021, we hope that we’ll see you online! Keep an eye out for emails from your Event Leaders to give you details and circulate programmes in the new year.
If you’ve been following Progressive Connexions on social media, you will have seen that we’ve had updates from our publishing team! Two new books are now under contract with Emerald Publishing: Interdisciplinary Essays on Monsters and the Monstrous, edited by Susanne Schotanus, and Gender Violence, the Law, and Society: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from India, Japan, and South Africa, edited by Susanne Schotanus and Kristine Seitz.
We’re also excited to be able to tell you that the manuscript for Kink and Everyday Life: Interdisciplinary Reflections on Practice and Portrayal, edited by Teresa Cutler-Broyles and Kylo Patrick-Hart, has been submitted to Emerald for publication! It will go into production in the new year, and be available for order on the Emerald Interdisciplinary Connexions web page. (You can also order Music and Death: Interdisciplinary Readings and Perspectives on this page!)
Currently Open…
Two conferences are currently open for abstracts for online presentations! Working online makes it possible for us to plan for different types of presentations, from all over the world, so if you skipped these on the first round, you might want to give them another look. Proposals for either of these conferences are due on 26 February 2021.
If you’re not feeling conference attendance, but you still need an infusion of interdisciplinary energy into your life, we are seeking editors for books under the Inter/Connexions Publishing House umbrella. We are working on developing a series of books that use interdisciplinary approaches to address crises and dramas of the present moment. Some of the book subjects about which we are currently interested in proposals from editors are:
The far right
Post-truth society
Uyghur Muslims in China
Domestic violence and the impact of lockdown
Spaces and Places after lockdown
Black Lives Matter
Worldwide racism and ethnic minorities
Inequality
Terrorism
The “Event” and prolonged sense of crisis
“Remote living & working”
Invisible evils
The rise of anti-science movements worldwide
Conspiracy
Fracking
Drones
Celebrity culture
Obesity
Clean eating
Hipsters
If you are interested in editing or co-editing a book on one of these subjects, get in touch with us! Send an editor bio to susanne@progressiveconnexions.net with the book concept in the subject line, and we can get to work, collaboratively, on developing a proposal.
In addition, we are seeking contributors for a book on the subject of:
Plague culture – the way societies have dealt with plagues through history
If you are interested in contributing to this book, you should send susanne@progressiveconnexions.net an author bio, along with an abstract for your contribution and a short paragraph or list of ways in which you can help us promote the book (social media, networks, organizations, etc), with the book concept in the subject line.
In Our Network…
Our management team has been growing and developing, as we’ve managed the transition from our focus on in-person conferencing to a broader view of the kinds of projects we can do in these COVID times. So strap in to meet the new team!
Teresa Cutler-Broyles has moved from her position as Programme Coordinator to a new role as Director of Opportunities and Research, where she’ll be working on developing Progressive Connexions hubs across Europe and the US, and creating collaborative events and courses that go beyond what we currently have on the docket.
Stepping into Teresa’s shoes as Programme Coordinator is Jaz Shadrack. You may recognize her as an Event Leader of the Music &… team, and she’s going to be working on bringing online learning, schools, and courses into our programme roster, along with continuing the organization of our conferences — both online and, when we can get back to them, in-person. In addition to her incisive work on music, trauma studies, feminism, and psychoanalysis, Jaz is an extreme metal guitarist, which makes her definitely the coolest member of the management team.
Seán Moran, who has long mentored our event leaders and who serenaded us with live music at our in-person events, has also joined the management team as Director of Professional and Personal Development. Seán is a long-standing member of the Progressive Connexions community, and we’re delighted to have him bringing his energy towards fostering the development of people in the Progressive Connexions extended network.
Lorraine Rumson, formerly Director of Communications, has moved into a new role as Acting Network Coordinator. She is working on overseeing the various threads of Progressive Connexions as we develop our more diverse menu of projects in these post-COVID days, and is lending her formidable (if she does say so herself) organizational and spreadsheet-making skills to the management team.
Finally, we are especially excited to welcome the majestic Mr. George Edward Pants esq. as our Happiness Ambassador. He may appear to be merely an ordinary dalmatian, but let us assure you, he is an extremely valuable contributor to our team. You can meet him (and the rest of our staff!) on the Who We Are page.
In addition to the work we’ve been doing to bring you new opportunities in lockdown, we’ve also been busy with our own projects. Jaz is a woman of myriad talent — she’s an artist as well as a musician and scholar, has a new series of visual art for sale on her website Nacht Hexe. You can explore her photography, painting, composition, and fiction, as well as exploring her academic publications. Truly, she has something for everyone!
If you’re seeking some interdisciplinary reading for the winter, the sixth issue of Off Campus: Seggau School of Thought is available for open-access reading, and features an article by Lorraine. Her essay “If You’re Into That, I Guess: Refiguring Male Patients in the Study of Hysterical Vibrators” is just one of the many fascinating interdisciplinary articles by young international scholars featured in the volume, but it may have the distinction of being the article with the most mentions of orgasms.
We want YOU!
Have you done something exciting with a project you brought to a Progressive Connexions conference? Brought it to another conference? Expanded it into a publication, lecture, or new project? Want to have it featured in the newsletter? Email lorraine@progressiveconnexions.net so she can share it with our network!
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Instagram: @ProgConnexions
Facebook: facebook.com/ProgConnex
Have a very happy new year, and here’s hoping that 2021 is good to all of you!