English

Introduction

Since the last Non-Monogamies and Contemporary Intimacies (NMCI) conference in Barcelona in November 2019, the world has gone through political, social and environmental changes of such magnitude that it is necessary to think about how issues like sexuality, gender, new intimacies and affections are being shaped by the new context. More than two years after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions it came with, the world situation has been characterized by the crisis of the neoliberal capitalist model, the war in Eastern Europe, the growth of fascism, an increase of violence against women and sexual dissidents, the omnipresence of computer technologies and artificial intelligence in our lives and an environmental crisis that threatens all  life on the planet – human and non-human. Within this framework of new and constant transformations, what are the possibilities or experiences that contribute to imagining a sexual and affective life beyond heteronormativity, monogamy and reproduction? Is another intimacy possible beyond affective sex binarisms and oppressive relationships?

Chile has not been immune to this change of context. The last five years have been very complex, both politically and affectively. Since 2011, Chilean society has been agitated by important social movements and popular uprisings that have flooded the streets demanding dignity, justice and equality. In 2018, a feminist movement emerged that began at universities and demanded a non-sexist education, stood against harassment and for a sexuality free of violence, transforming the word feminism into a common reference for thousands of women and other minoritized groups. In October 2019, the social discontent accumulated over 30 years of liberal democracy exploded onto the streets, taking the form of a popular revolt and demanding dignity and social justice. Multiple mass demonstrations reshaped people’s everyday lives and proposed a new social pact expressed in a new constitution. The popular uprising, however, was abruptly halted by the pandemic, forcing the country into quarantine to face a virus that brought with it fear, poverty, and death.

In mid-2021, a Constitutional Convention was elected with majoritarian popular support. It included a system of representation based on gender parity and seats reserved for native peoples. This process would end a year later with a plebiscite that rejected the proposal presented by the assembly, strengthening the conservative and extreme right sectors. Once again, the country was left under the control of the political and business elites that recently decided to have a new constitutional process, but this time without popular and indigenous participation.

These political and social events have had an impact on our intimate and private lives, on ways of relating to each other and ways of experiencing our sexualities. Women and sexual dissidents are groups that are highly vulnerable when social and political conditions shift towards conservative politics. Women have had to face a care crisis in the domestic sphere and an increase in acts of violence that have further exposed the structural inequalities of the heteropatriarchal capitalist system. Dissident bodies have been affected by multiple forms of discrimination, including violent harassment and aggression. 

From this situated experience, we want to invite you to think about and reflect on the processes that have affected sexual and affective dissidence in other places of the world to recognize similarities, differences, transversalities, and potential points of intervention. How have our intimacies been affected by the latest social changes? How do feminisms affect our ways of bonding and establishing relationships? What are the implications of sexual dissidence in current cultural contexts? How can we politicize forms of relationships beyond monogamies? How might it be possible to collectivize care and politicize ties? What are the theoretical perspectives that can help us understand and act in this new context? These are some of the questions that we hope will be activated in the discussions that we propose in the various lines of work that make up this conference proposal.

About NMCI

The Non-Monogamies and Contemporary Intimacies Conference is a biannual event that takes place in different cities around the world and that brings together social movements and the academy to reflect on sexual-affective lives and the relations of power that cross them. NMCI was developed to create a space for debate, bringing together academics, activists, artists, therapists/counselors and others involved in (consensual) non-monogamy research, policy and practice from the Global South and the Global North.

The first edition took place in Lisbon (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) in 2015, the second in Vienna (Sigmund Freud University) in 2017, and the third in Barcelona (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the Pati Llimona Civic Center and the Sala Apolo) in 2019. This 4th version Conference will take place in the city of Valparaíso, Chile, at the premises of the University of Valparaíso and the University of Playa Ancha.

The 4th Non-Monogamies and Contemporary Intimacies Conference works to set up a critical space that seeks to politicize and theorize about counter-hegemonic experiences that challenge or subvert the (binary) sex-gender system and the matrix of compulsory heterosexuality. By putting academic practice, activism, art and sexually dissident practices in dialogue, we hope to build a space for conversation that makes it possible to understand and disseminate these experiences as well as recognize the instances of articulation that involve our bodies in multiple sensitive and political affectations.

About the call

The NMCI Conference is a space for reflection and inter- and transdisciplinary conversation that seeks to put into dialogue a series of critical perspectives that include critical sexology, trans feminisms, queer practices and theories, postcolonial and decolonial approaches, cultural studies, critical posthumanism and political economy. Based on these approaches, a series of emerging themes arise which inspire the contents of this conference:

Contributions can address the following topics (as well as others that are not explicitly mentioned here):

State: relations between the state, the law and monogamies; privileges of monogamous relationships; legal recognition of non-monogamies; non-monogamous kinships; multiparentalities; emerging forms of judicial activism; alternatives to the legal/institutional centrality of the nuclear family in public policies and social assistance

Social movements: activist experiences; occupations of public space; relational dissidence in protest spaces; relations between non-monogamous activisms and feminist movements, LGBTIQ* movements, anti-racism, and intersectionality; relations between sexuality, moral panics and repression of protest; mononormativity and public order

COVID-19 : the return home safe space?; monogamization of sexual, family and affective relationships; strengthening of virtual networks; online sexualities; relationships between non-monogamies and meeting spaces; similarities and contrasts between the effects of the HIV and COVID-19 pandemics on sexual dissidence; care networks, non-monogamous relationships and economic precariousness; monogamy and public health, the body and vulnerability; relations with the environment in the Anthropocene/Chthulucene; emerging biopolitics of human and non-human kinships

Decoloniality: North-South relations in non-monogamy studies; monogamy, catechization and colonization; relations between the hypersexualization of non-white bodies and non-monogamous bodies; relations between polyamory, polygamy and Islamophobia; racism in non-monogamous communities; colonial underpinnings of monogamies and non-monogamies; relational dissidence in southern Ecuador; sexuality and kinship in native peoples; ball culture and queer kinship in Abya Yala

Sexual practices and their politicization: polyamory, relationship anarchy, solopolyamory, open relationships, free networks, families of choice, non-sexual and non-biological kinship networks, swingers, cyber-sex, sex work, BDSM, dating apps, asexuality, demisexuality,  etc.

Who can participate and how?

● Academics, activists, artists, therapists/counselors from anywhere in the world who are interested in discussing and reflecting on non-monogamy and contemporary intimacies can participate in the conference.

● Proposals can be submitted for panels, workshops, presentations, paintings, exhibitions, book presentations, performances, films/documentaries, etc.

● Proposals can be sent in Spanish, Portuguese and English. For logistical reasons, the conference will be broadcast in Spanish with English translation. Portuguese may be used both in presentations and in dialogue spaces, since we understand that the proximity between the two languages facilitates understanding.

Planning Schedule

  • March 13, 2023 Start of the call to submit contributions
  • May 30, 2023 Deadline for submission of proposals for contributions
  • July 15, 2023 Notification of acceptance of contributions
  • Thursday 23, Friday 24 and Saturday 25 November 2023 4th Non-monogamies and Contemporary Intimacies Conference in Valparaíso, Chile.

Accessibility & language

The conference’s common languages will be Catalan, Spanish and English, and abstracts may be submitted in any of those languages.

We are dedicated to providing an inclusive, safe and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of personal/professional and financial background, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, dis-/ability, physical appearance, body size, race, class, age or religion.

The venues are wheelchair accessible. If you have additional accessibility requirements (e.g. sign-language interpreting), please contact us. We will do our best to provide for everyone’s requirements. If you are not sure whether your particular set of requirements ‘counts’, please contact us anyways!

Submissions

Our goal is community-building within and beyond academia, art, activism, psychotherapy/counselling, community etc., challenging conventional models of the hegemonic Global North system of knowledge production. We are therefore open to a variety of formats and encourage the submission not only of academic papers and thematic panels, but also round-table discussions, workshops, storytelling, project presentations, performances, film screenings, debates, installations, activist-driven reflections, reflexive exercises, and other formats. We will not expect or reward academic language over other modes of expression, so please feel free to explain your proposal in your own words, keeping in mind the importance of accessible language. 

Contributions should normally take 20 minutes, but we are open to other timeframes depending on your requirements.

To propose a presentation, please complete the following form. 

https://forms.gle/ruiTjvML5jDMgrib8

Financing of the conference

The organization of this conference has a financing system composed of the sponsorship of partner institutions and the registration fees of those who will attend the event. 

In order to reduce economic access barriers, we have established differentiated registration fees. 

Remember that all funds raised will be used for the production of the conference. 

We appreciate your sincerity in choosing the alternative that best suits your economic possibilities. 

In case you cannot afford any of the fees, please contact the organization directly to evaluate the search for solutions. 

  • Professional, Artist or Activist with funding from a University or other organization
    ($100,000 Chilean pesos – $100 dollars – 100 euros). 
  • Professional without external funding and graduate students. 
    ($50,000 Chilean pesos – $50 US dollars – 50 euros) 
  • Artists and activists without external funding. 
    ($30,000 Chilean pesos – $30 dollars – 30 euros) 
  • Undergraduate student 
    ($20,000 Chilean pesos – $20 dollars – 20 euros)


Local Organizing Committee