RETHINKING THE SEXED BODY

Faculty of Philosophy

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Madrid, Spain

16–17 October 2024

Conference organisers: Emma Ingala, Gavin Rae, Sara Fontanelli

Contemporary philosophical debates on the sexed body are often marked by an underlying dichotomy or conflict between nature, biology, and matter on the one hand, and culture, language, discourses and symbolic regimes, epistemological frames and norms, sociocultural practices and conventions, and power relations, on the other. A number of thinkers insist, however, that this binary opposition is impoverishing and/or fundamentally mistaken, and seek to rethink the sexed body as a complex, plural, and plastic reality constituted and sustained by a manifold of processes, agents, dimensions, and differential relations that cannot be separated into water-tight compartments. The purpose of this international conference is to bring into dialogue different perspectives on the sexed body that can contribute to this nuanced understanding, shed light on the multidimensionality of sexuality, and enrich the discussions on the nature, materiality, experience, and practices of sexed bodies.