Bodies & Emotions In Turbulent Times: Intersections, Entanglements & Transformations

Contemporary crises –– like forced migration, political polarisation, armed conflicts, economic uncertainty, pandemics, climate change, technological transformation –– extend beyond institutional phenomena; they are lived, felt and negotiated through bodies and emotions. Yet the interconnectedness between bodies and emotions remains under-explored from a transdisciplinary approach. This joint session invites you to examine the co-construction of bodies and emotions, how they are socially embedded in uncertainty, disruption and change. Emotions are experienced through embodied processes and bodies are shaped by emotional values, norms, practices and various power relations. The confluence of bodies and emotions reflects crucial insights into experiences of vulnerability and resilience, belonging and exclusion and practices of resistance addressing both individual and group dynamics.

We welcome empirical, theoretical and methodological contributions that address (but are not limited to) embodied experiences of anxiety, fear, solidarity and hope; emotional dimensions of health, illness, (dis)ability and care; bodies and emotions in collective action and movements; affective politics and the governance of bodies; migration and displacement; digital and mediated embodiment; emotional labour and bodily work; racialised, classed, gendered and sexualised embodiments; climate-related emotions and environmental uncertainty. We encourage submissions and presentations from researchers, especially emerging and early-career researchers, academicians, and professionals from diverse disciplinary backgrounds.

By fostering dialogue between bodies and emotions, this session seeks to advance a transdisciplinary understanding of how embodied and emotional experiences shape, and are shaped and reshaped by contemporary social transformations.