The sensuous has a natural pull to those who work in the field of aesthetics. It is irresistible, and this irresistibility is welcome. One gratuitously surrenders to it the way the earth welcomes a sunrise or a sunset. One is taken over and beautifully so by the sensuous. To welcome the sensuous is not to welcome what is foreign to oneself, and this is because one, too, is sensuous. Accordingly, aesthetics is a welcoming of oneself to oneself. One belongs to the sensuous, and the sensuous belongs to oneself. Because one is sensuous and hence, belongs to the sensuous, the sensuous opens itself to all of us individually and communally. Often, we forget our common belongingness to the sensuous, and see it as catering exclusively to the personal, or to the subjective. Others pursue the communal at the expense of the personal, or at the expense of the subjective. This either impoverished both. The sensuous does not discriminate. It is the site where both are linked, nurtured and celebrated.
The conference brings together the lovers of the sensuous to share and celebrate what they have in common. The conference is open to academics and non-academics, and seeks the transgression of this distinction, just as it transgresses the borders that separate academic disciplines. We are looking for presentations that recognize, affirm, and explore the sensuous kinship we have with one another, and that we have with the rest of the sensuous world. Send abstracts to jmurungi@towson.edu. The deadline of submission is January 20, 2012. Towson University, Towson, Maryland, USA, will be the conference venue.