The Center for Body, Mind, and Culture of Florida Atlantic University invites paper proposals for a conference on “Bodies of Culture: Somaesthetic Explorations” that is planned for November 6-7, 2026, at FAU’s Boca Raton campus. The conference call for papers is as follows:

The body is an essential feature of our human existence, necessary for our survival and central to our humanity, even though our bodies come in somewhat different sizes, shapes, and colors. The human body is clearly a physical thing but also clearly something more: an embodied subjectivity or soma that is shaped significantly by culture. Cultural differences differently shape the body, not only in terms of our somatic conduct and experience but also, at times, in its physical form: the ways our bodies are attired, groomed, and adorned, and even in their dimensions and powers. The soma’s size and strength change with changes in the material culture of how it is nourished and cared for and how it cultivates or exercises itself. Bodies of Culture: Somaesthetic Explorations will examine, through a somaesthetic lens, the different ways that different cultures shape somatic experience. This includes the ways different cultures conceive of the human body and how they value it, care for it, and represent it in the arts. It also includes the ways culturally related somatic differences impact the relations between different cultures. The range of differing cultures to consider is broad: religious and secular cultures, national, international, and cosmopolitan cultures, and cultures of different historical periods, different disciplines, and different linguistic traditions.

The conference is open to contributions from diverse disciplinary perspectives in the humanities (including medical humanities), social sciences, and the arts. Selected papers may be developed for publication in The Journal of Somaesthetics or in an edited volume based on the conference papers to be published in the Brill book series Studies in Somaesthetics.

This conference is a collaborative project with FAU’s Center for Body, Mind, and Culture, whose program committee will do the job of selecting the proposals for presentation and organizing the program. But you should submit your proposal here. It should contain your email address, the title of your paper and an abstract (250-300 words), and a CV.