Intimate Utopias Workshop

Dr Luke Brunning and Sophie Goddard organised a three-day workshop as part of the MANCEPT Workshops in Political Theory 2025 at the University of Manchester on ‘Intimate Utopias'.

There have been many attempts to imagine utopian societies, but these efforts often focus on changes to the public sphere; to how we work, how society is structured, and how we will be governed. Less attention has been directed to changes in our intimate lives. This workshop, organised by Dr Luke Brunning and Sophie Goddard, explores the future of intimacy in all its forms – from friendship, family life, romantic relationships or collegiality. What does good intimacy look like? What social, legal, cultural, or personal changes are required to enact these futures? How are we currently being held-back? Is utopian intimacy possible?’

Programme:

Session 1- Consent

Lucy Shanahan – (University of Leeds) – ‘Ideal Consensual Non-Consensual Sex’

Laurin Tirpitz – (Humboldt University) – ‘(Sexual) Consent – Finally a liberation for all?’

Session 2 – Self-esteem

Sanat Sogani – (Central European University) – ‘Why Personal Relationships Cannot And Should Not Bear The Weight Of Supporting People’s Self-Esteem’

Session 3 – Intimacy and AI

Jasmine Gunkel – (University of Western Ontario) – ‘AI, Pseudointimacy, and Why Intimacy Matters’

Max Lewis – (Yale University) – ‘AI, Intimacy, and Narrative Agency’

Session 4 – Self-disclosure

Alex Fisher – (Tilburg University) – ‘The Ethics of Self-Disclosure in Online Dating’

Session 5 – Posthumous intimacy

Nathan Barrett – (University of Leeds) – ‘Till Death (Don’t) Us Part: Sex, Robots, and the Ethics of Posthumous Intimacy’

Helena Ward – (University of Oxford) – ‘Conversations with Grief-Bots’

Session 6 – Dating apps

Erinne Paisley – (University of Copenhagen) – ‘“Send Me a Screenshot!” Collective Feminist Sense-Making in Dating App Cultures’

Sam Mace – (University of Leeds) – ‘Swiping left on internet dating- A case for deliberative in-person dating’

Session 7 – Friendship

George Surtees – (University of Sheffield) – ‘On Valuing Aesthetic Features of Your Friend’

For more information: https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/mancept/mancept-workshops/list-of-panels-a-z-2025/intimate-utopias/