3rd International 
Care Ethics Research Consortium Conference



Care, Aesthetics, and Repair


What if, as James Thompson proposes in Care Aesthetics (2022), we recognized care and dependency work as forms of art, revealing the aesthetic dimensions within these practices? Feminist thinkers have long emphasized that caring involves bodywork—attending to others through listening, observing, feeling, perceiving, improvising, imagining, and other modes of relating. How can we approach embodied acts of care, or what Anna Tsing (2015, p. 17) refers to as “arts of noticing,” as processes of artistic creation? Conversely, what if artistic interactions were understood as works of care? Care is taken through art, by art, and with art. Can the act of making, the processes of art, be a form of care for and with the world?

Recent scholarship, including contributions by Merel Visse and Elena Cologni (2024), Yuriko Saito (2022), and Jacqueline Millner and Gretchen Coombs (2022), reflects the growing interest in the convergence of care, ethics, aesthetics, and everyday life. This conference invites an exploration of aesthetics as a modality of care, where “aesthetics” extends beyond art to encompass a broader range of perceptual and experiential practices. Derived from the Greek concept of aisthesis, aesthetics is fundamentally tied to perception and judgement, mirroring the way care is woven into the fabric of daily life. Just as care is not exclusive to healthcare professionals but is something all people engage in to shape their worlds, aesthetic experiences are not confined to lofty contemplative events—they occur in the small, everyday encounters that elevate ordinary life. But how do we capture these subtle experiences of perception and care, and what methodologies are best suited to explore them?

At the intersection of art, aesthetics, and care lies the potential for reimagining how we repair and sustain our world—or perhaps, rather than repair, envision alternative modes of care altogether. In a world grappling with political, ecological, and societal crises—exacerbated by racial capitalism, colonial legacies, deepening inequalities, and the constant upheavals of contemporary life—how might the creative and caring practices of artists, practitioners, care workers, scholars, activists, and others serve as critical acts of worldmaking? And how, in turn, can this inspire us to imagine and practice care ethics and care theory in new, transformative ways? To explore these questions is to consider care as an aesthetic force field, tracing lines of becoming that hold the potential to open pathways toward more just and sustainable futures—or, just as importantly, challenge us to confront the forces that foreclose them.

This conference brings together care ethicists and scholars; artists, designers, and makers; artistic researchers; performers and philosophers; educators; policymakers; and others to explore a fundamental question: What does it mean to care? The on-site conference will  feature plenary lectures, performances, artworks, a special roundtable on care ethics and care aesthetics, as well as paper presentations and artistic contributions from more than 120 scholars and artists on the theme of “Care, Aesthetics, and Repair.” In addition to the on-site conference, two online days with presentations by more than one hundred additional scholars will be held across time zones worldwide on January 30-31, 2025.


References
Millner, J. & Coombs, G. (Eds) (2022). Care ethics and art. Routledge.
Thompson, J. (2022). Care aesthetics: For artful care and careful art. Routledge.
Saito, Y. (2022). Aesthetics of care: Practice in everyday life. Bloomsbury.
Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press.
Visse, M. & Cologni, E. (Eds) (2024). Art for the sake of care. Special issue of International Journal of Education & the Arts, 25(1).
http://www.ijea.org/v25si1/index.html.


Lines and Labyrinths: 
In Memoriam Selma Sevenhuijsen (1948-2024)


In January 2024, as we began preparations for this conference, Prof. Em. Selma Sevenhuijsen passed away. A pioneer in the field of care ethics, one of the first professors in Gender Studies in the Netherlands, and a co-founder of the Netherlands Research School of Women’s Studies in 1995, Selma’s intellectual legacy is profound and enduring. Her seminal book, Citizenship and the Ethics of Care (1998), built on Joan Tronto’s work to transform our understanding of care, morality, justice, and politics. Today, her ideas continue to resonate deeply, inspiring scholars, students, and practitioners alike. Selma was not only a groundbreaking thinker, but also a cherished colleague, mentor, and friend to many members of the Care Ethics Research Consortium (CERC).

The CERC 2025 conference logo and website, designed by Marielle Schuurman and Johanne de Heus, stand as a tribute to Selma’s life and work. The labyrinthine shapes and lines that guide participants through the digital and physical spaces of the conference echo her later turn to the labyrinth as a space for spiritual growth and reflection, as well as her journeys in search of the meaning of the double-tailed mermaid (Sevenhuijsen, 2008). This turn may have unsettled those who prefer the predictable logic of straight lines and who question the place of mermaids in academia. Yet we embrace it. Labyrinths and mermaids remind us that knowledge, like care, rarely follows a linear path. It meanders, loops, and folds back on itself, weaving differences into new possibilities and creating spaces where alternative ways of thinking and being can emerge.

Sevenhuijsen’s later work—the “soul work” she so passionately pursued—was as transformative as her academic contributions. It pushed against the boundaries of conventional knowledge, inviting us to see care as a fluid, relational practice rooted in love, spirituality, and wonder. Her ethic of care was not confined to predefined structures but instead traced its own course—always attentive to the needs and stories of others, and often diverging from the rigid frameworks of institutionalized thought. In this spirit, the labyrinth design also resonates with Sara Ahmed’s notion of desire lines: the unofficial, improvised pathways that arise when people, animals, and others deviate from prescribed routes, forging alternative paths that reflect needs, longings, and resistances. Yet, a labyrinth consists of one path. As Sevenhuijsen reminds us in Labyrinths of Care (2003), a labyrinth is not a maze: “Whereas in a maze you have to make choices about which path to take, and can thus get lost in cul-de-sacs, in a labyrinth you are guided by the path” (p. 8). In a labyrinth, there are no wrong turns, no dead ends—only ongoing comings, goings, and meanderings. Even death, we might suggest, is not a terminus but a creative transformation—another turn in the ceaseless unfolding of life itself.

For this conference, we propose six interconnected lines—Conceptualizing & Creating, Understanding & Changing, Resisting & Liberating, Embedding & Governing, Performing & Becoming, and Futuring & Worlding—that (un)structure the program and create pathways through the event as a labyrinth of creative thought and action. These lines reflect not only the conference themes—exploring the entanglements of care and care ethics with aesthetics and the arts—but also the creative “lines of flight” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p. 55) we hope the conference will open up. Like a labyrinth, these lines guide intentional and reflective navigation, encouraging participants to approach the conference as a space for imagination, introspection, interconnection, and what Sevenhuijsen (2018) called “active attention.” Together, they form a symbolic framework that enriches the experience, inviting you to traverse the pathways of this event with care, curiosity, and a sense of wonder.

— Louis van den Hengel, December 2024
References

Ahmed, S. (2006). Queer phenomenology: Orientations, objects, others. Duke University Press.

Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. University of Minnesota Press.

Sevenhuijsen, S. (1998). Citizenship and the ethics of care: Feminist considerations on justice, morality, and politics. Routledge.

Sevenhuijsen, S. (2008). De glimlach van de sirene: Reis door het Etruskisch labyrint op zoek naar de Godin. A3 Boeken.

Sevenhuijsen, S. (2018). Care and attention. South African Journal of Higher Education, 32(6), 19-30.

Sevenhuijsen, S. & Švab (2003). Introduction. In S. Sevenhuijsen & A. Švab (Eds), Labyrinths of care: The relevance of the ethics of care perspective for social policy (pp. 7-12). Peace Institute.


Conference Organization


Host Institution
University of Humanistic Studies (UvH)
Utrecht, the Netherlands

Organizing Committee
Conference Chair and Director: Louis van den Hengel (UvH)
Assistant Conference Chair and Director: Jake Smit (UvH)

Program Committee
Sophie Bourgault (University of Ottawa); Vivienne Bozalek (University of the Western Cape, emerita); Maurice Hamington (Portland State University); Louis van den Hengel (chair, UvH); Hee-Kang Kim (Korea University); Joan Tronto (University of Minnesota, emerita); Merel Visse (UvH & Drew University)

Graphic Design
Marielle Schuurman & Johanne de Heus

Photography and Videography
Thomas de Wit

Acknowledgements
This conference is made possible thanks to the financial support of the University of Humanistic Studies and contributions from participants. The Care Ethics Research Consortium (CERC) wishes to thank all participants, and in particular, UvH’s Executive Board, Joke van Saane and Paul Logtens, for their invaluable support. A special thank you to Carlo Leget, Merel Visse, and Maurice Hamington for their strategic advice and moral encouragement, which were instrumental in shaping the conference vision. Additionally, we extend our gratitude to Robbert Hoogstraat, Steven van Rheenen, Ghariba Jakani, Irene Abbenhuis, Marjon van der Weide, and Laurens van den Broek (UvH), as well as to all panel moderators and volunteers. Finally, a heartfelt thank you to our hosts at the conference venue Kontakt der Kontinenten, Soesterberg, with special appreciation to Emma van Gool and her team.

Location
23-25 January 2025
Kontakt der Kontinenten, Amersfoortsestraat 20
3769 AS Soesterberg
Online
30-31 January 2025 more info 

OrganizerCare Ethics Research Consortium
Contact info Louis van den Hengel
Images homepage: Merel Visse, Christine Leroy

design website: Johanne de Heus and Marielle Schuurman