BU Research Blog

Love and intimacy in contemporary society – Prof Ann Brooks hi res

Love and intimacy in contemporary society

Inaugural public lecture by Professor Ann Brooks, Professor of Sociology at Bournemouth University

About the lecture

The history of love and intimacy shows a fascinating interweaving of social, economic and cultural influences. Perhaps surprisingly the traditional meaning of love does not relate to passion or intimacy. Love and intimacy in contemporary society can only be understood by charting love and intimacy historically.

Ann’s lecture will explore changes in emotional regimes from medieval society to the present day. She will be asking the questions: How can we distinguish between romantic and passionate love? Why did courtly love highlight the significance of “dangerous liaisons”? What is the role of popular and literary fiction in promoting love? What role did bohemian love play in challenging marriage? Is love and marriage characterised by more social diversity that previously?

Drawing on research for her latest book, Ann will be showing how love and intimacy meant different things at different times. Her research also indicates that the history of emotional regimes shows that intimacy in the form of desire, passion, and sex largely exist outside marriage. The key question for today’s society is: “What’s love got to do with it?”

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Bournemouth University’s (BU) Inaugural Lecture Series aims to celebrate new professorial appointments and the depth and breadth of research produced by the university. For further information on the Inaugural Lecture Series please visit www.bournemouth.ac.uk/public-lecture-series

Event information

Venue: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, East Cliff Promenade, Bournemouth, BH1 3AA

Time & Date: Tuesday 12 April 2016, 6.30pm for a 7pm start.

Refreshments will be provided at the event.

Parking is available at the Pay & Display car park on Bath Road and along the East Cliff.

For more information about this event please contact Sarah Gorman at sgorman@bournemouth.ac.uk

‘Venus Verticordia’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1864-68). Image reproduced with kind permission of the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth.