The is hosting the . The conference, which will explore the ways in which sensory perception affects legal thinking, will take place April 29–May 2 at Volcano, Â鶹´«Ã½ Island. Previous locations of the annual conference throughout the years have included Copenhagen, Hong Kong and Hangzhou, China.
The conference is hosted by the UH Hilo . Sarah Marusek, chair and associate professor of political science at UH Hilo, says there are 26 conference participants, including 8 UH Hilo undergraduate participants, 5 faculty from UH Hilo and who are presenters, as well as presenters from universities in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Hong Kong, China, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Bulgaria and United States.
The conference is titled, “Synesthetic Legalities: Sensory Dimensions of Law and Jurisprudence.” According to the conference announcement, “synesthesia” is the phenomenon where sensual perceptions are joined together as a combined experience, for example, the ability to feel color, hear the visual, or even smell emotion. These types of unions affect legal thinking, and when analyzed, can give creative insight into the complexities of how law works through the body—hands, ears, eyes, noses, tongues—in other words, through spatial, temporal, aural, tangible, culinary and olfactory experience.
Attendees will first learn about the Hawaiian cycle of aʻo that emphasizes a continual process of learning through teaching and teaching while learning, and then within this context, the roundtable will explore the richly complex manifestations of synesthesia by exploring the ways in which law stimulates the senses.
For the full list of speakers, visit the .
—By Susan Enright