​Recently, feminist and queer studies have turned to the concept of intimacy both as subject and as an analytic rubric. In the Slow Intimacy conference, held at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study between 12 and 14 October, the focus will be on 'slow intimacy', meaning, intimate interactions that are enduring, long-standing, in process, and in development over time. The conference is convened by Prof Amanda Gouws (SARChI Chair in Gender Politics) and Prof Lou-Marie Kruger (Department of Psychology). Through the conference, the diverse and interdisciplinary papers explore processes of knowing and showing that are subtle and nuanced, complex, multi-layered and intricate. They also explore the processes of knowing and showing associated with slow intimacy and the ways in which slow intimacy is tied to power and shaped by larger societal processes (political, social, economic). Slow intimacy takes place in different sites, on different scales and involves different types of showing. It involves everyday actions (sex, sports, shopping, breast-feeding, parenting, cooking, gardening, work) as well as extraordinary ones (from a daring execution of a Chopin piano concerto to the military invasion of a country). The 'showing' associated with slow intimacy can involve intellectual, sexual and cultural repertoires, as well as aesthetic and performative modes.