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12th New Materialisms conference at Maynooth University, Ireland.

Finally, it is here! We are very proud to announce the up-coming 12th New Materialisms conference, in Ireland at Maynooth University!

Call for Papers:

Intersectional Materialisms:

Diversity in Creative Industries, Methods and Practices

Date: August 26th-29th 2024

Location: Maynooth, National University of Ireland

We are delighted to announce the forthcoming 12th New Materialisms Conference on “Intersectional Materialisms: Diversity in Creative Industries, Methods and Practices,” an interdisciplinary platform to explore the convergences and synergies between intersectionality, new materialisms and creative practice. This conference aims to bring together scholars, activists, and practitioners to critically engage with the complexities of subjectivities, power, and material realities through an intersectional and materialist lens with a focus on how the materiality of difference matters in creative practice.

About the Conference:

The conference seeks to foster an inclusive and dynamic space for discussions that transcend conventional disciplinary boundaries with a view to open, yet historically informed, conversations. Intersectionality and Feminist New Materialisms intersect to enrich our understanding of the interconnectedness of human and non-human life, challenging binary conceptualisations, and addressing social, technological, environmental, and political issues with renewed perspectives. The conference is the next in an annual tradition that started in 2010 and was briefly interrupted during the global COVID-19 pandemic. So far, the network has met in Cambridge, UK; Utrecht, NL; Linköping, SE; Turku, FI; Barcelona, ES; Maribor, SI; Melbourne, AU; Warsaw, PL; Paris, FR; Cape Town, ZA; Kassel, GE.

Themes

We invite researchers, artists, professionals, teachers and activists to submit original papers and presentations that engage with the theme of intersectionality within the creative industries, or through creative research methods and practices. We are interested in oral histories, folk practices, digital folk media, inclusive dance, disability powered art, feminist cinema and music, drag, queer and trans creative spaces, productive connections and points of tension; synergy and debate. We follow a range of interdisciplinary conversations, and specifically invite papers that look to decenter colonial histories, knowledges and value systems, which also develop an awareness of the global and racialized politics of emotion. In recent years, the creative industries have witnessed a growing awareness of the complex interplay between various forms of identity and their impact on creativity, representation, and cultural production. Intersectionality, a framework that acknowledges the interconnectedness of multiple social identities and systems of oppression, has become a crucial lens through which to understand and critique the dynamics within the creative sectors. This interdisciplinary conference seeks to foster a deeper exploration of intersectionality’s role in shaping the creative industries, facilitating an inclusive and critical dialogue among scholars, practitioners, and stakeholders.

Intersectionality (Nash, 2018; Banet-Weiser, 2018; Villesche et al., 2018; Hill Collins, 2019; Kanai, 2020) has brought race, class, age, sexuality and disability into everyday feminist discussions which challenge the whiteness of western feminist material culture (Hamad and Taylor, 2015). However, there are also scholars (Puar, 2011; Hinton, et al., 2015) who note some of the ongoing whiteness embedded within new materialism and suggest that ‘race and the very processes through which racialized bodies come to matter (in both senses of the word) are considered to be areas that are underrepresented in many new materialist approaches’ (Hinton, et al., 2015, p. 2). Taking this as a call to action, we also invite papers which investigate and respond to what Geerts and van der Tuin (2013) might call ‘a pattern of interference’, after Barad (2007) and Verloo (2009), where ‘by allowing for relations to be made and made differently, we no longer assume that a social category or a set of social categories has a decisive and uniform effect (essentialism)’ (p.176). Papers, panels, performances and other submissions which take up intersectionality as a critical and creative feminist new materialist turning point, or everyday practice are especially welcomed. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

Topics

We invite contributions that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:

1. **Representation and Identity in Creative Content:** Analysing how intersectionality influences the representation of diverse identities in art, media, literature, film, and other creative forms.

2. **Production and Creative Processes:** Examining how intersecting identities impact creative processes, collaboration, innovation, and decision-making within various creative domains.

3. **Cultural Production and Social Change:** Exploring how intersectional perspectives contribute to challenging stereotypes, promoting social justice, and fostering inclusive cultural production.

4. **Economic and Structural Inequities:** Investigating how intersectional factors affect access to resources, opportunities, and career advancement within the creative industries.

5. **Audience Reception and Consumption:** Studying how audiences from different intersecting backgrounds engage with and interpret creative content, and how intersectional narratives resonate with diverse audiences.

6. **Intersectional Activism and Advocacy:** Examining the role of intersectional approaches in advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion within creative sectors and their broader societal impact.

7. **Arts Based Methods:** Exploring how arts based methods create spaces for intersectional activism in research.

8. **Posthumanist queer studies and intersectional approaches to sexuality: research in and outside institutions**

9. **Intersectional perspectives on technoscience, AI, and digital cultures: can AI be creative?**

10. **Creative production and minoritarian cultures**.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Jasbir Puar, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Chiara Bonfiglioli, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy

Milla Tiainen & Katve-Kaisa Kontturi, University of Turku, Finland

Susan Luckman, University of South Australia, Australia

Aislinn O’Donnell, Maynooth University, Ireland

**Submission Guidelines:**

We welcome proposals for presentations and panels and encourage diverse modes of engagement including performance and other creative approaches.

For individual presentations, please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, along with a brief bio and contact details, to intersectionalhumanities@gmail.com by December 15, 2023. For panel proposals please include abstracts for each paper and the panel’s overall theme. Our preferred format is in-person but we will accommodate virtual presentations as needed. Please include your proposal with information about preferred format and other technical/practical requirements.

**Important Dates:**

– Abstract submission deadline: December 15, 2023

– Notification of acceptance: February 15, 2023

– Conference dates: August 26th to 29th, 2024

**Conference Format:**

Considering global circumstances, the conference will be organised as a hybrid event, offering both in-person and virtual participation options to accommodate diverse attendees.

**Publication Opportunity:**

Selected papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication in a special issue of Matter: Journal of the New Materialisms or an edited volume dedicated to the encounters between intersectionality and feminist new materialisms.

**Registration:**

Further details regarding registration and the conference schedule will be available on the conference website as the event date approaches. For inquiries and further information, please contact Professor Anna Hickey-Moody, anna.hickeymoody@mu.ie

*Organisers *

Professor Anna Hickey-Moody, Maynooth, IRE

Dr Suvi Pihkala, University of Oulu, FIN

Dr Marissa Willcox, University of Amsterdam, NL

Dr Tapasya Narag, University College Dublin, IRE

Dr Beatriz Revelles Benavente, University of Granada, SP

Dr Monika Rogowska-Stangret, University of Bialystok, PL

Professor Iris van der Tuin, Utrecht University, NL

Professor Maria Tamboukou, University of East London, UK

Professor Cecilia Åsberg, Linköping University, SWE

Dr Goda Klumbytė, University of Kassel, DEN

Professor Felicity Colman, University of the Arts London, UK

Image credit: Frances Cannon

Resisting Toxic Climates: Gender, Colonialism, and Environment

Wed 26 – Thu 27 Jul 2023, 09:00 – 17:30

British Academy/Wellcome Trust Conferences bring together scholars and specialists from around the world to explore themes related to health and wellbeing.

Whether it’s the spectacular event of an oil spill or the scarcely perceptible pollution of micro-plastics, toxicity is central to the environmental concerns of today. To exist in the world means being vulnerable to multiple forms of toxicity. Yet, conditions of vulnerability are unequal, shaped by enduring global histories of colonialism and capitalism.

This event will highlight the toxic valences of coloniality, asking how toxicity manifests and mutates with particular regard to gender across variously situated bodies, lands and waterscapes. While we are concerned with the interrelated forms of material toxicity that threaten the wellbeing of human and more-than-human communities, we also seek to facilitate dialogue around pertinent social, political and cultural discourses of toxification. Operating at the intersections of the medical and environmental humanities, and centering feminist, queer, decolonial and Indigenous paradigms, this interdisciplinary event brings together scholars and practitioners working across disciplines and employing creative and/or critical modes of enquiry to explore these topics.

Resisting Toxic Climates will feature a series of original artworks by Natasha Thembiso Ruwona and Caitlin Stobie, produced in response to the themes and setting of the event.

The programme will feature a tour of the exhibition Shipping Roots by Keg De Sousa, led by the exhibition curator Emma Nicolson.

Conference convenors

  • Dr Rebecca Macklin, University of Edinburgh
  • Dr Alexandra Campbell, University of Glasgow
  • Professor Michelle Keown, University of Edinburgh

Speakers

  • Professor Mishuana Goeman, University of Buffalo
  • Professor Savage Bear, McMaster University
  • Dr Metzli Yoalli Rodriguez, Forest Lake University
  • Dr Hannah Boast, University of Edinburgh
  • Professor Astrida Niemanis, University of British Columbia Okanagan
  • Dr Christine Okoth, Kings College London
  • Dr Treasa De Loughery, University College Dublin
  • Dr Dipali Mathur, Ulster University
  • Dr Jason Allen-Paisant, University of Manchester
  • Dr Thandi Loewenson, Royal College of Art
  • Dr Craig Santos Perez, University of Hawaii
  • Dr Alycia Pirmohamed, University of Cambridge
  • Professor Patricia Widener, Florida Atlantic University
  • Dr J.T. Roane, Rutgers University
  • Dr Caitlin Stobie, University of Leeds
  • Natasha Thembiso Ruwona

Please download the programme here

If you have any questions about this event please refer to our events FAQs or email conferences@thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Image: Carolina Caycedo, ‘Thanks For Hosting Us, We Are Healing our Broken Bodies / Gracias por hospedarnos. Estamos sanando nuestros cuerpos rotos’, 2019.1 channel HD Video 8:48 min, color and sound. With: Marina Magalhaes (Choreography), José Richard Aviles, Tatiana Zamir, Belle Alvarez, Bianca Medina, Isis Avalos, Patty Huerta, Celeste Tavares. Photographer: Bobby Gordon. Courtesy of the artist.

Deadline 28 Feb. Call for papers: ‘Recentring the Region’ 

July 4-7, RMIT University and Deakin University, Melbourne

A partnership between ASAL (Association for the Study of Australian Literature) and ASLEC-ANZ (Association for the Study of Literature, Environment and Culture (Australia and New Zealand)), the 2023 ‘Recentring the Region’ conference turns attention to ‘the region’ in Australian literary studies and environmentally-oriented critical and creative practice.

Regions pre-date colonisation in Australia, bringing them into tension with the nation and its structures. They encompass geographies, hydrologies, ecologies, networks and alliances. They are structural and affective, relational and fluid. They can bring entities together and move them apart. Regions are a way of thinking, narrating, and making, and they are continually being constituted by practices that encompass the literary and the artistic in all their forms.

‘Recentring the Region’ will be face to face (based at RMIT University in Melbourne’s CBD) with some fully online sessions to accommodate interstate and overseas participants.

We invite broad and inclusive approaches to ‘the region’ in Australian literary and other creative practices and scholarship from Australia, Aotearoa and beyond, and call for 20 minute paper/presentation proposals (diverse formats also welcome) that trouble the nation state as the primary regional frame. These might consider, but are not limited to:

·         First Nations literature, creative practice and regions

·         Regional literary history and cultures

·         Critical regionalism and bioregionalism 

·         Environmental, oceanic and atmospheric regions

·         Trans-Tasman and Pacific writing and literary culture

·         Place-making and literary practice

·         Biographies from the regions

·         Genres as literary regions

·         Ecocritical regions

·         More-than-human regions

·         Artforms as artistic regions

·         Critical discourses, theories and disciplines as scholarly regions

·         Periods as temporal regions

Please send 200 word abstract/proposal and 50 word bio by 28 February 2023 to RegionsConference2023@gmail.com

Please indicate on your submission whether you are submitting as a member of ASAL, ASLEC-ANZ or both and if you are planning to present online or face to face (hybrid is unavailable). For more information about ASAL and ASLEC-ANZ see

CEMUS Spring Seminars and Conference (CFP deadline Mar. 1)

Our friends at CEMUS, The Centre for Environment and Development Studies, have some exciting events this year.

Starting on Feb. 9, they have a great seminar line-up for Spring. You are welcome to visit in person in Uppsala or online!

They are also hosting the ClimateExistence conference Aug 16-18 with the Sigtuna Foundation (in Sigtuna). Check out the details on their website and do not forget to submit your application by the March 1 deadline!

DUE 31 Dec. Conference CFP: “Narrating the Multispecies World. Stories in Times of Crises, Loss, Hope”

For those of you interested, consider submitting your work for this upcoming conference. Here are the details as provided by the organisers:

Narrating the Multispecies World. Stories in Times of Crises, Loss, Hope
August 3 to 5, 2023, University of Würzburg
An interdisciplinary, hybrid conference, organized by the Chair of European Ethnology


We are living in a multispecies world. Although the world is constantly changing, this change has accelerated extraordinarily in recent years, bringing forth substantial and manifold crises. Essentially caused by the capitalist pervasion of almost every part of our everyday, we are currently experiencing an increasing loss of diversity, particularly in the more-than-human world: due to changing circumstances in their original habitats, numerous living beings such as plants, insects, and mammals (including humans) migrate all over the world; some of them become extinct, and others are forced to adapt to new ecologies.

Narrating is a powerful practice. It allows us to understand what happens, and it enables us to shape the world, particularly in times of crises. Storytelling can also be seen as a practice of other-than-humans, as anthropologists Deborah Bird Rose and Thom van Dooren remind us of in their work. What are the stories of our multispecies world today? Which observations, needs, desires, dreams, nightmares, aspirations, and ethics are shared by narrating? Who is narrating which stories for whom, where, when? What is the role of the past, and which parts of our narrative heritage do we still maintain? What is the role of multispecies temporalities in narratives? What are the new powerful stories developing possibilities for a peaceful cohabitation in the multispecies world?

We are looking for critical scholarly studies and artistic projects focusing on narratives dealing with the effects of the current crises on the more-than-human world, particularly those involving more than one single species. The scope of possible topics is wide and ranges from the extinction of species, the loss of bio-diversity in the everyday lives, memories of former ecologies, historical experiences with extinction to present-day narratives about the returns of species and stories of the living together in emergent ecologies.
We will work with a broad concept of narrative culture to encompass, in addition to verbal art, diverse forms, genres, and media such as everyday narrations, films, fictional texts, multimodal artefacts, photographs, art installations, collages, inscription into landscapes etc. We invite scholars of any career level (including students) from different fields such as  

  • Ecocriticism
  • Econarratology
  • (Environmental) Humanities
  • Multispecies Studies
  • Extinction Studies
  • Cultural and Social Anthropology, European Ethnology, Visual Anthropology etc.
  • Literary Studies
  • Arts and Art History
  • History

Please send your proposal with your name and email-address until December 31, 2022 to: multispecies.conference@uni-wuerzburg.de
For more information, please visit: https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/eevk/multispecies-conference/

We can offer up to ten stipends of 500,00 Euros each to cover the cost for travel and accommodation of accepted speakers. Please inform us whether you are interested to apply for one of the grants when submitting your proposal. For those who will participate in person, we request a conference fee of 40,00 Euros for lunches and the conference dinner, and 20,00 Euros for the optional excursion, for which registration is needed.

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