We are thrilled to hold several local, hybrid and online events, where you can tune in and engage with the work of Prof. MacCormack. One of these events is the Tema Genus Higher Seminar taking place on 29th March 2023 at 13:15-15:00 CEST.
Occult Ahuman Pedagogy: Death to the Anthropocene by Witchcraft with Prof. Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)
If you wish to attend remotely, please register at http://bit.ly/3ZRCurg or follow this QR:
Bio: Patricia MacCormack is Professor of Continental Philosophy at Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge. She has published extensively on philosophy, feminism, queer and monster theory, animal abolitionist activism, ethics, art and horror cinema. She is the author of Cinesexuality (Routledge 2008) and Posthuman Ethics (Routledge 2012) and the editor of The Animal Catalyst (Bloomsbury 2014), Deleuze and the Animal (EUP 2017), Deleuze and the Schizoanalysis of Cinema (Continuum 2008) and Ecosophical Aesthetics (Bloomsbury 2018). Her new book is The Ahuman Manifesto: Activisms for the End of the Anthropocene. She is currently a Leverhulme Research Fellow researching death activism.
Post-Doc position on frictions between data infrastructure and energy grids
We are currently looking to hire a post-doc to join our new project “Megabytes vs Megawatts: Understanding Infrastructural Frictions between Data Centers and Energy Grids for Sustainable Digitalization” funded by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.
The project aims to study societal conflicts and sociotechnical imaginaries around “sustainability” that arise at the intersection between energy-intense data infrastructure and energy grids in transition. The project draws upon interdisciplinary perspectives, combining critical studies of media infrastructures; environmental media; anthropology, and science and technology studies (STS). The postdoc is expected to conduct critical qualitative, empirical research, focusing on the interplay between data infrastructure and energy in relation to sustainability. Candidates with a wide variety of backgrounds are eligible for the position, including media studies, science and technology studies, anthropology, sociology, human geography, political science or related fields.
The post-doc position is full time, for 2 years with the possibility of extension up to a total maximum of three years. A certain amount of teaching will be part of the post-doc duties, up to a maximum of 20% of working hours.
VENUE: ARBETETS MUSEUM (THE MUSEUM OF WORK), NORRKÖPING
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Prof. Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)
Prof. Em. Nina Lykke (Linköping University, SE/Aarhus University, DK)
SPEAKERS:
Dr Evelien Geerts (University of Birmingham, UK)
Prof. Christina Fredengren (Uppsala University, SE)
Dr Tara Mehrabi & Dr Wibke Straube (Karlstad University, SE)
Dr Marietta Radomska (Linköping University, SE)
In the Anthropocene, the epoch of climate change and environmental destruction that render certain habitats unliveable and induce socio-economic inequalities and shared ‘more-than-human’ vulnerabilities, death and loss become urgent environmental concerns. As climate scientists indicate, in order to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), a much more radical transformative action is needed from all stakeholders: governments, the private sector, communities and individuals (Höhne et al. 2020).
Simultaneously, planetary environmental disruption, contributing to the mortality of humans and nonhumans, destruction of entire ecosystems, the sixth mass extinction, both abrupt and ‘slow’ violence (Nixon 2011), evoke feelings of anxiety, anger and grief, manifested in popular-scientific and cultural narratives, art, and activism. These feelings are not always openly acknowledged or accepted in society; and the ecological, more-than-human dimensions of death have traditionally been underplayed in public debates. Yet, what we need now – more than ever – is the systematic problematisation of the planetary-scale mechanisms of annihilation of the more-than-human world in their philosophical, socio-cultural, ethico-political and very material dimensions. Only then will it be possible to talk about the issues of responsibility, accountability and care for more-than-human worlds (Radomska & Lykke 2022).
Taking its starting point in critically investigating and challenging conventional normativities, assumptions and expectations surrounding issues of death, dying and mourning in the contemporary world (Radomska, Meharbi & Lykke 2020; https://queerdeathstudies.net/), this interdisciplinary symposium zooms in on more-than-human ecologies of death, dying, grief and mourning across spatial and temporal scales.
The participation in the symposium is free of charge, but we have a limited number of seats. If you wish to take part in the event, please, fill out the form: https://forms.office.com/e/Yb4qXpyVtX
Registration deadline: 15th March 2023 or until the event is fully booked.
NB! In case you register and it turns out you can no longer participate, please let us know by sending an email to: ecobioartlab[at]liu.se . In this way we may be able to let in anyone who may be on the waiting list.
This electable course in the doctoral program, Art, Technology and Design (7,5 credits) is an educational effort, supported by the KTH Equality Office for the integration of knowledge on gender equity in sustainable development research, provided by the KTH School of Architecture and the Built Environment and the multi-university platform The Posthumanities Hub, with Tema Genus, Linköping University.
Gender and Sustainability: Introducing Feminist Environmental Humanities and Posthumanities
The PhD course will be held online, and combines critical and creative perspectives on gender and sustainability from the emerging field of environmental humanities as it overlaps with science, technology, humanities, art and feminist theory-practices. It explores postdisciplinary directions in sustainability from a set of positions in environmental humanities and feminist posthumanities.
The course provides an introduction into the conceptual landscape of feminist environmental humanities, and an orientation into its methodological trajectories across the fields of science, technology, art and design. Notions of different scientific traditions in the past and present, and of inter- and transdisciplinary research are presented and framed in ways that are particularly useful for PhD researchers pursuing environmental humanities/postdisciplinary studies and practice-oriented research in art and arts (humanities), technology and design. PhD researchers are provided with an understanding of key concepts – and the relationship between research questions, methods, objectives and outcomes – through lectures, literature seminars, workshops and collaborative project work. The course introduces participants to thinking on situated knowledge practices and ethics amidst a plethora of critical methodologies, qualitative and innovative methods, and performative research practices. This course is an invaluable introduction to the ecologies of multispecies, techno-, citizen- and other forms of posthumanities. On completion of the course, PhD researchers will be provided with tools to critically reflect over the epistemological and ethical challenges inherent to their own research practices and doctoral work, but also in relationship to gender, sustainability and to other actors involved in the very social business of scholarship.
Participants
To be eligible for the course, PhD researchers must have completed a masters’ degree or have an equivalent level of education in STS, history of science, technology and environment studies, gender studies, technology, art or design (such as architecture, planning, civil engineering, arts, crafts, and design) or affiliated subjects within the humanities and social sciences.
Preliminary dates (ONLINE)
Module 1 – Re-inventing nature, re-inventing methodology: 5-6 December 2022 Module 2 – Doing gender and sustainability: Practice-oriented research: 16-17 January 2023 Module 3 – Ethics in thinking practice: 20-21 February 2023 Module 4 – Gender and sustainability in new registers: Knowledge communication: 27-28 March 2023.
Coordinators and Guest Lecturers
The course will be coordinated and taught by a unique team of teachers, combining gender, sustainability, environmental humanities, feminist posthumanities and practice-oriented research:
Meike Schalk, Associate Professor, KTH School of Architecture, architectural environmental humanities
Cecilia Åsberg, Professor, Gender, nature, culture, The Posthumanities Hub, Linköping University (guest/professor at KTH and Oslo MET)
Marietta Radomska, Assistant Professor in Environmental Humanities, Gender Studies, Linköping University, biophilosophy, eco/bio-art
Janna Holmstedt, PhD, Swedish Historical Museums, Artistic Researcher
Jesse Peterson, Postdoc, The Posthumanities Hub, Gender Studies, Linköping University
And guest lecturers (TBA).
The course is an open collaboration with the KTH gender network, The Posthumanities Hub, a multi-university research group and platform for feminist posthumanities www.posthumanitieshub.net and Gender Studies, Linköping University.
Application for this Doctoral Course
Deadline for application is 7th November 2022. (If accepted you receive a notice of acceptance and the course readings by 11th November.)
Please apply FORMALLY to the PhD course Gender & Sustainability by submitting an APPLICATION to meike.schalk@arch.kth.se
Include the following documents:
CV (short bio), one page
Letter of motivation, half a page (why you would benefit from this course in your PhD-work)
SHORT description of PhD project, one page maximum, with aim and research question, material and practice-oriented/methodological approaches and challenges
We are reaching out to you as an artist who creates inspiring work involving AI, and would like to invite you to participate in an interview study. It would mean the world to us in this WASP-HS research project AI and the Artistic Imaginary!
Our research team at KTH (and LiU) is working on a project that investigates sustainability and ethics of Creative-AI. Our goal is to understand how creative practitioners are using AI technologies in their work processes, and to reflect on this from sustainability and ethics perspectives. Our interviews are expected to inform Creative-AI practitioners (artists as well as engineers) working in the field.
In the future, we plan to expand this to other forms of collaborations (workshops, design and development of Creative-AI systems, etc.) with interested artists.
Some basic information about the interviews:
Interview takes approximately 1 hour and will be conducted at an agreed-upon time (flexible) on Zoom.
Research is anonymized/pseudonymized and your data will be treated according to GDPR guidelines
The interview will be recorded (audio, video) for internal analysis purposes
Transcriptions and other anonymized material will be shared for non-commercial purposes only
We can provide a voucher as a gesture of gratitude for your time and effort.
Please let us know if you would be interested in participating in our study, and do not hesitate to ask for further information. Don’t be shy – email us, Petra and Anna-Kaisa!
Wishing you a nice summer!
Kind regards,
Petra Jääskeläinen (researcher) – email: ppja@kth.se
