ASLE-UKI 2013 Biennial Conference

When?

Thursday 29 August 2013 to Saturday 31 August 2013

Where?

Univeristy of Surrey, Lecture Theatre Block

Open to:

Staff, Students, Public

Speaker:

Mike Hulme (University of East Anglia) Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard University) Catriona Sandilands (York University, Canada)

Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (UK and Ireland)

Ecological Encounters: Agency, Identity, Interactions

The theme of the 8th biennial conference of ASLE-UKI is ‘encounter’. The conference will explore not only the inter-connectedness of human and nonhuman beings, but our co-existence as humans with the many discursive and material units that make up our so-called reality. These include the ‘facts’ of ‘science’, the ‘inspiration’ of ‘poetry’, and the ‘beauty’ of ‘nature’.

We begin from the premise that the many co-habitants and constituents of our material and discursive worlds are known to us (and, indeed, we are known to ourselves) in moments of coming together. It is only within these encounters that we can know or recognise others, whether human or nonhuman, material or discursive. Their agency, and ours too, only exists in—and is a product of—that moment, along with the knowing or the recognition that occurs within it.

Thus, we propose that it is in such a spirit that we should consider the many discourses—literary, poetic, rhetorical, scientific—that circulate around and through environmentalism, ecology, and ecocriticism: these make themselves known to us as the encounters of so many discursive and material units and identities. In the spirit of encounter and interaction, this conference aims also to facilitate discussion with disciplines and discourses beyond literary and cultural criticism, such as human geography, environmental history, and science and technology studies (S&TS).

Please send abstracts of up to 250 words for 20-minute presentations to the conference organisers at asle2013@surrey.ac.uk by 31st March 2013. 

Conference organisers: Dr Adeline Johns-Putra, Dr Greg Tate, Louise Squire

Conference email: asle2013@surrey.ac.uk
ASLE UKI website: www.asle.org.uk