Weird Essentialism at Notre Dame (CFP)

...that's the title of my talk in October for the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts (see “Future Talks”). Here is the cfp (also click here for PDF):

POSTNATURAL
SLSA CONFERENCE 2013 // UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
The 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts

Location Notre Dame, Indiana. Venue University of Notre Dame. Dates October 3–6, 2013. Site Coordinator Laura Dassow Walls, Department of English, University of Notre Dame. Program Chair Ron Broglio, Department of English, Arizona State University. Paper Proposal Due Date May 1, 2013. Notification of Acceptance June 15, 2013. SLSA Membership Participants in the 2013 conference must be 2013 members of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. For more information about SLSA, please visit the organization website at www.litsci.org .


CALL FOR PAPERS. Conference theme: PostNatural. What does it mean to come “after” nature? In 2012, Arctic ice melted to the lowest level in human history; with ice everywhere in retreat, island nations are disap- pearing, species vectors are shifting, tropical diseases are moving north, northern natures-cultures are moving into extinction. Acidification of ocean water already threatens Northwest shellfish farms, while historic wildfires, droughts, floods, and shoreline erosion are the norm. Reality overshoots computer models of global warming even as CO2 emissions escalate. Yet none of this has altered our way of living or our way of thinking: as Fredric Jameson noted, we can imagine the collapse of the planet more easily than the fall of capitalism. What fundamental reorientations of theory—of posthu- manity and animality, of agency, actants, and aporias, of bodies, objects, assemblages and networks, of computing and cognition, of media and bioart—are needed to articulate the simple fact that our most mundane and ordinary lives are, even in the span of our own lifetimes, unsustainable? If we have never been natural, are we now, at last, ecological?


TOPICS AND QUESTIONS INCLUDE. Unsustainability: in biological terms, can we “stain” to make the “unsustainable” visible? Globality vs. Planetarity Beyond Gaia Resilience Theory and Panarchy Geological Time: Pliocene, Holocene, Anthropocene Literature, Theology & the New Ecology Symbiosis after Margulis Animality, Vegetality, & Somatic Natures Ecologies of Mind Environmental Gaming & Gaming Environments Simulated Ecosystems The Language of Engineering, Control, Hacking and Techno-fixes Ecoterrorism and Nature Noir Cosmopolitical Projects Waste Lands: Stains, Toxins, Dumps, Refuse, Pollutions Nature, Post-Nature, and the Politics of Ecology Feminist & Diffractive Materialisms Imagined Eco-Futures


Plenary Speakers Include Timothy Morton and Subhankar Banerjee

PLEASE NOTE. Like all SLSA conferences, this is an open conference where a wide range of work will be welcome. Proposed topics may take up any work in literature and science, history of science, philosophy of science, science and art, or science studies. “PostNatural” has been chosen as a theme to organize ongoing conference threads and invite a range of proposals from various dimensions of ecocriti- cism and environmental literature and history.

SUBMISSIONS. For panel contributions, submit a 250-word abstract with title. Pre-organized panels for consid- eration may include an additional summary paragraph along with proposed session title. Roundta- ble and alternative format panels are encouraged. Submit all proposals and register for the confer- ence at http://www.litsci.org/slsa13, starting in February 2013.