Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 468.
Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
Hosted by DH-Cologne
www.dhhumanist.org
Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
Date: 2024-02-27 12:50:23+00:00
From: Katarzyna Ostalska <katarzyna.ostalska@uni.lodz.pl>
Subject: CFP: 14th BEYOND HUMANISM CONFERENCE
Dear Colleagues,
We would like to warmly invite you to 14th BEYOND HUMANISM CONFERENCE
Technologies-Ecologies and the Networks of Posthuman Care which is going to take
place this year in Lodz, Poland (2-5 July 2024). In case of any questions, do
not hesitate to contact us at
beyondhumanism14@gmail.com.
Beyond Humanism annual conferences are of an interdisciplinary type, embracing
various disciplines, from philosophy (e.g. of science) through art, literature,
digital and computational practices to name but a few. Basically, as the title
suggests, they explore the areas that go into the direction of the wider,
inclusive, relational, more-than-human (hence computers as well)
understanding of relations between science and humanities.
Submission guidelines
We invite paper proposals including a title, an abstract of 350 words, name and
affiliation of the author, as well as a short bio with contact information.
Applications together with a short bio-bibliographical note should be submitted
in English and in PDF format on easychair.org
<http://easychair.org>
before the 31st of March
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bhc14
Deadlines
Abstracts should be received by the 31st of March 2024.
Acceptance notifications will be sent out by mid-April 2024.
All those accepted will receive information on the venue(s), local attractions,
accommodations, restaurants, and planned events for participants.
Presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes. Each presenter will be given
10 additional minutes for questions and discussions with the audience.
Conference fees
100 euros (early bird until the end of April)
140 euros (a regular fee)
80 euros (PhD students)
ORGANISING COMMITTEE:
Stefan Sorgner (John Cabot University, Rome)
Evi Sampanikou (University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and
Communication)
Sangkyu Shin (Ewha Womans University, Ewha Institute for the Humanities)
Aranaud Regnauld (University of Paris 8, TransCrit)
Jan Stasieńko (DSW University of Lower Silesia, The Research Centre for Games
and Animation)
Tomasz Dobrogoszcz (University of Lodz, Posthumanities Research Centre. hosting
the event)Katarzyna Ostalska (University of Lodz, Posthumanities Research
Centre. hosting the event)
Justyna Stępień (University of Lodz, Posthumanities Research Centre. hosting the
event)
14TH BEYOND HUMANISM CONFERENCE 2024
Technologies-Ecologies and the Networks of Posthuman Care
Posthumanities Research Centre
Faculty of Philology
University of Lodz
2-5 July 2024
CONFIRMED KEYNOTES:
ANNE ALOMBERT
https://llcp.univ-paris8.fr/anne-alombert-mcf
FABIENNE BRUGÈRE
https://philosophie.univ-paris8.fr/fabienne-brugere
EDUARDO KAC
https://www.ekac.org
RYSZARD KLUSZCZYŃSKI
https://www.uni.lodz.pl/pracownicy/ryszard-kluszczynski
The images and narratives of crises have dominated the socio-cultural sphere
over the last couple of years, often anaesthetizing our senses and creating a
further sense of impasse. As Bernard Stiegler asserts, these perplexing
conditions require finding out how “to think and care otherwise, that is, to
change the very meaning of thinking” (2018: 237). For the philosopher, to think
means “to take care, to care for, which is also to say, to act, to do, to make –
(the) différance: it would always be to think the wound” (2018: 215).
Thus, thinking with care implies taking actions to heighten our responsiveness to the
challenges the Anthropocene poses. When discussing Heidegger, Yuk Hui observes
that “being-in-the-world is nothing but the question of care (Sorge), or
temporality” (2016: 227). Hui observes that, for Heidegger, Sorge constituted a
“primordial form of existence” (2016: 246). Derived from Besorgen and linked
with Fürsorge, care renders ways of being in the world and interacting with
others (Hui, 2016: 246, 274). Referring to Haraway’s claim (2016: 4) that “we
become-with each other or not all,” Amelia deFalco in Curious Kin in Fictions of
Posthuman Care argues that “[i]f relating produces being, who and what we relate
to, care for, and are cared for by has profound consequences” (2023: 5). What is
more, deFalco rightly indicates how the narratives of exclusion are
interconnected with being regarded as care-capable and care-worthy (2023: 5).
Likewise, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa points out that processes of thinking and
knowing, which are inherently intertwined with a multitude of relations,
encompass care. In her view, care is thus relational (2012: 198), as acts of
care compel us to nurture the relational character of our more-than-human lives.
The acknowledgement of our entangled, differential, interconnected lives
activates a collaborative spirit of compassion and care to produce ethical
actions and practices to shape our posthuman futures. Rosi Braidotiti, in her
latest monograph, Posthuman Feminism, urges us that “[w]e need to work together
to reconstruct our shared understanding of possible posthuman futures that will
include solidarity, care and compassion” (2022: 8). In her 2018 Nobel Lecture,
Olga Tokarczuk writes: “Tenderness is spontaneous and disinterested; it goes far
beyond empathetic fellow feeling…. It is a way of looking that shows the world
as being alive, living, interconnected, cooperating with, and codependent on
itself.” For her, “tenderness is deep, emotional concern about another being,”
“human and beyond human,” in general, it is an attitude, action, physical
sensation realised, among others, via touch, for instance, in relation to
technology (Malinowska 2022: 44). Tenderness permeates all the boundaries of
digital and biological, living and non-organic, beyond time and human. It is a
click that animates pixels and atoms of water that run through more-than-human
beings. In other words, the capacity for care lies in more-than-human milieux if
we wish to develop novel, inclusive ways of thinking and writing. It induces the
renewal of current forms of planetary co-existence responsible for reproducing
enduring patterns of human-induced inequalities and global power imbalances.
In Art and Cosmotechnics, Hui recalls Smith’s claim (2019) that machines
entangled in their actions with the world exhibit a form of care by their
attempt to “engage and modify it” (2021: 241). On a simple level, care tends to
be discussed more in terms of providing than exhibiting. If we assume that care
is the category whose importance is recognised in both humanities and sciences,
maybe we should think of care and AI beyond care robots, in other words, beyond
what machines can do for humans? To what extent can the category of care apply
to developing neural networks? The conference wishes to explore how care is
implicated in trans-, meta-, post- human philosophies. Sorgner explains that
“metahumanism strives to mediate among the most diverse philosophical discourses
in the interest of letting the appropriate meaning of relationality,
perspective, and radical plurality emerge” (2021: 41). Bearing the “radical
plurality” in mind, the conference seeks to study how these philosophies
approach diverse forms of organic and non-organic embodiments, raising new
ethical, legal and biotechnological dilemmas.
The conference is devoted to the reconceptualization of the posthuman condition
brought about by the care turn. We invite you to consider how to invent/create
networks of care that could bring hopeful scenarios of endurance and
reconstruction of the planetary mayhem.
The papers should address the general theme of the conference. Possible topics
may include, but are not limited to:
* Posthuman collective networks of care;
* Posthuman care and ageing;
* Posthuman care and climate crisis,
* Posthuman care and technologies of intimacy;
* Posthuman care and feminisms;
* Posthuman care and ethics;
* Posthuman care and digital practices;
* Posthuman care and the Anthropocene;
* Posthuman care and the social media;
* Posthuman care and New Materialisms;
* Posthuman care and NGOs and volunteering;
* Posthuman care and LGBTQ+ communities;
* Posthuman care and disability studies;
* Posthuman care and more-than-human knowledge production;
* Posthuman care and Indigenous studies;
* Posthuman care and non-western knowledge production,
* Posthuman care and performativity;
* Posthuman care and aesthetics;
* Posthuman care and artistic practices;
* Posthuman care and tender narratives and poetics;
* Posthuman care and technoscientific experimentation;
* Posthuman care and multiple forms of fabulation;
* Posthuman care and speculative genre voices,
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