An increasingly widespread transdisciplinary paradigm, Critical Posthumanism has emerged from the critical challenges currently posed to humanism, humanity and the human. Such pressing elements encompass a wide variety of developments, such as technoscientific cultures, global economic challenges, looming environmental disaster, the spread of digitalisation, the rise of biomedia, and particularly the erosion of traditional demarcations between the human and the nonhuman.

More and more, the normative anthropocentric standpoint is being replaced by a more relational approach, in which the subject-object relation is deemed to emerge co-constitutively. Since this radical shift calls for alternative ways of thinking about humanity and its environments, the present Conference aims at contextualizing the cultural and philosophical implications of such developments and it seeks to test the hypothesis that the decentering of the human implied in posthumanism offers a renewed paradigm that speaks searchingly of the immediate present and of imminent futures.

Taking into account the theoretical contributions made by prominent posthumanist scholars such as Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, or Stefan Herbrechter, the main goal of the present Conference is to reflect upon alternative and emergent scenarios of the human, the nonhuman, or the posthuman.

The International Conference Posthum3n: Entanglements and Intersections in a Posthuman World is a scientific joint venture organized by the following research units: CEComp (University of Lisbon), CEHUM (Universidade do Minho), and ILCML (University of Lisbon).

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

· Carlo Salzani (Research Fellow at the Messerli Research Institute, Vienna)

· Manuela Rossini (Independent Scholar)

· Stefan Herbrechter (Universität Heidelberg)

QUESTIONS:

• Participants are invited to consider and reflect upon the following questions and challenges:
• In a world of ever-increasing complexity and indiscernible entanglements and intersections, what are the specific merits of posthumanist critical theory and how can its analytical tools help us think more deeply about the ontological and epistemological challenges posed by the so-called posthuman turn?
• What are the ethical and political consequences that may arise from an ecocritical approach to non-human entities, actors, or agents?
• In what ways is literature, cinema, and arts able to promote a turn toward a post-anthropocentric, post-dualist approach to the concept of self and how does it provide a critique of the centrality of the human?
• What are the ways in which posthumanism is able to shed a renewed light into the human-machine boundary? What are the philosophical consequences of understanding the posthuman condition in light of the present technological age?

PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS:

We invite all interested researchers to submit proposals for the International Conference POSTHUM3N. Entanglements and Intersections in a Posthuman World. We welcome proposals that address the following thematic areas:

• Critical Posthumanism and Posthumanities;
• The Posthuman Turn and Multispecism;
• Ecocriticism and environmental studies;
• Animal studies and zoopoetics;
• Posthumanism and Imagination (arts, literature, comics, cinema);
• Posthumanism, post-body and post-living/Posthumanism and a post-living world;
• Posthuman entities in a posthuman condition (bodies & technology, interfaces between human and non-human, organic and inorganic);
• Posthumanism, gender, and sexuality;
• Posthumanism and psychoanalysis.

ABSTRACTS:

Abstracts should be sent to the following address: posthum3n.ilcml@gmail.com

Submitted abstracts will be evaluated by the Organizers.

Language: Submissions can be written in Portuguese, English, or French.

File format: MS Word-compatible file (font: 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced text). Abstract length: c. 200-300 words, featuring 3-5 keywords and at least 3 bibliographical references.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES:

• Abstract submission deadline: 20th July 2022.
• Notification of abstract acceptance: 30th July 2022.
• Deadline for registration: 1st October 2022.
• Programme announcement (provisional programme): 30th September 2022.
• Final programme announcement: 30th October 2022.
• International Conference Entanglements and Intersections in a Posthuman World (Portugal): November 17-18, 2022.

REGISTRATION FEES:

Any person who wishes to attend the conference is welcome but needs to register. The deadline for early-bird registration is 8th September 2022 (80€). Regular registration will be open until 1st October 2022 (100€). Payment must be made through the platform: https://www.letras.up.pt/si/events

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:

• Cândido Oliveira Martins (Universidade Católica Portuguesa)
• Isabel Cristina Mateus (Universidade do Minho)
• Helena Pires (Universidade do Minho)
• Sérgio Guimarães de Sousa (Universidade do Minho)
• Chiara Mengozzi (Universidade Charles, Praga)
• Simona Micali (Università di Siena, Itália)

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS:

• Cristina Álvares (CEHUM, Univ. Minho)
• Lígia Bernardino (ILCML, Univ. Porto)
• Marinela Freitas (ILCML, Univ. Porto)
• Ricardo Gil Soeiro (CEComp, Univ. Lisbon)

Contact: posthum3n.ilcml@gmail.com