10 Sep Deadline Extended: Grounding Story (conference), Armidale, February 13-15, 2019
The 7th Biennial Association for the Study of Literature, Environment and Culture Conference
Hosted by University of New England, Armidale
February 13-15, 2019.
The 2019 ASLEC-ANZ Conference theme is Grounding Story. We seek submissions from scholars, artists, writers and activists that respond to the material and ideological implications of environmental storytelling in either a speculative or a critical mode.[i] On one hand, we are concerned with situated and embodied narratives that can cultivate cosmopolitical worlds and earthly accountabilities. On the other hand, we seek ecocritical and environmental humanities interventions on the limitations of story’s capacity to ‘save the planet’. In this sense, Grounding Story aims to bring the loftier claims of story’s potential down to earth, while still affirming the vital role of story in movements for social and environmental justice.
While predictions concerning the death of the novel can still be heard, it is also arguably the case that there are more stories to be told now than at any previous time in human history: digitally, in print, audio, video, in situ, by 3D printer or collective performance. Turning to diverse creative media, languages, embodied methodologies, and experiments in multispecies ecologies, we welcome material and theoretical investigations into how matter stories, and why stories matter.
The conference will be held at the UNE’s Armidale Campus and will include:
– A plenary panel with scholars, activists and Elders from the Anaiwan Language Revival project
– Keynote talks from Professor Greta Gaard and A/Prof Thom van Dooren with more TBC.
– An afternoon walkshop between three local garden projects: Armidale Aboriginal Community Garden, Armidale Tree Group and Armidale Community Garden
– A special screening of soda_jerk’s controversial and critically acclaimed film Terror Nullius
We especially encourage submissions on the following topics:
– Decolonial/Anti-colonial Storytelling
– Futuristic Fictions, Spec-fi, Sci-fi.
– Critical close readings of policy, planning, strategy as ‘fictions’/’fabulations’
– Feminist, Queer, Crip Approaches
– Ecocriticism/Environmental Cultural Studies
– Environmental Humanities storytelling methodologies/interdisciplinary research dissemination strategies
– Activist tales from the field
– Poetry, Creative Writing, Practice-Based Research
– Non-text based artistic work
– Artistic fabulations, collaborations, worldings in practice
– Audio, Visual Storytelling, Digital Platforms, Subscriptions
– Place writing
– Stories from aquatic locations, riverine and oceanic situations
– Formal questions of point of view, tone and structure
– ‘Fake News’, Post-Truth’, ‘Alternative Facts’ and reflections on the ecopolitics of other media fictions
We are accepting proposals for:
– 20-minute academic papers
– 8-10 minute shorter presentations on creative practice
– Other (performance/walkshop/workshop)
– Pre-formed panels of 3-4 papers.
– Contributions to a book table, if you have a recent scholarly or creative publication.
Proposals should include:
– 250-word abstract
– 100-word bios
Send questions and proposals to: groundingstory@gmail.com
CFP closes September 30, 2018 at 11.59pm AEST.
UNE Organisational Team
Dr Jennifer Mae Hamilton
Dr Stephen Harris
Dr Kate Wright
ASLEC-ANZ Exec
President Dr Grace Moore
Vice President Dr Alexis Harley
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[i] This distinction is taken from Maria Puig de la Bellacasa’s Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds (Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 2017), p.7. Where “speculative” connects specifically to the feminist quest for alternative worlds.
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