Site Coordinator: Laura Dassow Walls\, Department of English\, University of Notre Dame.
\nProgram Chair: Ron Broglio\, Department of English\, Arizona State University.
\nConference theme: \;PostNatural. What does it mean to come &ldquo\;after&rdquo\; nature? In 2012\, Arctic ice \;melted to the lowest level in human history\; with ice everywhere in retreat\, island nations are disappearing\, 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&mdash\;of posthumanity and animality\, of agency\, actants\, and aporias\, of bodies\, objects\, assemblages and networks\, of computing and cognition\, of media and bioart&mdash\;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? \;
\nTopics and Questions include:
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
Unsustainability: in biological terms\, can we &ldquo\;stain&rdquo\; to make the &ldquo\;unsustainable&rdquo\; visible?
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. &ldquo\;PostNatural&rdquo\; has been chosen as a theme to organize ongoing conference threads and invite a range of proposals from various dimensions of ecocriticism and environmental literature and history.
Submissions: For individual panel contributions\, submit a 250-word abstract with title. Pre-organized panels for consideration may include an additional summary paragraph along with proposed session title. Roundtable and alternative format panels are encouraged. Submit all proposals and register for the conference at: