The Sixth Tamkang International Conference
on Ecological Discourse
Time: December 19-20, 2014
Venue: Tamkang University
151, Ying-chuan Road, Tamsui District, New Taipei City, Taiwan
Call for Papers
We take great pleasure in announcing the Sixth Tamkang International Conference on Ecological Discourse, to be hosted by the English Department at Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taiwan, on December 19-20, 2014. The general theme of the conference is “Speculative Materialism: Contexts and Paradigms for Ecological Engagement.”
Reflecting recent developments in ecocriticism and the emergence of competing paradigms within the field, we invite papers exploring diverse new trends as situated in national and regional contexts. The conference will bring together scholars, writers, and activists interested in developing dialogues between new/ecological materialists and related interrogations of materialism in science, philosophy and literature by others, including speculative realists (object-oriented ontologists) and affiliated scholars such as Bruno Latour, to name only the notable. In addition, new paradigms just beginning to be discussed in ecological studies are found in the recent work of Alain Badiou, who has developed coherent agential models that focus on how events are recognized while also retaining a place for ethical accountability in ways amenable to posthumanist subject modeling as well as aesthetics. German systems theorist Niklas Luhmann and the influential philosopher of space Peter Sloterdijk also present new approaches to environmental issues and cultural engagements. We are especially interested in generating discussion on local approaches engaging new materialisms in all their forms in the context of literary and cultural production.
We welcome papers or panel proposals that engage with any aspect of the general theme. Possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following:
Material ecocriticism
Ecocritical discourses
World indigenous studies
Human and nonhuman
Ecological sovereignty and bare life
Global warming narratives
Nature, environment, and technology
The blurring of humanist and scientific literatures
Experimental ecological writing
New Materialism
Speculative realism/object-oriented ontology
Relationality in ecological criticism
Material (bio)semiotics and intertextuality
New critical metaphors in ecological criticism
Deleuze and Guattari and ecocriticism
Material poetics
Bodies, actants and poiesis
Posthumanism and new materialisms
Science fiction and ecocriticism
Cultural studies/Marxist approaches in ecocriticism
Neoliberalism and ecological materialism
Ecological solutions, technologies and local economies and contexts
Regional frames of reference/history/issues and new trends in ecocriticis
Confirmed keynotes:
Joni Adamson, Arizona State University, USA
Serpil Oppermann, Hacettepe University, Turkey
Serenella Iovino, University of Turin, Italy
Ann Fisher-Wirth, University of Mississippi, USA
Important dates:
Deadline for abstract submission: August 15, 2014
(Abstracts should be about 250-300 words in length)
Notification of acceptance of abstract: August 26
For abstract submission or inquiries, please contact:
Joseph Yu
josephyu@mail.tku.edu.tw
Assistant Professor
English Department, Tamkang University
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