Call for applications – “Weathering as Intersectional Feminist Praxis” with Astrida Neimanis

In conjunction with the publication of the journal Feminist Review on ‘Environment’, we are pleased to co-host a workshop with the Centre for Feminist Research (Goldsmiths) on the theme of environmental humanities and feminism with Astrida Neimanis* at Senate House (University of London) on Wednesday 24th October 2018, 2-5pm.

The workshop will explicitly take up the concept of “weathering” as it has developed most recently in the work of US feminists of colour. We will work with it as a method of bodily engagement with climate change. Through discussion, writing, reflection, and interactive exercises, we will examine how we might think of  weathering as a complex entangling of ecological, social, and political worlds that has uneven effects. We invite applications from postgraduate students, early career scholars, activists and artists who are interested in examining and experimenting with the uses of weathering.

Please send a short statement (250-300 words) outlining your areas of work and how it would benefit from participation in the workshop to Astrida at astrida.neimanis@sydney.edu.auby 1 October 2018. Participants will be asked to read “Weathering” (Neimanis and Hamilton, feminist review 118 [2018]: 80-84) as advance preparation.

The workshop will be followed by a public talk by Astrida Neimanis with Kathryn Yusoff** (Geography, Queen Mary, London). There will also be a reception after the talk.

Naming without Claiming? Citation Practices and Feminist Foundations in Environmental Humanities

6pm, SOAS, Brunei Gallery, room B202. All welcome!

 

Abstract

From the nature/culture binary to the notion of situated knowledges, feminist conceptual labours are arguably foundational to contemporary environmental humanities scholarship. Yet, while names like Donna Haraway and Val Plumwood may make their way into bibliographies, most field-defining texts in environmental humanities do not consider how the feminism of such thinkers is integral to their concepts. Based on research conducted with Jennifer Mae Hamilton, this talk considers the stakes of naming feminist figures without claiming their feminist commitments in the process of field formation; it concludes by suggesting how an explicitly feminist environmental humanities might be enacted.

*Astrida Neimanis is a Senior Lecturer in Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, on Gadigal Country, in Australia. She is Associate Editor of Environmental Humanities, and together with Jennifer Mae Hamilton, coordinates the COMPOSTING feminisms and environmental humanities research group. Her recent book is Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology (2017).

**Kathryn Yusoff is Professor of Inhuman Geography at Queen Mary (University of London). Her work is centred on dynamic earth events such as abrupt climate change, biodiversity loss and extinction. She is interested in how these “earth revolutions” impact social thought. Broadly, her work has focused on political aesthetics, social theory and abrupt environmental change.