Ecologies of the Inhuman @ GW

If you happen to be in or near DC, you may be interested in this mega-event on Friday. Based upon a panel sponsored by GW MEMSI at last year's medieval congress in Kalamazoo, this symposium brings together the medieval, early modern, posthuman, and the ecological. The room may combust.

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Ecologies of the Inhuman

a GW MEMSI symposium at the George Washington University

Friday, April 5 at 3 p.m.

This symposium fosters a lively conversation among scholars of medieval and early modern literature, culture and art whose work engages with ecotheory, object oriented philosophy, the limits of the human, and related topics. We are very happy to be able to welcome Dr. Ian Bogost, a videogame theorist, designer, and critic whose recent book Alien Phenomenology: or What It’s Like to Be a Thing, offers a very engaging description of what he calls “tiny ontology.”

Each participant will give a short talk and then the panelists will discuss emerging questions and issues regarding OOP, ecotheory, medieval and early modern studies.

This symposium is free and open to the public.  Please contact Emily at erusse4@gwmail.gwu.edu to RSVP. 

Presentations include:

• Fluid (James Smith, University of Western Australia) Currently a PhD candidate at the University of Western Australia, James studies fluid dynamism as a theme of intellection and imagination in the twelfth century.

• Trees (Alfred Siewers, Bucknell University) Dr. Siewers is an Associate Professor of English and an Affiliate Faculty member of the Environmental Studies Program at Bucknell University.  His work focuses on ecocriticism, ecopoetics, and ecosemiotics, in medieval and other non-modern literatures.

• Human (Alan Montroso, Independent Scholar) Alan is an independent scholar who works with vital materiality, object ontology, lithic matter, ciritical animal studies, queer ecology, liminal spaces, Middle English Breton lais and 12-15^th century writers.

• Matter (Valerie Allen, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY) A Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, Dr. Allen whose recent work addresses ecomaterialism in medieval literature.

• Post/apocalyptic (Eileen A. Joy, Southern Illinois Univ.–Edwardsville) Dr. Joy is an Associate Professor of English at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Lead Ingenitor of the BABEL Working Group, and director of Punctum Books. Her current projects explore object oriented philosophy and the post-human.  

• Shipwreck (Steve Mentz, St Johns University) An Associate Professor of English at St. John’s University, Dr. Mentz’s work focuses on ecotheory and Shakespeare studies.

• Hewn (Anne F. Harris, DePauw University) A Professor of Art History and director of the Women’s Studies Program at DePauw University, Dr. Harris works with ecotheory and medieval art. 

• Recreation (Lowell Duckert, West Virginia University) Dr. Duckert is an Assistant Professor of English at West Virginia University and a recent graduate of The George Washington University.  His research focuses primarily on early modern drama and travel writing, as well as ecocriticism and actor-network theory. 

• Green (Carolyn Dinshaw, New York University) Dr. Dinshaw is a Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, English, and Chair of the Social and Cultural Analysis Department at New York University. Her research interests include medieval literature and culture, theories of historiography and theories and experiences of temporality. 

• Inhuman (Ian Bogost, Georgia Institute of Technology) A videogame designer, theorist, and critic, Dr. Bogost is the Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies and a Professor of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also a Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC. His recent work engages with object oriented philosophy and “tiny ontology.”