All Things Living and Not is an interdisciplinary conference on post-anthropocentric perspectives in Slavic Studies at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University in New York City.
The last two decades have witnessed a revision in the concept of alterity, decentering the human in how we reckon with the other. Animal studies, artificial intelligence, ecocriticism, etc. not only ask us to consider the possibility of non-human subjects, but also challenge our very humanness and, along with it, the very premises of the humanities and human sciences. What does a non-anthropocentric understanding of the other offer to the field of Slavic studies? And conversely, what can the cultures, histories, and belief systems of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia reveal about practices and possibilities of radical alterity?
This conference asks participants to consider the conjunction between the animal, the plant, the machine, inorganic matter, and the human as a way to destabilize the mind-body dichotomy, class, race, gender, age, etc. By bringing Slavic studies into closer contact with a set of discourses referred to as post-humanism, All Things Living and Not aims to expand the theoretical apparatus of the field and to allow for new perspectives on the histories and cultures of the region.
Renowned Polish professor Ewa Domańska will be the keynote speaker. Domańska is a professor of History at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and a regular visiting professor at Stanford in Anthropology and the Centre for Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies. Her teaching, research interests include comparative theory of the human and social sciences, history and theory of historiography, posthumanities and ecological humanities. She is also the author of numerous books, articles and essays published internationally in several different languages.
Participants include Jane Costlow (Environmental Humanities, Bates College), Serguei Oushakine (Slavic & Anthropology, Princeton), Oxana Timofeeva (Political Science & Philosophy, European University in St. Petersburg) and artists Irina Botea (TBC) and Jon Dean (TBC).
The conference is organized by Irina Denischenko, Bradley Gorski, and Eliza Rose with the generous support of the Harriman Institute, Ulbandus: The Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Review of Columbia University, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and the Institute of Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University.
Sources: http://withouthumans.weebly.com, promotional materials, edited by NR, 3rd Feb 2017