Radical Entanglements:Navigating the Abyss of Human Supremacy and Biodiversity Loss
University of North Texas Graduate Conference 2024
Keynote Speaker: Timothy Morton (Rice University)
NOV 1
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
The Conference
In an epoch defined by the far-reaching consequences of environmental turmoil and the relentless unraveling of biodiversity, the Philosophy and Religion Graduate Student Conference at the University of North Texas extends an interdisciplinary invitation to dive headfirst into the profound questions that loom over our existence. With the title "Radical Entanglements: Navigating the Abyss of Human Supremacy and Biodiversity Loss," our conference aims to unravel and critically analyze the intricate web of human-nature relationships, urging a call for revolutionary, transdisciplinary endeavors. We aim to foster an awareness of the impending plurality of cataclysms, highlighting the imperative of taking radical ecological actions and advancing multispecies justice. Echoing the sentiments of Timothy Morton, we encourage you to extend your solidarity beyond humanity, embracing non-human entities as "non-human people." Inspired by Donna Haraway, let's embark on the creation of new 'odd-kin' relationships, redefining roles and response-abilities in this intricately interwoven world. This unique conference invites participants to think and reflect together as well as develop collective and transformative practices that resist the abyss of this multifaceted crisis, questioning established norms and forging a path towards multispecies coexistence on our wounded planet.
Programs
Keynote Speaker
Timothy Morton
Timothy Morton is Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University. Morton co-wrote and appears in Living in the Future’s Past, a 2018 film about global warming with Jeff Bridges. He is the author of the libretto for the opera Time Time Time by Jennifer Walshe. He is the author of Being Ecological (Penguin, 2018), Humankind: Solidarity with Nonhuman People (Verso, 2017), Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence (Columbia, 2016), Nothing: Three Inquiries in Buddhism (Chicago, 2015), Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minnesota, 2013), Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality (Open Humanities, 2013), The Ecological Thought (Harvard, 2010), Ecology without Nature (Harvard, 2007), eight other books and 250 essays on philosophy, ecology, literature, music, art, architecture, design and food.
The Participants
Rachel Adaiyre
Alirageh Barreh
PhD student in Religious Studies at Arizona State University.
Queer Posthuman Ecology: Redefining the Boundaries of Self and Community
MA student in the Universty of Texas at Dallas.
A Historical Antehumanism: Moral Ethnicity and Multispecies Communities in Precolonial Lakelands East Africa
Clarissa Chevalier
PhD Candidate in Visual Arts at the University of California at San Diego.
Artifices of Power in a Simulated Sea: Toward a Media Theory of Human-Ocean Entanglement in Contemporary Oceanographic Visualization, Datafication, and Simulation
Jonas Friedli
MA student in Philosophy at the New School For Social Research.
On Grammar and the Destruction of Nature
Mariya Hamada
PhD student at the University of Manchester.
Decolonizing Ruins - The case of the 19th century Manchester: Cottonopolis
Charlotte Hunt
PhD student in the School of Social and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Glasgow.
The Loss of Peatland is the Loss of Story
Ananya Usharani Ravishankar
PhD in Philosophy at Texas A&M University.
Eating (with) Others
Hayden Ridings
Recent graduate in Philosophy at Texas A&M University ( BA/MA program).
The Catastrophe of Sensation: Hysteria and Human/Nonhuman Relations in Amerindian Body Painting
Laura Santer
PhD Candidate at Boston College.
Labor between Life and Death: An Interspecies Account of Oppression in Weil and Marx
Shaila Wadhwani-Greenhalgh
PhD Candidate at Marquette University.
Domestication: from the apparatus of modernity to anticolonial world-making
The Organizers
Isabelle Bishop
Isabelle is a PhD candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Philosophy and Religion department at UNT. Her dissertation explores the production of ordinary life in and through the contemporary supermarket. In thinking with the complexities of the ongoing and textured present, she attends to the co-creation of these contemporary food spaces and the orientations engendered within.
Natan Feltrin
Natan is currently pursuing his PhD within the framework of environmental ethics and critical animal studies. His areas of research encompass rewilding, multispecies justice, human overpopulation, inter-species coexistence, and the philosophy of polyamory.
Anna Kokareva
Anna is a PhD student and Teaching Fellow at the Department of Philosophy and Religion. Anna's primary interests are in feminist philosophies, environmental justice, and communication. Her previous professional experience is in nonprofit project management, community outreach, and engagement. Anna currently works on the development of Minorities and Philosophy Chapter with other graduate students.
Kevin Siefert
Kevin is a PhD student and teaching fellow in the Philosophy and Religion department of the University of North Texas. He is currently interested in exploring Deleuzian metaphysics, and how they pertain to contemporary politics of aesthetics. He also works at a local organic farm.
Shoshana McIntosh
Shoshana McIntosh is a PhD student and Teaching Fellow in the Philosophy and Religion department at UNT. Her research centers around the relations between humans and other-than-humans particularly in education, aesthetics, and ethics. She focuses on the role of embodiment in forming these relations and how care-based and justice-oriented embodied theories and practices can help build a more equitable multi-species community. Shoshana is also a K-12 educator passionate about creating and implementing radical multi-species pedagogies and has been doing philosophy with young people in North Texas since 2018. She is a recipient of the 2024-2025 PLATO graduate fellowship which funds her work with public school students.
Hyun Yang
Hyun is a PhD student and teaching fellow in the Philosophy and Religion department of the University of North Texas. His research interests include Environmental philosophy, Environmental ethics (especially ethical holism, Callicott, and Rolston), Communitarianism, Philosophy of Science, and Mereology.
The Venue
Environmental Education, Science & Technology Building
1704 W Mulberry St, Denton, TX 76201
Call for Paper
We cordially invite graduate students from all fields and disciplines to submit their research and perspectives on the following themes:
Extinction Studies, Rewilding, Radical Ecologies, Multispecies Justice, Environmental Philosophy, Environmental Dissent, Critical Animal Studies, Critical Plant Studies, Posthuman Ethics, Posthuman Feminisms, Critical Food Studies, Radical Water Humanities, Queer Ecologies, and Decolonial and Indigenous Ecologies.
In the spirit of intersectionality, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity, we encourage conference attendees to explore applications and research that embrace a post-anthropocentric worldview, fostering comprehensive and inclusive approaches to addressing intricate environmental challenges.
Submission Guidelines:
Prepare an abstract of 500 words for an anonymous review (no name or institutional affiliation on the abstract), infused with a spirit of controversy and innovation, to be submitted to prgraduateconferenceunt@gmail.com by June 1, 23:59 PM CST. Abstracts should be concise yet comprehensive, elucidating the central argument and its relevance to the conference theme.
Include the following details in the email body (not on the abstract):
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Name
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University affiliation
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Current level of graduate studies
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Preferred participation mode: in-person or online (limited spots)
Key dates:
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Abstract Submission Deadline: June 1, 23:59 PM CST
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Notification of Acceptance: July 31, 23:59 PM CST
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Final Paper Deadline: October 1, 23:59 CST
Each accepted presenter will have the opportunity to deliver a 20-minute presentation, followed by a 10-minute response from a UNT Philosophy and Religion graduate student, culminating in a 15-minute Q&A session.
Plans & Contact
If your abstract is accepted, you are strongly encouraged to submit an extended version of approximately 100 words by the specified date (date to be determined). These extended abstracts will be compiled into a booklet distributed at the beginning of the event to all participants. This will provide an opportunity for participants to delve into each other's ideas and facilitate exchange alongside the presentations.
We understand that being present in person may not be an option for everyone. To foster ecological responsibility and enable global participation, we will accommodate a limited number of participants online. We recognize the importance of including diverse voices and perspectives, irrespective of geographical constraints, to enrich the discourse on radical ecology and biodiversity crisis solutions.
This conference does not require registration fees. For inquiries and clarifications, please contact
Contact Us
For inquiries and clarifications, please contact