Sensational Ecologies
A CHASE funded postgraduate summer school hosted by the University of Sussex via Zoom
30th August – 3rd September | See indicative programme below
UPDATED Application deadline: July 23rd 2021
The Sensational Ecologies summer programme will, in Donna Haraway’s phrase, ‘stay with the trouble’ by exploring how a sustained focus on sensation can help us to celebrate and delimit the sensory apparatus of the human-animal in its entanglement with the more-than-human world. We will do so by introducing examples of sensory powers (and their absence) from across the biotic spectrum, even challenging the distinction between the living (biotic) and the dead (abiotic), and by introducing technological tools by which we can sense that which is beyond the human-animal’s sensory perception. Drawing on theories of animacy, vibrancy, agency, and the tentacular, we will seek to decentre the species exceptionalism of the human-animal, and attempt to comprehend life as it troubles the history of our taxonomic – and thus ideological – systems.
CHASE students will work together with leading academics in the environmental humanities, including Alenda Chang, Elizabeth Povinelli, and Anahid Nersessian, as well as leading practitioners including Jessica J. Lee, Rob St. John and Emergency Chorus. Together we will work to find a common language for situating human sensation in the unfolding climate emergency. The summer school will create an intimate and supportive setting in which to think deeply and challenge the limits of our understanding. Each day of the five day programme will be comprised of three sessions – a reading group to prepare for the afternoon’s events; a creative performance or demonstration by internationally renowned and cutting-edge arts practitioners; and a talk given by a leading theorist in the environmental humanities.
The aim of Sensational Ecologies is to establish CHASE as a hub of future ecocritical thinking both within and outside of the academy. It will help galvanise a postgraduate community to continue interdisciplinary and collaborative ecocritical research for the future.
For any queries please email sensationalecologies@gmail.com
For more information and for live programme updates, visit sensationalecologies.com
The programme is free to participants, but places are limited. The application deadline is 30 June 2021.
Please complete the application form and return it to sensationalecologies@gmail.com by the deadline.
Indicative programme
Monday 30th August
9:30-10:00 - Introduction
10:00-12:00 - Reading Group
12:00-13:30 - Break
13:30-15:30 - Kath Weston
15:30-16:30 - Break
16:30-18:30 - Jessica J. Lee - creative non-fiction workshop
Tuesday 31st August
10:00-12:00 - Reading Group
12:00-13:30 - Break
13:30-15:30 - Speaker 2 tbc
15:30-16:30 - Break
16:30-18:00 - Film screening
18:00-18:15 - Break
18:15-19:15 - Q&A
Wednesday 1st September
10:00-12:00 - Reading Group
12:00-13:30 - Break
13:30-15:30 - Elizabeth Povinelli
15:30-16:30 - Break
16:30-18:30 - Rob St. John - musical performance
Thursday 2nd September
10:00-12:00 - Emergency Chorus - theatre performance
12:00-13:30 - Break
13:30-15:30 - Cody-Rose Clevidence - poetry workshop and reading
15:30-16:30 - Break
16:30-18:30 - Anahid Nerssesian
Friday 3rd September
10:00-12:00 - Reading Group
12:00-13:30 - Break
13:30-15:30 - Alenda Chang
15:30-16:30 - Break
16:30-18:30 - Jakob Steensen - artist talk
18:30-19:00 - Closing remarks