*CFP* "AFTER AGENCY", INTERNACIONAL CONFERENCE

After Agency / international conference

12-14 November 2019 / Poznan, Poland

Humanities/Art/Technology Research Center

Adam Mickiewicz University

Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center: Coworking Lab

Zwierzyniecka Street 20, Poznan, Poland

‘After Agency’ is a provocation. It seems that agency might be in trouble – what we think of it, what we make of it, what and who has it and what emerges in its unfolding or de-folding. Scholars have informed us of the more-than-human agencies of emergent worlds (Haraway, 2008; Tsing, 2015; Kirsky, 2015; Kohn, 2013) and the speculative becomings of/with agencies that alter the possibility of worlds (Morton, 2013; Taussig, 2018; Murphy, 2017; Weizman, 2012; Barad, 2007) in the context of capitalist violence, anthropogenic toxicities and the timely matter of life itself.

‘Agency’ and the collective sensibility of agency inform the practice of research, knowledge production, methodologies and methods of situated thinking with the world at large. The posthuman and ontological turn in the wake of the Anthropocene (Braidotti, 2013; Wark, 2015; Chandler, 2018; Castro, 2009; Escobar, 2018) offers a certain opportunity to push further, conceptual questionings of what is conventionally thought of as agency. Attuned to the situatedness of each of our many political encounters – we notice the spectre of financial violence, white supremacy and capitalist injustice wound up in the figuring of our presumed times “after agency.” Does this not then call for a reimagining of our methods and methodologies?

Guided by three web interventions for each stream by McKenzie Wark, Rosi Braidotti and Peter Kahn, this international conference situated at the Humanities/Art/Technology Research Center in Poznan, Poland calls on participants (academics, artists, performers, activists, readers and writers) to join us at the confluence of three streams discussing: Resistance, Speculation, and Adaptation in these troubled times of agency.

More details.

Abstract submission:

All abstracts should be submitted using the EasyChair system.

The length of the abstract must be between 300 and 500 words (excluding title, keywords and references). All the abstracts/proposals will be peer-reviewed by two external reviewers. Please state in the abstract precisely the form of presentation and the title of the stream you are going to submit the presentation. Presentations delivered during the conference should not be longer than 20 minutes. There is no conference fee for the speakers. We will also be able to offer accommodation (12-14 November 2019) for the speakers; coffee and lunch during the conference days. There will be a monograph published after the conference, with selected papers post peer review.

Important dates:

Abstract submission deadline: 30 May 2019

Abstract acceptance notification: 30 June 2019

Conference dates: 12-14 November 2019

Organising Committee:

Agnieszka Jelewska, Humanities/Art/Technology Research Center, Adam Mickiewicz University (e-mail: jelewska@amu.edu.pl); Michał Krawczak, Humanities/Art/Technology Research Center, Adam Mickiewicz University (e-mail: michal.krawczak@amu.edu.pl); Brett Zehner, Brown University (e-mail: brett_zehner@brown.edu); Harshavardhan Bhat, University of Westminster (e-mail: harsh.s.bhat@gmail.com)