Materiality, Society and the More-than-Human Conference 2025
A BSA New Materialisms Study Group Event
23 June 2025 (11:00-16:30 BST)
Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, UK
About the Event
Plenary Speaker: Professor Lisa Blackman
From climate change to health and well-being, from AI to gender-related violence, scholars have recognised the materiality that cuts through nature/culture dualism. New materialist and other more-than-human approaches are revealing new insights about society and posthumans’ place within the natural world.
By decentring the posthuman as sole agent of meaning and agency, and embracing more-than-human ontologies, these approaches aim to foster innovative dialogues on the porous boundaries between organisms, environments, technologies, societies and materials.
This one-day conference will offer the opportunity for us to present our new materialist and posthuman research and network with others using these approaches.
We are delighted that our keynote speaker will be leading feminist materialist scholar Professor Lisa Blackman.
Paper Sessions
Paper Session 1: Humans and other Animals
- Dances with horses: fluid leadership, affective exchange and the future of therapeutic robotics - Ellen Weir (University of Bristol)
- Beasts in the Archive: Foregrounding animality in post/decolonial analyses and the challenge to methodological nationalism - Senel Wanniarachchi (London School of Economics)
- Humans, animals, things: What are we talking about when we talk about agency? - Ari Ofengenden (Tulane University)
Paper session 2: Embodiment Assemblages
- What do wounds do? - Bella Barrett (University of Sussex)
- Dialoguing with strings in the spaces between bodies - Lisa May Thomas (University of Bristol)
- Researching joyful bodies and other matter - Amy Pomerand Petzoldt (Goldsmiths University of London)
Paper session 3: Intra-actions and entanglements
- Entangled agencies: More-than-human public space narratives from Thiruvallikeni, India - Lakshmi Priya Rajendran (University College London)
- Encrypted futures: mineral memory and more-than-human resistance in Neptune Frost - Charisse Louw (Stellenbosch University, South Africa)
- Making the mental health universe together: what can Baradian approaches offer the field of mental health - Rowan Sandle (Leeds Beckett University)
Plenary presentation
- Meanings that matter: semiotic combat and communicative control - Professor Lisa Blackman (Goldsmiths University of London)
Registration
Registration fees include buffet lunch and refreshments.
- BSA members: £25
- Non-BSA members: £35
- BSA concessionary members (student and other): £10
- Non-BSA member students: £15