Symposium Programme
Alterstories from the Soil: Exploring Ecological Un/Belongings
15th June 2022, 9.30-6.30pm at the University of Warwick
(Registration is free but required, register hereLink opens in a new window on EventBrite)
Scroll down for programme or download pdf programme hereLink opens in a new window.
Please download the abstracts and bios booklet hereLink opens in a new window.
Soils have stories to tell about pasts, presents and futures in the making. The environmental crisis affecting soils today has led to a wave of appreciation of their materiality as living worlds and to calls to rethink human-soil relations as an ecological community of care. Yet soils also entail a material memory of troubled associations with un/belonging. Stories about human-soil attachments can evoke deep care for places, but also historical and current exploitation, exclusion, and dispossession from land and community. Encouraging re-imaginations of human-soil relations as ecological belongings, this gathering seeks to bring together the cares of un/belonging and ecological thinking through alterstories that may nurture alternative conceptions of more than human justice.
Confirmed speakers: Åsa SonjasdotterLink opens in a new window, Patricia NoxoloLink opens in a new window, Nirmal Puwar, Ros GrayLink opens in a new window, RL MartensLink opens in a new window, Adele Reed,Link opens in a new window Greg MuldoonLink opens in a new window, Lesley Green,Link opens in a new window Lucy MichaelsLink opens in a new window.
The one day symposium will be end with a public talk by Malcom FerdinandLink opens in a new window, author of Decolonial Ecology: Thinking from the Caribbean World (Polity, 2022)Link opens in a new window followed by a response by Shela SheikhLink opens in a new window
This symposium is organised by Maria Puig de la BellacasaLink opens in a new window and Giulia ChampionLink opens in a new window as part of the project Ecological Belongings: transforming soil cultures with science, art and activism funded with an AHRC Leadership Fellowship. It is hosted by CIM, Centre for Interdisciplinary MethodologiesLink opens in a new window, The University of Warwick, and organised in collaboration with the Warwick Environmental Humanities Network and the and the Warwick Environmental Systems Interdisciplinary CentreLink opens in a new window.
Alterstories from the Soil – Exploring Ecological Un/Belongings
A one-day hybrid symposium on Wednesday 15th June 2022
9.00-6.30pm at the University of Warwick in room OC1.06 in the Oculus BuildingLink opens in a new window
Registration is free: LINK
Please note all times are in BST (British Summer Time, GMT +1)
9.00 - 9.30 - Coffee/Arrivals
9.30 - Welcome and Research Context
Maria Puig de la Bellacasa
& Lucy Michaels : "Alterstories from Leicester Soils"
10.00 - 11.30 – Co-Chairs – Shela Sheikh & Maria Puig
Ros Gray
“Sensing Soil: exciting/inviting soil curiosity at the Lewisham Way Art Research Garden”
Åsa Sonjasdotter
“Overcoming Monoculture”
Lesley Green (Remote)
“A Cosmopolitical Approach to Ubuntu Environmentalism”
Coffee break
12.00- 1.15 – Co-Chairs – Maria Puig & Lucy Michaels
Greg Muldoon & Adele Mary Reed
“Coventry Digging Deep: Photographic Storytelling with New Allotment Holders”
Nirmal Puwar
“Walking Along With...”
1.15-2.30 Lunch
2.30 - 4.00 – Co-Chairs – Maria Puig & Giulia Champion
RL Martens (Remote)
“Sonifying Soil Microbes: Tending Future Soil Songs”
Pat Noxolo
“Black Sisters in the Soil: A Short Reflection on Tia-Monique Uzor's ‘The Noise My Leaves Make’”
4.00-4.30 - Coffee & Open conversation
Break
5.00 - 6.30 - Public Talk by Malcom Ferdinand : A decolonial ecology - Followed by a Response by Shela Sheikh