All Things Living and Not: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Non-Anthropocentric Perspectives in Slavic Studies

Deutsches Haus, Columbia University (420 116th St, 1st Floor)

The last two decades have witnessed a revision in the concept of alterity, decentering the human in how we reckon with the other. Animal studies, artificial intelligence, ecocriticism, etc. not only ask us to consider the possibility of non-human subjects, but also challenge our very humanness and, along with it, the very premises of the humanities and human sciences. What does a non-anthropocentric understanding of the other offer to the field of Slavic studies? And conversely, what can the cultures, histories, and belief systems of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia reveal about practices and possibilities of radical alterity?

This conference asks participants to consider the conjunction between the animal, the plant, the machine, inorganic matter, and the human as a way to destabilize the mind-body dichotomy, class, race, gender, age, etc. By bringing Slavic studies into closer contact with a set of discourses referred to as posthumanism, our conference aims to expand the theoretical apparatus of our field and to allow for new perspectives on the histories and cultures of the region.

Please visit the event website for more details.

The conference is organized by Irina Denischenko, Bradley Gorski, and Eliza Rose with the generous support of the Harriman Institute, Ulbandus: The Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Review of Columbia University, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and the Institute of Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University.