Dr Jamie Stephenson

It’s been a bit of a dry spell, publication-wise, these past few months. But I’m pleased to say that my book review of “Earthly Things” on @fordhampress.bsky.social is out as part of the new issue of “Ecokritike” journal which went live today. It’s a timely and thought-provoking collection. 📚

Very happy to share I’ll be part of a #TwinPeaks -themed panel at the #BAMS2026 conference, #WeirdModernisms, at Loughborough, along with the far more qualified @michaelshallcross.bsky.social and @theothercoogan.bsky.social. My paper hopes to incorporate sound, Pierre Schaeffer, Laura P and Jowday.

Excellent news. And your curatorial labour paid off. Thanks again comrade! Just have to write the bally thing now!!

Audition. Ring. A Tale of Two Sisters.

I think we all needed this.

Photo commemorating the passing of Éliane Radigue.

As someone with her visage above my own on 🦋 (for that is she in my banner), it would be remiss of me not to note the sad passing of Éliane Radigue. ✌🏻

Good luck. We’ve put in a proposal for a Twin Peaks related panel.

Switching to my *chin-stroke* account… Congratulations, Anna. This is brilliant news. I’m a Leeds alumnus three times over. The Uni is brilliant. And the city is fantastic. Really hope you have similarly good news with the funding 🤞🏻.

CFA: Neoplatonism and the Presocratics (SCS 2027) CALL FOR ABSTRACTSNeoplatonism & the PresocraticsPanel of the International Society for Neoplatonic StudiesSociety for Classical Studies, 7-10 January 2027, BostonOrganizer: Jeremy Swist, Michigan...

Deadline is March 1st for submissions for the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies panel I am organizing for SCS 2027 in Boston. Please help me spread the word!

WOMEN AND METAL HAVE 5 MINUTES? HELP A GIRL OUT AND FILL OUT MY SURVEY ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES AS FEMALE METAL FAN AND MISOGYNY ALL RESPONSES ARE ANONYMOUS Goldsmiths

Please share and/or fill this out if it applies to you: forms.gle/6TuZYUzhAznR...

"Female identifying metal fans- I need your input for my university research! I am currently gathering some stats around misogyny in metal music scenes…All reponses will be recorded as anonymous.”

I think, in some sense, Jean-Luc Nancy might call that “arch distance” a “syncope”. He writes about Kant’s work having a gap between author and text. There is very little “Kant” in (late) Kant.

Stones, air, axioms, by Thomas Tilly & Jean-Luc Guionnet 4 track album

I first heard this LP - “a sound work based on the relationship between the architecture and acoustics of St Pierre Cathedral in Poitiers” - on Ed Pinsent’s great Sound Projector radio show (2012). It’s proven to be so conducive to writing my latest essay, I’ve actually included it in the text!

Ecokritikes online lectures' series 2026-2027 “Community in the Broadest Sense: Human/Animal Composition in Alphonso Lingís” Niki Young, University of Malta, Malta “In this talk, I challenge prevailing anthropocentric understandings of community by identifying and expanding three interrelated senses of composition found throughout Alphonso Lingis' work. First, I examine how Lingis dissolves the nature/culture binary, unsettling the conceptual boundaries that separate human from nonhuman lite. Secondly, I explore the symbiotic relationships between humans and nonhumans, highlighting the material and existential interdependencies that connect them. Finally, I consider how sensations, intensities, and embodied experiences generate forms of belonging that transcend linguistic or rational frameworks traditionally regarded as the sine qua non conditions for community. My ultimate aim shall be to illustrate and build upon Lingis' radical rethinking of community as an open, dynamic assemblage in which human and nonhuman beings co-constitute one another.” Niki Young lectures Philosophy at the University of Malta. His philosophical interests centre around 20" and 21« Century Continental thought, with a special focus on the incorporation of 20h century ideas into contemporary fields of research such as those of Posthumanism, Animal Studies, as well as New and Speculative forms of Realism and Materialism. Registration's open untl 15/01/2026 https://forms.gle/zTAAkY6RGzh4nw7E9 zoom Date: 17 January 2026 Time: 16:00 p.m. CET (Central Europe Time zone)

Ecokritikes online lectures' series 2026-2027

“Community in the Broadest Sense: Human/Animal Composition in Alphonso Lingís”

Niki Young, University of Malta, Malta.

Registration 's open untl 15/01/2026
forms.gle/zTAAkY6RGzh4...
zoom

17 January 2026 Time: 16:00 p.m. CET (Central Europe Time zone)

That high you get when you read an essay which deeply resonates with you and the ideas start pinging. Just finished the wonderful “That There Might Be Black Thought” (2016) by @ashoncrawley.bsky.social. Thank you for such a rich text Prof. Crawley. Much to think about… 🙏🏻

@sedserio.com is there a means of contacting you regarding potential use of a piece of yours?

Anyone read/recommend this?

With the constant attacks on academic research stretching across the globe, it is incredibly brave to nominate my tape, "Learning by Listening Vol. 9: Learning to Make Noise: Toward a Process Model of Artistic Practice within Experimental Music Scenes," as the best cassette of the year.

@michaelshallcross.bsky.social

Is there anything more cold than the automated early hours unsuccessful outcome job application email?! Absolutely horrendous.

YouTube video by EMPAC | Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Ashon Crawley: Quantum Mechanics. Quantum Sound. Quantum Love.

Totally in love with this cat! #AshonCrawley

This sounds right up my abyssal void! 👌🏻

Ashton Crawley

You know you’re a theory nerd when you happen across a scholar new to you and it’s like you discovered a new favourite band! This just happened with my stumbling across the Black theological work of Ashton Crawley. Very excited to read more and integrate with my own ideas! 📚 🤓

Volume 6 Issue 4 | Resonance | University of California Press

The new Winter 2025 issue of "Resonance" includes original research articles + new contributions to the special series 'Listening to Harry Shearer’s Le Show' & 'Sound History is Cultural History.' online.ucpress.edu/res/issue/6/4

[Call for applications – Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellowships 2026-27]
For PhD holders/Early Career Researchers of Japanese visual and material cultures. Starting Sep 2026. Based in Norwich UK. Further information -> www.sainsbury-instit...

Atom and Void: Poems by Aaron Fagan

Aaron Fagan’s Atom and Void is a dazzling and haunting meditation on existence and impermanence.

Out now. Explore a free sample: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

#Poetry #Literature #Poems

I know several of the wonderful people who have contributed/edited this forthcoming beast. Promises to be fantastic. #MetalSky #MetalStudies #PhilSky #FeministStudies 👏🏻🫶🏻🤘🏻

List of Contributors Vincent Blok, Wageningen University & Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Sayan Dey, Bayan College (affiliated with Purdue University Northwest), Oman Peggy Karpouzou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece W P Malecki, University of Wroclaw, Poland Roberto Marchesini, School of Human-Animal Interaction and Centre for the Study of Posthumanist Philosophy, Italy Scott Slovie, Oregon Research Institute, U.S.A. Bretton A. Varga, California State University, Chico, U.S.A. Paula Wieczorek, University of Information Technology and Management, Poland Nikoleta Zampaki, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Abstracts Scott Slovic, Oregon Research Institute, U.S.A. Encouraging Action by Adjusting the Language of the world scientists' "State of the Climate Report" Together with colleagues David Markowitz (Michigan State University) and Paul Slovic (Oregon Research Institute), I have been working on an empirical ecocritical study of the motivational discourse in the 2024 World Scientists' "State of the Climate Report." Focusing particularly on the concluding page of the report, which seeks to summarize the key points of the report and encourage public participation in efforts to respond to the climate crisis, we have used artificial intelligence to craft an alternative version of the report that highlights the feasibility of climate solutions and seeks to motivate readers to take action by donating money to climate change mitigation efforts. We are currently in the process of conducting an empirical study that will compare readers' responses to the original conclusion of the 2024 report with responses to the Al-modified conclusion. Our hope is to develop helpful feedback for the authors of the 2024 report and other writers (including scientists) who seek to motivate audiences to respond to contemporary environmental crises. This project will contribute to the emerging discipline featured in the 2023 book Empirical …

interest of philosophers of the twentieth century and argue for world interest in times of climate change. I will argue that world interest should not lead to world production, whether it is found in a productive act by the Earth or by humanity, as world production is accompanied by Earth alienation. A gestalt-based understanding of the givenness of Earth as noncausal ontic-ontological ground of the givenness of World is developed. The conceptualization of World and Earth helps to differentiate between the often-ambiguous uses of these concepts in environmental philosophy and contributes to contemporary debates in philosophy of climate change. Roberto Marchesini, School of Human-Animal Interaction and Centre for the Study of Posthumanist Philosophy, Italy Nature as a political question in Giacomo Leopardi In the writings of Giacomo Leopardi the theme of the human being's relationship with nature returns significantly as an existential and social matter, as an essential question for building a political dimension of living capable of resolving the inconsistencies opened by human imprisonment within one's own space time. Today, Leopardi's reflections on the theme of the relationship with nature in an eco-political and eco-ontological logic represent an important opportunity to overcome the crises and contradictions of contemporary society. Peggy Karpouzou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Symbiotic Econarratives in Solarpunk We live in a precarious and vulnerable time characterized by climate change, deforestation and species' extinction. The necessity for protection, repair, and healing is evidently urgent. Symbiosis- a concept found in Natural Sciences- refers to the life-forms' interplays when living together and communicating with each other without disrupting the ecosystems' contingency. The latter is well articulated and found in a new speculative literary genre called "solarpunk" which depicts a hopeful future with a radically different so…

concern about climate change and motivate climate action (Alacovska & Holt, 2023; Rong, 2023). This paper examines the empirical evidence regarding the potential impact of climate fiction on these outcomes. Paula Wieczorek, University of Information Technology and Management, Poland Indigenous Speculative Fiction and Homo Ecopoliticus: Narratives for Ecological Justice in the Anthropocene The concept of Homo Ecopoliticus embodies a human identity rooted in ecological awareness, political engagement, and ethical responsibility. Indigenous speculative fiction, as a genre that merges traditional ecological knowledge with futurist narratives, provides a powerful lens for enacting this identity. This announcement examines the works of Indigenous authors such as Rebecca Roanhorse's Trail of Lightning and Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God, focusing on exploring ecological justice, non-human agency, and sustainable coexistence. These narratives critique anthropocentric paradigms and offer transformative visions of humanity's relationship with the natural world Using an interdisciplinary methodology, the study integrates ecocriticism, Indigenous critical theory, and speculative fiction studies to analyse how these texts construct alternative ecological imaginaries. The analysis draws on key themes such as kinship with the land, the recognition of more-than-human agency, and the resistance to environmental and cultural exploitation. The methodological framework prioritises Indigenous perspectives, emphasising storytelling as a means of reclaiming agency and challenging colonial legacies in ecological and cultural domains. This announcement highlights the potential of Indigenous speculative fiction to catalyse political and ecological consciousness, engaging global audiences in the Anthropocene's pressing crises. By positioning storytelling at the intersection of art, ethics, and activism, these works illuminate pathways toward Homo Ecopoliticus as both a politica…

colors, and textures of rusting, this work responds to the urgency of aesthetic charges within Kandice Chuh's question in The Difference Aesthetics Makes: "How can we come to know ourselves?" Tethering images that I collected over the course of a year with the artwork of different artists who work expressively with rusting) as a medium/method and cinematic moments in which rusting) produces bodies otherwise, I will share the results of my becoming-with rusting. That is, how my arrival to and departure from rusting as an affective multiplier has impacted how I come to under that more-than-human world and why such thinking about rusting) perhaps can serve as a blueprint for future attunements and attachments with/to materials that co-produce and ultimately sustain human contexts. Sayan Dey, Bayan College (affiliated with Purdue University Northwest), Oman Garboglomerates: Entanglements of Discards and Discarded Governmentalities The unsystematic production and disposal of garbage in public places is not always a casual and ignorant act and is often motivated by conscious political factors like power politics and vote banks. To elaborate further, in the context of India, it is observed that factors like the political affiliations of the municipality corporations and the political preferences of the residents underpin the waste disposal and hygiene policies in different localities. If the corporation's affiliation and the residents' preferences match, the residents may expect a well-outlined and systemic waste management system. Otherwise, the residents are forced to embrace unhygienic living conditions through untimely clearance of public wastes, flushing and accumulating wastes from adjacent residential areas, and many other ways. Focusing on selective localities in Kolkata, Varanasi, and Bengaluru, the lecture will reflect on how factors such as political affiliations, ideological intentions, caste hierarchies, class distinctions, and public ignorance collectively co…

Homo Eco-politicus in Literary and Cultural Studies Date: 15th of November 2025 Time: EET (Eastern European Time / wintertime zone of Athens, Greece) Venue: zoom Program 15:00 p.m. - 15:20 p.m.: Scott Slovic, Encouraging Action by Adjusting the Language of the world scientists' "State of the Climate Report" 15:20 p.m. - 15:40 p.m.: Vincent Blok, The Earth means the World to Me: Earth-and World-Interest in Times of Climate Change 15:40 p.m. - 16:00 p.m.: Roberto Marchesini, Nature as a political question in Giacomo Leopardi 16:00 p.m. - 16:20 p.m.: Peggy Karpouzou, Symbiotic Econarratives in Solarpunk 16:20 p.m. - 16:30 p.m.: Q/A Break 16:30 p.m. - 16:50 p.m.: W P Malecki, Climate Fiction and Activism 16:50 p.m. - 17:10 p.m.: Paula Wieczorek, Indigenous Speculative Fiction and Homo Ecopoliticus: Narratives for Ecological Justice in the Anthropocene 17:10 p.m. - 17:30 p.m.: Nikoleta Zampaki, Outer Space and Citizenship in Andy Weir's Artemis and Michael Makropoulos ' Mars 17:30 p.m. - 17:50 p.m.: Bretton A. Varga, Seething Figurations and Aesthetic Utterances of Affectivity: The Case for Rusting) 17:50 p.m. - 18:10 p.m.: Sayan Dey, Garboglomerates: Entanglements of Discards and Discarded Governmentalities 18:10 p.m. - 18:20 p.m.: Q/A End of Colloquium

Ecokritike

Online Colloquium

“Homo Eco-politicus in Literary and Cultural Studies”

Date: 15th of November 2025
Time: EET (Eastern European Time / wintertime zone of Athens, Greece)

@michaelshallcross.bsky.social

Trans Lives in Focus: Commemorating Trans Day of Remembrance 2025 Join us for a powerful afternoon of remembrance, education, and community at Trans Lives in Focus, an event marking Trans Day of Remembrance

Shout out to @yorkstjohn.bsky.social for their forthcoming “Trans Lives in Focus: Commemorating Trans Day of Remembrance 2025” event on 20th November! 🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ 🫶🏻