Deadline: December 15, 2022
Contact: Nathaniel Otjen, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton University
Email: notjen@princeton.edu

Panel proposed at the 2023 ASLE + AESS Conference: “Reclaiming the Commons”

July 9-12, 2023 in Portland, Oregon

As declines in species populations, distributions, and diversity are felt globally, a growing body of work in the environmental humanities has taken up the topic of extinction. Fields like ecocriticism and extinction studies have considered the cultures that emerge at “the dull edge of extinction” (van Dooren Flight Ways, 2014; Rose et al. Extinction Studies, 2017). Across this body of work, scholars have paid particular attention to the role of narrative in addressing the Sixth Extinction. Stories, from the perspectives of these scholars, are vital to supporting reciprocal human-nonhuman relationships and resisting the violence of extinction. Narrative, then, offers a way of worlding well and a way to hold humans and nonhumans together in an increasingly fragmented world.

While the focus on narrative as worldbuilding process is necessary and important, it has overlooked the multiple ways that extinction and extirpation have themselves impacted narratives, media, and storytelling. Intervening in the existing literature, this panel asks: How do the stories we collectively tell change in the wake of species loss? If environmental humanists are beginning to think of narrative as co-produced with nonhumans, what does it mean to lose the very beings who bring literature and culture into existence?

The panel invites scholarly, creative, experimental, and hybrid talks that consider how extinction and the wider problem of species loss are shaping narrative, media, and storytelling. In addition to the prompts posed above, panel participants may consider the experiences of reading and writing during the Sixth Extinction, or whether narrative forms and themes can go “extinct.” As a “paper jam” session, the panel will consist of 7-8 short presentations, each approximately 7-8 minutes in length, plus a discussion afterward.

Please submit a 300-word proposal and a 100-word bio to Nate Otjen (notjen@princeton.edu) by December 15, 2022. Inquiries regarding presentation topics are welcome in advance of submission.

*This call is for a pre-formed panel that will be submitted to conference organizers in late December 2022.

Posted on October 9, 2022