Grounding Story, ASLEC-ANZ Conference, University of New England, Australia 13-15 February, 2019

29 Jun Grounding Story, ASLEC-ANZ Conference, University of New England, Australia 13-15 February, 2019

The 2019 Biennial ASLEC-ANZ Conference theme is Grounding Story. We seek submissions that respond to the material and ideological implications of environmental storytelling in either a speculative or a critical mode.[i] On one hand, we are concerned with situated and embodied narratives that can cultivate cosmopolitical worlds and earthly accountabilities. On the other hand, we seek ecocritical and environmental humanities interventions on the limitations of story’s capacity to ‘save the planet’. In this sense, Grounding Story aims to bring the loftier claims of story’s potential down to earth, while still affirming the vital role of story in movements for social and environmental justice.

While predictions concerning the death of the novel can still be heard, it is also arguably the case that there are more stories to be told now than at any previous time in human history: digitally, in print, audio, video, in situ, by 3D printer or collective performance. Turning to diverse creative media, languages, embodied methodologies, and experiments in multispecies ecologies, we welcome material and theoretical investigations into how matter stories, and why stories matter.

We especially encourage submissions on the following topics:

  • Decolonial/Anti-colonial Storytelling
  • Futuristic Fictions, Spec-fi, Sci-fi.
  • Critical close readings of policy, planning, strategy as ‘fictions’/’fabulations’
  • Feminist, Queer, Crip Approaches
  • Ecocriticism/Environmental Cultural Studies
  • Environmental Humanities storytelling methodologies/interdisciplinary research dissemination strategies
  • Activist tales from the field
  • Artistic fabulations, collaborations, worldings in practice and non-textual art forms.
  • Audio, Visual Storytelling, Digital Platforms, Subscriptions
  • Place writing
  • Stories from aquatic locations, riverine and oceanic situations
  • Formal questions of point of view, tone and structure and their impact on meaning.
  • ‘Fake news’, ‘Post-truth’, ‘Alternative Facts’ and other fictions in popular media.



We are accepting proposals for:

  • 20-minute academic papers
  • 8-10 minute roundtable papers
  • Other (performance/walkshop/workshop)
  • Pre-formed panels of 3-4 papers.



Proposals should include:

  • 250-word abstract
  • 100-word bios



Send questions and proposals to: groundingstory@gmail.com
CFP closes September 7, 2018 at 11.59pm AEST. Further information here: https://aslecanz.org.au/conferences



[i] This distinction is taken from Maria Puig de la Bellacasa’s Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds (Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 2017), p.7. Where “speculative” connects specifically to the feminist quest for an otherwise.

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