New
Materialism

Organisers:

Ms Beatriz Revelles-Benavente and Dr. Ana M. González Ramos

Scientific Committee:

Dr. Cecilia Åsberg, Dr. Ilona Hongisto, Dr. Katve-Kaisa Kontturi, Ms Krizia Nardini, Dr. Milla Tiainen, Dr. Iris van der Tuin

The theory of new materialism is traversing many disciplines of knowledge: from quantum physics to art theory. This allows a search for a common ground for interdisciplinary studies. In addition, these theoretical approaches are proving themselves as a suitable “ethic-onto-epistemological” framework (Barad, 2007) that permits the examination of social phenomena from multidimensional perspectives, alongside offering new ways to theorize and challenge the divisions between matter and discourse, nature and culture, etc. However, the methodological parameters of these approaches remain underdeveloped and somewhat unclear especially when related to feminist theories and politics.

New materialism has been coined as a “third wave feminist epistemology” (van der Tuin, 2009) in the present globalized information society, and it is because of this that a profound reassessment of some of the core research concepts is needed if these ways of theorizing want to configure themselves as an alternative to social constructivist approaches specifically in the context of digital cultures and political engagement. To these methodological concerns, we have included ‘gender’, ‘politics’ and ‘the digital’ because of their centrality in scholarly debates produced in feminist journals and scholarship. The terms also remain key for contemporary feminist practice. Can we still consider gender as a key concept for feminist politics? How is social change conceived of and produced within a new materialist framework? How is digital inter-connectedness  affecting/affected by new materialisms, and most importantly different forms of life?

Keynote Speakers and Respondents

Peta Hinton (Research Fellow at the ICI Berlin 2013/14)

Respondent: Kathrin Thiele (Assistant professor at the department of Media and Culture Studies and the Gender Studies at Utrecht University)

Felicity Colman (Reader in Screen Media, Manchester Metropolitan University)

Respondent: Ana M. González Ramos (Senior researcher at Gender and ICT research programe, IN3, UOC)

Jussi Parikka (Professor in Technological Culture & Aesthetics, Winchester School

of Art, University of Southampton)

Respondent: Elisenda Ardevol (Professor at the Mediaccions research program, IN3, UOC)

Further details here

PDF of programme here