**If you are not planning to attend the RGS-IBG 2017 Annual Conference then you can ignore this message**
Dear all,
This is a reminder that we are seeking contributions towards a proposed split-session at this year’s RGS-IBG annual conference, entitled ‘Geographies of extinction: exploring the spatio-temporal relations of species and death’.
Further details are given in the full CFP attached below.
Looking forward to hearing from those interested in participating,
Ben Garlick & Kate Symons
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Geographies of extinction: exploring the spatio-temporal relations of species and death
Convenors
Ben Garlick, York St John University – [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Kate Symons, University of Edinburgh – [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Abstract:
Over the past half-decade, the interdisciplinary field of ‘extinction studies’ (see http://extinctionstudies.org) has emerged, exploring how extinction – as the death of whole species or ‘ways of life’ – unfolds. Attention is directed towards the specific and contingent processes and relations of death, violence and detachment affecting more-than-human communities. Unsettling the notion of a single extinction event – the death of ‘the last one’ – this work proposes relational ontologies of species-being and extinction. Scholars look to how the intergenerational links and spaces by which species are constituted become closed (see van Dooren, 2014). Simultaneously, there is attention to how the disappearance of particular forms of life spurs invigorated, technocratic, risky and experimental interventions to stall, prevent or reverse extinction (Heatherington, 2012). Such encounters raise questions around human-nature relations and conservation. We might ask: what can – or should – be saved? Or, possibly, resurrected? How does environmental loss affect notions of value? What kinds of life might survive, even flourish, amidst such scenarios of crisis (see Tsing, 2015)?
This session unites scholars exploring the geographies of extinction. Extinction studies advocate an interdisciplinary response, emphasising the need to tell the contingent ‘stories’ of loss in order to both, as Haraway (2016) argues, ‘stay with the trouble’ and ‘make thinkable’ the consequences of human activity in the world. Geographers are in many ways ideally placed to take up such a call. The convenors invite papers that consider the relationships between extinction and geography, including:
> The concepts of species and extinction in practice and geography.
> ‘Extinction stories’ concerning the historical or contemporary geographies of particular forms of environmental loss.
> The geographies/landscapes produced by extinction.
> The political ecologies of extinction.
> The geographies, politics and consequences of ‘de-extinction’ initiatives.
> The contributions/resonances/critiques offered by geographers to work on extinction in the humanities.
We propose a split-session format. The first session will feature a selection of 15-minute papers. The second session will open onto a panel discussion, where the presenters from the first session will engage with and respond to the thoughts of a discussant and more general audience questions.
References:
Haraway D (2016) Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press; Durham NC & London.
Heatherington T (2012) ‘From Ecocide to Genetic Rescue: Can Technoscience Save the Wild?’ in Sodikoff G (ed) The Anthropology of Extinction: Essays on Culture and Species Death (Indiana University Press; Bloomington IN & Indianapolis): 39-66.
Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press; Princeton NJ.
van Dooren T (2014) Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction. Colombia Press; New York.
Whale H and Ginn F (2016) ‘In the Absence of Sparrows’ in Consulo-Willox A and Landman K (eds) Environment and/as Mourning: On Landscapes, Mindscapes, and Healthscapes (London; Routledge).
Instructions for presenters/panellists:
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent jointly to Ben Garlick ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) and Kate Symons ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) by 7th February. You will be informed by the 10th as to whether your paper has been accepted.
Submissions Deadline:
7th Feb 2017.
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Ben Garlick // Lecturer in Human Geography
School of Humanities, Religion & Philosophy
York St John University | Lord Mayor’s Walk | York | YO31 7EX
Tel: 01904 876555 | Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Office: QW 206 | Website: bengarlick.wordpress.com<http://bengarlick.wordpress.com>
[175 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE]<http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/175.aspx>
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