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Thinking about water – whether as the foundation of all life, as an economic asset or an indispensable energy resource – has been long documented in human history. The last three decades have also brought discourses on water to the forefront in cultural, literary, art and media studies. Against the background of increasingly visible ecological transformation and the undeniable consequences of climate change, rivers in particular, as material, symbolic and political entities have become the focal point of theoretical and artistic reflection.
This conference explores narratives in which rivers feature as places and actors of relationality, mobility and permeability, and the ways in which they challenge and rewrite anthropocentric paradigms (Barad, Haraway, Latour). Taking the concept of Blue Humanities (Metz, Iovino, Oppermann) and hydrofeminism (Neimanis) as a departure point, we approach rivers as relational entities and subjects, not as objects of representation. Astrid Neimanis’ invitation to conceive of ourselves as “bodies of water” opens up an epistemic field in which human and more-than-human agents are equally entangled in mutual fluid relationality. Rivers function as metabolic thresholds, in which individuals and their environment equally blend into one another and transform each other (Macfarlane). This way, rivers become intermedial spaces of transit and transformation, in which identity is in the constant process of becoming.
This conference aims to contribute to the continuing posthuman and ecocritical discourse in literature, the arts and other media. We propose that river narratives and fluvially organized storytelling allow for a restructuring and relocalization of political historical and epistemological movements related to water and the more-than-human environments: from the Danube of the Habsburg Monarchy over colonial water regimes to contemporary literary texts and other media that address natureculture (Haraway) phenomena such as droughts, pollution, and flooding, but also inquire how river narratives reflect historical crisis related to war, persecution, displacement and exclusion. Any literary or media-related analysis of rivers must necessarily be rooted in interdisciplinarity. Researchers from the natural and social sciences (e.g. biology, geology, environmental sciences, environmental engineering, anthropology, sociology) who are interested in engaging in an interdisciplinary dialogue are explicitly encouraged to apply. Contributions based on arts-based research are equally welcome.
Possible questions to be addressed in presentations:
* How are rivers narrated as more-than-human agents instead of merely passive components of landscapes?
* How do rivers define and evoke liminal spaces and crisis moments in discussions around history, (post)colonialism, and gender?
* How can fluvial forms (streams, estuaries, sediments) be understood as narrative principles?
* How do river landscapes (including wetlands and natural parks) interact with humans and other species in rural and urban areas?
* To what extent can rivers be conceived as political archives and memory repositories?
* How can hydrofeminist, posthumanist and new materialist theories facilitate new approaches to ecological and economic perceptions of rivers?
* What strategies of resilience can be drawn from riverine representations?
The conference aims to highlight the diverse representations of rivers in the Anthropocene during moments of crisis. We hope to encourage a rethinking of rivers as a dynamic network of bridges and borders that transcends the traditional dichotomies of Western thought.
Contributions
Please submit a title and proposal (in German or English) of no more than 300 words along with a short biography, institutional affiliation and research interests until March 30, 2026 to Dr. Yvonne Živković (yvonne.zivkovic@uni-graz.at) and Dr. Stefanie Populorum (stefanie.populorum@uni-graz.at).
Further details:
* The conference will take place from Nov 20-21, 2026, at the University of Graz, Austria
* Travel costs within Europe and one night of accommodation will be covered
* Presentations should be no longer than 20 min and can be held in either German or English
* A publication of the contributions is planned
We look forward to your proposals!
Bibliography
Barad, Karen. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.
Haraway, Donna. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.
Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Macfarlane, Robert. Is a River Alive? London: Penguin, 2025
Mentz, Steve. An Introduction to the Blue Humanities. Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2023.
Neimanis, Astrida. Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
Oppermann, Serpil. Blue Humanities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023
Oppermann, Serpil, Iovino, Serenella (Hg.). Material Ecocriticism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014.