Read More

The very concept of nature has been the subject of thorough critique for quite a while. From a Western deconstructive perspective, nature is a signifier standing for naive immediacy or reactionary normativity. Poststructuralist and queer paradigms have shifted from an idea of nature as a being and of the natural as a given to a conception of them as the effects of discursive, performative practices. 

Organized by Federica Buongiorno, Alberica Bazzoni, and Xenia Chiaramonte

At the venue: Registration will open on 29 Feb 2024

Read More

I am an Arara (directed by Mariana Lacerda and Rivane Neuenschwander, Brazil, 2023, 28′). A forest runs through the protests in São Paulo during the election year of 2022, a political moment in Brazil, when what was at stake was the end of democracy and the continuity of a government whose main agenda was destruction of nature and its territories, of social conquests, of indigenous peoples and quilombolas, of culture and art.

The screening is followed by a discussion with Mariana Lacerda and Peter Pál Pelbart.

Part of the symposium Shifting Natures

Organized by Marlon Miguel and Elena Vogman

At the venue: Registration will open on 29 Feb 2024

Read More

Model organisms are life forms used to test biological theories of various kinds in laboratory settings. Research with model organisms muddies the line between models as material objects and models as abstract entities. Model organisms are not fully constructed, since they are evolved beings, but the longer they reside in a laboratory the less they resemble their kin in the wild.

Organized by Maria Dębińska, Julia Sánchez-Dorado, Ben Woodard

At the venue: Registration will open on 6 March 2024

Read More

This talk considers two recent and novel uses of simpler model organisms (such as zebrafish, water fleas, and nematodes) in contemporary life science research: as an indicator species in predictive toxicology and as a substitute for rodents and other mammals in translational biomedical research associated with new efforts to foster new approach methodologies (NAMs).

Part of the symposium Model Organisms

At the venue: Registration will open on 6 March 2024

Read More

This talk examines the historical use of model organisms in symbiosis research, focusing particularly on bipartite interactions like the plant root-rhizobium relationship and algae-fungi symbiosis in lichens. The latter has been pivotal in shaping diverse images of (i) societal structures and (ii) human individuality.

Part of the symposium Model Organisms

At the venue: Registration will open on 6 March 2024

Read More