What’s New about New Materialisms?

March 16th, 2012  |  Published in Latest news

CSTMS will be hosting our yearly graduate student-organized conference on May 4th-5th.  This year’s focus is on “What’s New about New Materialisms?”. The first day of the conference will feature faculty presentations, including two keynote addresses, and the second day will feature papers by graduate students.

The social sciences and humanities have long been engaged in the study of matter, materiality and materialisms. So what to make of recent announcements of the arrival of a variety of “new materialisms”? This conference brings together scholars from across the university to discuss a multiplicity of orientations and critical approaches to the use—and in some cases misuse—of the term and conceptual apparatus of “new materialisms” in their own work. Intentionally named as a question, What’s New About New Materialisms? is intended as an exploration of the benefits and limitations to “new” modes of thinking about and through the material. The four questions that guide contributors’ presentation are: What is new about matter? What is a method adequate to a new matter? Do ‘new materialisms’ mark the limit of discourse? How might we attend to materiality as a property of the digital?

With keynote presentations from Karen Barad & John Borneman

Faculty Presenters: Jenna Burrell :: Kim TallBear :: Benedikte Zitouni :: Rosemary Joyce :: Mel Chen :: Jean-François Blanchette :: Donna Jones :: Ruth Tringham :: Jenny Reardon ::Tim Choy

For a full list of presenters and schedule,click here.

Organizing Committee

Eric Plemons
PhD Candidate, Anthropology, UC Berkeley
eplemons@berkeley.edu

Michael D’Arcy
PhD Candidate, Medical Anthropology, UC Berkeley
darcy@berkeley.edu

Daniela K. Rosner
PhD Candidate, School of Information, UC Berkeley
daniela@ischool.berkeley.edu

Faculty Sponsor: Cori Hayden
Associate Professor, Anthropology, UC Berkeley
cphayden@berkeley.edu

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