NeMLA CFP: Manifesting Joy Through Posthumanist Praxis
In her most recent book, Posthuman Feminism, Rosi Braidotti calls on posthumanist educators to develop “an affirmative ethics that acknowledges the shared desire of all entities to persevere in their collaborative interdependence and to increase it for the common good” (118). She advocates for pedagogical praxis as a methodological innovation (and challenge) that draws on new materialism as a foundational theory and carnal empiricism as a method.
We hope to consider the following questions with a collaborative group of participants:
*What are concrete, shareable ways to put posthumanist/feminist/new materialist theory into practice (praxis) in the everyday higher ed classroom?
*What pedagogical adaptations have created resilience and joy for the myriad of bodies collaboratively participating in the location of the higher education classroom?
In this seminar, we seek to draw on the resilience of those teaching in higher education during the past two years to uncover the ways in which this praxis has also manifested joy through the process of adaptation to unprecedented (and now always-already altered) times. We request papers that demonstrate a practical application of posthuman feminist/new materialist pedagogy. Participants will submit a proposal that frames their pedagogical practice within these frameworks by sharing the challenges and successes of one strategy/activity/experience used in the classroom and how this practice also manifests joy in the bodies present in the classroom setting. The seminar will be open to inviting the attendees to engage in the activities as part of an intra-active process of sharing resources and inviting participants to contribute to our archive of posthuman praxis.
All submissions should be grounded in posthumansit/feminist/new materialist conversations, include an abstract and a short author bio, and be submitted through the NeMLA portal. Submissions that engage with minority and marginalized literatures, authors, theories, and/or texts are particularly encouraged.