PASE 2025/Crossroads 5 Conference
Voices of the Earth: literary and linguistic perspectives in environmental humanities
June 4-6, 2025
University of Białystok, Poland

Suddenly, we became aware that humans could destroy the livability of the planet—whether
intentionally or otherwise. This awareness only increased as we learned about pollution, mass
extinction, and climate change. One half of current precarity is the fate of the earth: what kinds
of human disturbances can we live with? Despite talk of sustainability, how much chance do
we have for passing a habitable environment to our multispecies descendants?
Anna Tsing

Traditional scientific approaches provide important information on climate change and environmental
degradation; however, they typically fail to address the underlying cultural, ethical, and philosophical
dimensions of such crises. These are deeply interwoven with economic and political agendas, and thus
need multifaceted solutions. Environmental humanities connects diverse fields, enabling dynamic and
interdisciplinary dialogue, which is essential in enhancing scientific efforts and promoting
comprehensive solutions to intricate global challenges. Through the examination of cultural narratives,
historical patterns, linguistic frameworks, and ethical discourses, environmental humanities enables us
to reevaluate our connection with nature. By exploring the potential for composing a common world
that unites both human and non-human entities, environmental humanities encourages a holistic
understanding of our place within the ecosystem.

We welcome papers on literature, language, and culture that address questions broadly related to
environmental humanities*. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

 environmental harm/environmental justice/catastrophes and pandemics,
 ecological issues and enduring legacies of racism, enslavement, and colonialism,
 encounters between environmentalism and feminism,
 interrelationship between race, gender, poverty, and ecological concerns,
 climate migrations/climate trauma,
 natural landscape, landscape modification, ruins, spaces of abandonment,
 postnatural fiction, novels of the Anthropocene, Cli-Fi, extinction narratives, etc.,
 representation of objects/matter/non-human others in discourse,
 Indigenous knowledges and practices,
 ecodiscourses, practices of making and communicating ecological knowledge,
 media systems and artifacts embedded in ecological relationship,
 ecological analysis of language, ecostylistics,
 eco-translatology,
 ecological approach to teaching and learning, ecopedagogy, ecoliteracy,
 language ecology: language diversity, minority languages.

*We also welcome proposals for presentations and panels on a variety of topics, including those not directly related to the main theme of the conference, as long as they align with the broader goals of the event.

A 300-word abstract and 5 keywords should be submitted as an email attachment to voicespase2025@gmail.com by March 1, 2025. In your email, please include your name, affiliation, email address, phone number, title of the paper, abstract, 5 keywords and a brief bio note. For more information, please visit www.pase2025.uwb.edu.pl.