Concept Note

The rapidly escalating planetary crisis has precipitated a profound epistemic rupture, compelling the humanities to reconfigure their disciplinary coordinates in dialogue with the ecological. The evolving domain of ecological humanities has taken on the task of interrogating not only the material devastation wrought by extractive capitalism, militarised modernities, and petrochemical globalisation, but also the conceptual frameworks—ontological, epistemological, and ethical—that have historically sustained such devastation.

In South East Asia, the ecological question is inextricable from layered colonial histories, postcolonial nation-building, and neoliberal developmentalism, all of which intersect with the region’s heterogeneous linguistic, cultural, and religious matrices. Here, environmental degradation is not merely a bio-physical phenomenon; it is deeply entangled with epistemic violence, social stratification, and contested sovereignties. The region’s ecologies—whether forested highlands, deltaic plains, or archipelagic waters—are archives of lived cosmologies, indigenous environmental knowledges, and histories of displacement, all of which demand a critical re-reading through the lens of ecological humanities.

This volume seeks to interrogate how ecological thought, when refracted through South East Asian specificities, might unsettle or complement Euro-American theoretical frameworks while also opening transnational conversations. We invite contributions that mobilise frameworks such as planetarity (in Gayatri Spivak’s sense of resisting the homogenising logic of globalisation), posthumanism (extending the critique beyond the anthropocentric preoccupation and into the more-than-human or other than human), eco-deconstruction (in Derridean modes of thinking the ecological ethics and survivance), and eco-phenomenology (attending to embodied, place-based ecological encounters). Further, the volume foregrounds the necessity of engaging with the subaltern ecologies of caste-oppressed and indigenous communities—what might be framed as Dalit ecology or Adivasi eco-politics—in which environmental exploitation is inseparable from structural social violence.

The scope extends to blue humanities, reading oceanic and fluvial spaces not as inert backdrops but as agents in human–nonhuman assemblages; to speculative imaginaries in climate fiction (cli-fi) that envision post-Anthropocene futures; to eco-Marxist cinema that renders visible the dialectics of capital, class, and ecological collapse; to animal studies and posthuman ethics that question the anthropocentric moral order; to ethical questions raised by deep ecology, new materialism and dark ecology. We also seek engagements with grassroots ecological movements, insurgent environmental imaginaries, and decolonial environmental justice frameworks that resist both environmental determinism and developmentalist triumphalism.

By assembling original, theoretically rigorous, and contextually grounded chapters, this volume aims to contribute to an emerging archive of South East Asian ecological humanities that does not merely provincialise either Eurocentric theory or decolonial politics, but actively generates new conceptual tools, methodologies, and aesthetic practices for thinking the ecological in a time of crisis.

Themes and Sub-Themes

Philosophical and Theoretical Frameworks

• Planetarity and ecological thought
• Eco-deconstruction and the critique of anthropocentrism
• Eco-phenomenology and lived ecological experience
• Indigenous and decolonial ecological epistemologies

Socio-political and Cultural Dimensions

• Dalit ecology and caste-based environmental marginalisation
• Eco-Marxist perspectives and critiques of capitalist ecocide
• Environmental justice movements in South Asia
• Climate migration and displacement
• Culinary cultures and ecology

Artistic and Literary Engagements

• Cli-fi and speculative environmental futures
• Blue humanities: oceans, rivers, and water ecologies
• Literature and nature in South Asian contexts
• Oral, aural and visual narratives of eco-resistance

Ethics and Activism

• Animal rights and posthuman ethics
• Grassroots ecological movements and activism
• Ecofeminism in South East Asia
• Cross-border environmental solidarities
• Eco-spiritualism and ecopoetics

In addition to the already submitted topics we are particularly looking for submissions that can concentrate on the following topics:

Eco-Deconstruction

Eco-Phenomenology

Ecology and South-Asian Politics

Legal Ecology

Digital Humanities and Ecology

Medical Humanities and Ecology

Disability and Ecology

Urban Ecology

Painting, Visual Arts, Photography and Ecology

Submission Guidelines

Abstract: 300 words (with 4–5 keywords)

Bio Note: Brief author biography (100–150 words)

Chapter Length: 5,000–7,000 words (final chapters will be due after acceptance of abstracts; further details will be provided upon acceptance)

All submissions must be original and unpublished, and should reflect critical engagement with the given themes. Each chapter shall undergo a rigorous review process. Failure to submit chapters by the deadline shall result in automatic rejection.

Editors:

Dr. Nisarga Bhattacharjee,

Assistant Professor,

Department of English,

Techno India University, West Bengal

Dr. Ananya Chatterjee
Assistant Professor,

Department of English

Balurghat College, West Bengal

To be published by a reputed publishing house.