The inconclusive debates, the conflict of opinion, that this seminar aims to initiate and proliferate are about how body, culture, and plurality – three expansive and yet profound concepts – constellate, collapse and collide in varying registers that are both founded and unpredictable. The frames of our studies across disciplines are left in motion; the figures of understanding about how culture and the body and the bodies of culture in relation to plurality struggle to stay entrenched, occupy and distract us. Bodies are deeply diffracted as much as cultures of understanding and situatedness are hit by transformative forces emerging from technology, digitalisation of the everyday, sexual differentiation, and variantology of art, literature and philosophy. The investments in “plurality” matter: how we conceive plurality today, how plural can plurality be, how plural is the singular in culture, bodies, time, machine, and emotions.  The seminar looks into a variety of questions and subjects pertaining to our contemporary discourses in technology, deep time, artificial intelligence, neo Marxism, materialist becoming, somaesthetics and neurology, and body sciences as connected with cultural ecology and environment. The connective knots and threads of discussions can be more; the seminar urges its participants to inspire greater rounds of debate on areas of their choice and reckoning.  

Proposals for a 15-minute presentation are invited from teachers, research scholars, and students on any of the sub-themes mentioned below:

• Body and the Anthropocene
• Culture, Body and Ecology
• The Non-human, the Post-human
• Culture, Memory, Trauma
• Queer Studies
• Cultural Pluralism and Secularism
• Body/Bodies in Cultural Capitalism
• Climate Culture and the Idea of Nature
• Anthropology of the Body and Technology
• Media Studies and Plurality
• Psychoanalysis and Body Theory
• Neurosciences and Cultures of Existence

However, related issues not covered under the sub-themes will also be considered.  

Keynote Speakers:

Prof. Richard Shusterman, Florida Atlantic University

Prof. Ankhi Mukherjee, Oxford University

Timeline of the Seminar:

Last date for submission of Abstracts: 20th December, 2025

Notification of the acceptance of the abstract: 31st December, 2025

Seminar Dates: 17th and 18th January, 2026

Submission Guidelines:

Send the abstract of your proposed paper in Times New Roman and 12 Font.

Word Limit: 250 words.

Add two to three keywords and a short bio-note of 50 words.

Please follow the MLA 9th edition for formatting and citation.

Abstracts should be submitted via e-mail to: bodycultureplurality@gmail.com

Please write ‘Culture Seminar’ as the subject of your email.

Selected papers reviewed and approved by an editorial board will be part of a possible post-seminar book. 

Registration Fee:

• Students: INR 600
• Research Scholars: INR 800
• Independent Researchers: INR 800
• Faculty Members: INR 1800
• Online Paper Presenters: INR 1000
• International Presenters: $30 / €25  

Coordinator: Kaushani Mondal, University of North Bengal