Books by Monika Rogowska-Stangret
Jak myśleć o życiu i śmierci, o utracie i nadziei w postapokaliptycznym i posttraumatycznym świec... more Jak myśleć o życiu i śmierci, o utracie i nadziei w postapokaliptycznym i posttraumatycznym świecie? Jak nie tracąc z oczu globalnych i planetarnych wyzwań „naszego dzisiaj”, móc myśleć także o materialnych, konkretnych, usytuowanych, wręcz intymnych szczegółach i związkach, w które wchodzi życie w swoich jednostkowych przejawach i formach? Jak tworzyć odpowiedzialne relacje ze światem, jak o nim opowiadać i myśleć? Jak myśleć o człowieku inaczej niż przez pryzmat autonomiczności, samowystarczalności, atomizacji czy jednostkowości? Jak pomyśleć człowieka jako „bycie ze świata”, uchwycić ruch antropo-de-centralizacji, immanentnej relacyjności, sieci współzależności? Na te pytania autorka próbuje odpowiadać współ-myśląc z tekstami współczesnych myślicielek posthumanizmu przede wszystkim Karen Barad, Rosi Braidotti, Vinciane Despret, Natalie Jeremijenko, Erin Manning i Michaela Mardera.
Narracje naukowe, filozoficzne czy interwencje artystyczne opowiadają nam o świecie i mogą to czynić na różne sposoby. Eseje z tego zbioru są próbą wypracowania teorii, konceptualizacji, wizji, utopii czy opowieści o świecie, które rozpoznając specyfikę „naszego dzisiaj”, eksperymentują z myśleniem o „naszym jutrze” (czasem podważając sam linearny obraz czasu) i zmierzają ku praktykom zmiany codziennego etosu.
New materialisms are a theoretical movement emerging from conversations between feminist theories... more New materialisms are a theoretical movement emerging from conversations between feminist theories and science. Its ambition is to, again and seriously, engage with the question of matter. New materialists ask about the ontological scaffolding of the reality, also in its social, political and linguistic dimensions. They oppose both anthropocentrism and androcentrism, taking as a starting point a radical entanglement of human and non-human, technological and natural, organic and synthetic agents; matter and language. In this publication, we are particularly interested in how new materialisms "work" in the context of feminist theory in Poland; which trajectories lead us to them and how can new materialist theories be situated within the context of Polish academia – what relations do they form, what do they discuss or change? What new cartographies do they help to draw? But also: what do they exclude? What are their blind spots? We ask these questions from a position of researchers engaged in thinking with new materialisms – from the position of proximity rather than distance – but this means putting on the agenda also the question of how to work with Western feminist theories and what does it mean for differently situated subjects.
The book is in Polish and it’s composed of three parts: original articles that explore new materialisms from various perspectives situated in the context of the Polish academe; translations; and “polyphonic voices” that bring together reflections from eight scholars commenting on potentialities, genealogies, and politics of new materialisms. This last part is bilingual, Polish and English.
Ciało jako inny, obcy, wykluczony, ciało jako przestrzeń napięcia między toż-samością a innością,... more Ciało jako inny, obcy, wykluczony, ciało jako przestrzeń napięcia między toż-samością a innością, ciało poza innością i tożsamością. Ciało-tekst – otwarte. Ciało o zmiennej intensywności, bez ustanku pulsujące między tym, co obce a tym, co toż-same. Ciało ustanawiające granice, by w kolejnym kroku je znieść, mówiące: „ja”, by zaraz temu zaprzeczyć, tworzące wnętrze i rozpływające się w zewnętrzności pofałdowanej powierzchni. Ciało radykalnie zróżnicowane, to zwierzęce, to ludzkie, to przestrzenne, to wirtualne, to duchowe, to materialne, to kobiece, to męskie, to dojrzałe, to dziecięce, migocące różnicami, stające-się-innym, a w efekcie niedostrzegalne, zlewające się ze światem w działaniu. Ciało tętniące życiem, ciało różnicujące świat i jednocześnie go zmieniające. Ciało będące podstawą myślenia o tożsamości, inności, podmiotowości, wspólnocie, etyce czy polityce i otwierające te kategorie na to, co nadchodzi.
Networks by Monika Rogowska-Stangret
Grants by Monika Rogowska-Stangret
The course is dedicated to investigate feminist “new materialism” and its political aspects. New ... more The course is dedicated to investigate feminist “new materialism” and its political aspects. New materialism is an inspiring trend in contemporary philosophy and feminist theory aimed at reconsidering the notion of matter in a dialogue between humanities and natural science. From this theoretical perspective matter is perceived as active and agential, and humans are always recognized as products and participants of their material, discoursive, and historical position. New materialism has far-reaching theoretical implications but its practical and political strength is less obvious. Thus during the course we would like to dwell on the political strength of the trend in question presenting its potential and usefulness to analyse local political strategies.
Papers by Monika Rogowska-Stangret
Wprowadzenie do przekładu książki Anny L. Tsing "Grzyb u kresu świata
O możliwości życia na ruina... more Wprowadzenie do przekładu książki Anny L. Tsing "Grzyb u kresu świata
O możliwości życia na ruinach kapitalizmu" // Introduction to the translation of the book by Anna L. Tsing "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins".
![Research paper thumbnail of Myślenie (z) gąszczem. O relacyjnych narracjach w czasach antropocenu na przykładzie epigenetyki. Perspektywa feministycznego nowego materializmu [Thinking (with) the Thicket. On Relational Thinking in Times of the Anthropocene on the Example of Epigenetics. Feminist New Materialist Perspective]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/109370241/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Postscriptum Polonistyczne, 2023
[PL] W artykule podejmuję namysł nad tym, jaka refleksja humanistyczna jest „nam” potrzebna w cza... more [PL] W artykule podejmuję namysł nad tym, jaka refleksja humanistyczna jest „nam” potrzebna w czasach antropocenu, w epoce, w której destabilizacji ulegają warunki życia (na) Ziemi oraz dotychczasowe kategorie myślenia. Skupiam się zwłaszcza na myśleniu relacyjnym obecnym w takich współczesnych nurtach filozoficznych jak krytyczny posthumanizm i feministyczne nowe materializmy. Myślenie relacyjne, nazywane przeze mnie także myśleniem (z) gąszczem, ilustruję, odwołując się do przykładu epigenetyki. W ogólnym zarysie charakteryzuję myślenie (z) gąszczem, pokrótce wyjaśniam pojęcie i stawki epigenetyki, by wreszcie przejść do omówienia trzech obszarów (wyzwań, które przed humanistyką stawia antropocen), w których epigenetyka spotyka się z relacyjnym sposobem myślenia. Będą to: myślenie (z) „krnąbrnymi krawędziami” (zrywające z dualizmem i „nowoczesną konstytucją”), myślenie (ze) skalami oraz myślenie o człowieku poza opozycją truciciel–zbawiciel.
[ENG] In her article, Monika Rogowska-Stangret reflects on the kind of humanities that might be adequate for the epoch of the Anthropocene, when both the conditions of living on the planet Earth and traditional modes of thinking have been de-stabilized. Drawing inspiration mainly from two trends in contemporary philosophy, critical posthumanism and feminist new materialisms, the author suggests relational thinking as a response to the Anthropocene. She characterizes relational thinking (sometimes referred to as thinking (with) the thicket) with reference to one example, epigenetics. She defines thinking (with) the thicket and explains the notion of epigenetics and its concerns. Finally, she addresses three challenges that humanities are faced with in the Anthropocene, thinking with “unruly edges” (thinking outside dualism and “modern constitution”), thinking (with) scales, and, finally, thinking the human being outside the poisoner-savior logic.
AUPC. Studia Poetica, 2023
[PL] Antropocen przekroczył dyscyplinarne granice nauk przyrodniczych, rozbudzając debaty w ramac... more [PL] Antropocen przekroczył dyscyplinarne granice nauk przyrodniczych, rozbudzając debaty w ramach szeroko pojętej humanistyki, zmuszając „nas” do myślenia inaczej niż dotąd. Jednym z wyzwań antropocenu jest kwestia skali. Wraz z antropocenem oczywistość skalowych podziałów ulega zachwianiu. Podział na skale lokalne‑globalne/planetarne i makro‑mikro to kategorie myślenia, które nie odpowiadają rzeczywistości. Międzyskalowe myślenie i język to propozycje mówienia wraz‑z antropocenem, by uchwycić jego planetarną i globalną naturę, nie tracąc z oczu usytuowanych, ucieleśnionych ludzko‑nie‑ludzkich form życia.
[ENG] Stemming from the natural sciences, the concept of the Anthropocene opened a variety of discussions in the humanities, provoking “us” to think o t h e r w i s e. One of the challenges of the Anthropocene is the question of scale. Some question the obviousness of scale as the categories such as micro and macro, local and global/planetary no longer correspond with reality. The geologic time and time of a zoe coincide in many unobvious and unfelt ways. Cross-scale thinking and language is a way to think with the Anthropocene to grasp its planetary and global nature as well as the diverse situated and embodied human-non-human life forms.
CIVITAS. Studia z filozofii polityki, 2022
Introduction to the journal's special issue on the "Utopias of the Anthropocene."
Civitas. Studia z Filozofii Polityki, 2022
Rozdział drugi książki Anny Tsing, "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of L... more Rozdział drugi książki Anny Tsing, "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins", Princeton University Press, Princeton 2015.
Tłumaczenie ukazuje się jako zapowiedź przekładu książki na język polski planowanego przez Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu. Z języka angielskiego przełożyły Aleksandra Brylska oraz Monika Rogowska-Stangret.
Social Sciences, 2019
The idea to create a Special Issue journal around the topic of feminist new materialisms emerged ... more The idea to create a Special Issue journal around the topic of feminist new materialisms emerged out of the editors’ collaboration in the frames of European project New Materialism: NetworkingEuropean Scholarship on ‘How Matter Comes to Matter’[...]
Hybris, 2022
Nonanthropocentric approaches are one of the predominant features of contemporary feminist philos... more Nonanthropocentric approaches are one of the predominant features of contemporary feminist philosophy, especially in critical posthumanities (e.g. Rosi Braidotti) and feminist new materialisms (e.g. Diana Coole). The author aims at outlining the axiological grounds of the turn to nonanthropocentrism. It is done in two steps. First, the author points to recent debates around the impossibility to separate values from facts in the mentioned contemporary trends (illustrated with reference to Bruno Latour, DonnaHaraway and Karen Barad). Second, the author presents
how the subject of knowledge changes together with the need to uncover the entanglement of values and facts (using the example of Haraway). The author presents responsibility (as response-ability), interdependence and care as an axiological foundation of nonanthropocentrism. The posthumanistic and nonanthropocentric critique of humanism is here presented as motivated by ethics above all other aspects.
Feminist Theory 21(4), 2020
In this paper I wish to engage in reflecting on the limits of affirmative and vitalist potentials... more In this paper I wish to engage in reflecting on the limits of affirmative and vitalist potentials visible in new materialist research. An enthusiastic note is clearly heard from within the new materialist perspective, for example, in the important work of Rosi Braidotti. I offer an interpretation of her ‘The Ethics of Becoming Imperceptible’ (2006) in hopes of reflecting on the limits of the affirmative approach. This interpretation is fuelled by more hesitant notes also heard within new materialist research, tones expressing doubts, tracing the limits of materialist, vitalist, affirmative takes, and offering perspectives that turn to ‘a matter that fails to come to life’, ‘unproductive and devoid of relations’ (Colebrook, 2008: 59). This turn – according to my reading – is an effort to respond to the need to recognize ‘our today’ (Bunz, Kaiser, and Thiele, 2017: 15) in its complexity. To fully grasp the landscapes of ‘our today’, I offer a concept of bare death (in dialogue with bare life as coined by Giorgio Agamben and as used by Braidotti) as a concept that relates to instances where something has died but cannot enter into the ‘generative powers of a Life’ (Braidotti, 2006: 158). It is depicted with references to the nuclear and plastic landscapes of the Anthropocene. Relating to those landscapes, I make use of an art installation by Pinar Yoldas, The Ecosystem of Excess (2014) as a kind of companion for thinking about becoming and the transformation of life and death in order to respond to the ambivalent landscapes of ‘our today’ and to understand how death matters beyond the human self.
Zoepolis. Budując wspólnotę ludzko-nie-ludzką, red. M. Gurowska, M. Rosińska, A. Szydłowska, Fundacja Bęc Zmiana, 2020
Posthuman and Political Care Ethics for Reconfiguring Higher Education Pedagogies, red. V. Bozalek, M. Zembylas, J. C. Tronto, Routledge, 2020
This chapter addresses critical posthumanities as faced with a challenge to contextualise the now... more This chapter addresses critical posthumanities as faced with a challenge to contextualise the now and recognise “the complexities of the posthuman predicament” (Braidotti & Hlavajova, 2018, p. 1), in order to be able to adequately respond to those living conditions of contemporary times within higher education pedagogies. It is done firstly, by indicating two tendencies that both contextualise “our today” (Bunz, Kaiser, & Thiele, 2017, p. 15) as a land of otherwise. Secondly, by offering a response to thus defined “our today”: care as a methodology. The latter conceptualisation is thought-of as a way of “[cooking] values and facts together as part of one brew” (Juelskjær & Schwennesen, 2012, p. 16) in an effort to bring together knowledge production and care in higher education. It is introduced through a diffractive reading of Natalie Jeremijenko’s experimental artwork and scholarly work by Vinciane Despret.
Prace Kulturoznawcze
A girl and a dog. On bodily encounters with the animalIn the article the category of the bodily e... more A girl and a dog. On bodily encounters with the animalIn the article the category of the bodily encounter with the animal is presented. This concept is inspired by the Irigarayan notion of “bodily encounter with the mother” and it is developed using an example of the relation between a girl and a dog — two beings so far often excluded from the philosophical inquiries. The author constructs the category of bodily encounter with the animal referring to ideas coined by Luce Irigaray, Rosi Braidotti and Jolanta Brach-Czaina and places the very concept in a broader philosophical context. With reference to the category of bodily encounter with the animal, the author reflects on what is exceptional in the encounter between a girl and a dog, and investigates into the subversive potential of such an encounter and challenges it may pose to the given power relations.
Ecozon@. European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, 2020
As Serpil Oppermann has stated, "the Anthropocene has come to signify a discourse embedded in the... more As Serpil Oppermann has stated, "the Anthropocene has come to signify a discourse embedded in the global scale vision of the sedimentary traces of the anthropos" ("The Scale of the Anthropocene" 2). In the following article we wish to revisit the practice of leaving traces through thinking with wastes as traces human beings leave behind and lands of waste that co-compose today's naturecultures (Haraway, Companion Species). Situating our research in the context of Polish ecocriticism, we would like to think-with an art project by Diana Lelonek entitled Center for the Living Things, in which the artist gathers and exhibits waste that "have become the natural environment for many living organisms" (Lelonek). Following the ambivalent and chaotic traces of wastes, we offer a concept of stig(e)merging to rethink the "unruly edges" (Tsing 141-54) of capitalist wastelands. We fathom stig(e)merging as a feminist methodology that relies on reacting to changes and alterations in the milieu, as well as the actions and needs of others, and on participating in the common work of reshaping the un/wasted world together with them.
Philosophy Today 63(4), 2019
This essay considers the phenomenon of almanacs, encyclopedias, glossaries, lexicons, word books,... more This essay considers the phenomenon of almanacs, encyclopedias, glossaries, lexicons, word books, vocabularies, companions, and (theoretical) toolboxes, which appears to be an outstanding feature of humanities today. By limiting her discussion to six specific examples of this genre, the author asks the following questions: Why is it that this method became so prolific? What are the objectives of almanacs, glossaries, and vocabularies? What do they do to thinking, writing, researching? What can they say about the moment we are in? And how do they contribute to defining this moment? Those questions orient discussions around humanities today toward the ethico-political practice of thinking otherwise.
Matter: Journal of New Materialist Research, 2020
The inaugural section of "Praxiography: practices and institutions" of Matter: Journal of New Mat... more The inaugural section of "Praxiography: practices and institutions" of Matter: Journal of New Materialist Research features a roundtable discussion between five scholars who address matters pertaining to practices, legacies, and affects that comprise today's academia. Preceded by editors' introduction, Gurminder K. Bhambra, Andrea Pető, Jessie Loyer, Mariya Ivancheva, and Nanna Hlín Halldórsdóttir offer their reflections on ways of organising, living, and imagining various research and academic praxes by means of thinking with the concepts of resistance, collaboration, solidarity, care, and kinship and consider them from feminist, de-colonial, Indigenous, and other anti-oppressive perspectives.
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Books by Monika Rogowska-Stangret
Narracje naukowe, filozoficzne czy interwencje artystyczne opowiadają nam o świecie i mogą to czynić na różne sposoby. Eseje z tego zbioru są próbą wypracowania teorii, konceptualizacji, wizji, utopii czy opowieści o świecie, które rozpoznając specyfikę „naszego dzisiaj”, eksperymentują z myśleniem o „naszym jutrze” (czasem podważając sam linearny obraz czasu) i zmierzają ku praktykom zmiany codziennego etosu.
The book is in Polish and it’s composed of three parts: original articles that explore new materialisms from various perspectives situated in the context of the Polish academe; translations; and “polyphonic voices” that bring together reflections from eight scholars commenting on potentialities, genealogies, and politics of new materialisms. This last part is bilingual, Polish and English.
Networks by Monika Rogowska-Stangret
Grants by Monika Rogowska-Stangret
Papers by Monika Rogowska-Stangret
O możliwości życia na ruinach kapitalizmu" // Introduction to the translation of the book by Anna L. Tsing "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins".
[ENG] In her article, Monika Rogowska-Stangret reflects on the kind of humanities that might be adequate for the epoch of the Anthropocene, when both the conditions of living on the planet Earth and traditional modes of thinking have been de-stabilized. Drawing inspiration mainly from two trends in contemporary philosophy, critical posthumanism and feminist new materialisms, the author suggests relational thinking as a response to the Anthropocene. She characterizes relational thinking (sometimes referred to as thinking (with) the thicket) with reference to one example, epigenetics. She defines thinking (with) the thicket and explains the notion of epigenetics and its concerns. Finally, she addresses three challenges that humanities are faced with in the Anthropocene, thinking with “unruly edges” (thinking outside dualism and “modern constitution”), thinking (with) scales, and, finally, thinking the human being outside the poisoner-savior logic.
[ENG] Stemming from the natural sciences, the concept of the Anthropocene opened a variety of discussions in the humanities, provoking “us” to think o t h e r w i s e. One of the challenges of the Anthropocene is the question of scale. Some question the obviousness of scale as the categories such as micro and macro, local and global/planetary no longer correspond with reality. The geologic time and time of a zoe coincide in many unobvious and unfelt ways. Cross-scale thinking and language is a way to think with the Anthropocene to grasp its planetary and global nature as well as the diverse situated and embodied human-non-human life forms.
Tłumaczenie ukazuje się jako zapowiedź przekładu książki na język polski planowanego przez Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu. Z języka angielskiego przełożyły Aleksandra Brylska oraz Monika Rogowska-Stangret.
how the subject of knowledge changes together with the need to uncover the entanglement of values and facts (using the example of Haraway). The author presents responsibility (as response-ability), interdependence and care as an axiological foundation of nonanthropocentrism. The posthumanistic and nonanthropocentric critique of humanism is here presented as motivated by ethics above all other aspects.
Narracje naukowe, filozoficzne czy interwencje artystyczne opowiadają nam o świecie i mogą to czynić na różne sposoby. Eseje z tego zbioru są próbą wypracowania teorii, konceptualizacji, wizji, utopii czy opowieści o świecie, które rozpoznając specyfikę „naszego dzisiaj”, eksperymentują z myśleniem o „naszym jutrze” (czasem podważając sam linearny obraz czasu) i zmierzają ku praktykom zmiany codziennego etosu.
The book is in Polish and it’s composed of three parts: original articles that explore new materialisms from various perspectives situated in the context of the Polish academe; translations; and “polyphonic voices” that bring together reflections from eight scholars commenting on potentialities, genealogies, and politics of new materialisms. This last part is bilingual, Polish and English.
O możliwości życia na ruinach kapitalizmu" // Introduction to the translation of the book by Anna L. Tsing "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins".
[ENG] In her article, Monika Rogowska-Stangret reflects on the kind of humanities that might be adequate for the epoch of the Anthropocene, when both the conditions of living on the planet Earth and traditional modes of thinking have been de-stabilized. Drawing inspiration mainly from two trends in contemporary philosophy, critical posthumanism and feminist new materialisms, the author suggests relational thinking as a response to the Anthropocene. She characterizes relational thinking (sometimes referred to as thinking (with) the thicket) with reference to one example, epigenetics. She defines thinking (with) the thicket and explains the notion of epigenetics and its concerns. Finally, she addresses three challenges that humanities are faced with in the Anthropocene, thinking with “unruly edges” (thinking outside dualism and “modern constitution”), thinking (with) scales, and, finally, thinking the human being outside the poisoner-savior logic.
[ENG] Stemming from the natural sciences, the concept of the Anthropocene opened a variety of discussions in the humanities, provoking “us” to think o t h e r w i s e. One of the challenges of the Anthropocene is the question of scale. Some question the obviousness of scale as the categories such as micro and macro, local and global/planetary no longer correspond with reality. The geologic time and time of a zoe coincide in many unobvious and unfelt ways. Cross-scale thinking and language is a way to think with the Anthropocene to grasp its planetary and global nature as well as the diverse situated and embodied human-non-human life forms.
Tłumaczenie ukazuje się jako zapowiedź przekładu książki na język polski planowanego przez Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu. Z języka angielskiego przełożyły Aleksandra Brylska oraz Monika Rogowska-Stangret.
how the subject of knowledge changes together with the need to uncover the entanglement of values and facts (using the example of Haraway). The author presents responsibility (as response-ability), interdependence and care as an axiological foundation of nonanthropocentrism. The posthumanistic and nonanthropocentric critique of humanism is here presented as motivated by ethics above all other aspects.
The idea to create a Special Issue journal around the topic of feminist new materialisms emerged out of the editors' collaboration in the frames of European project New Materialism: Networking European Scholarship on 'How Matter Comes to Matter' (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), and more specifically it was born at the 9th Annual Conference on the New Materialisms, held at Utrecht University in June 2018. The editors were then able to trace the discussions within new materialism, but also on the margins of it, and in dialogues with researchers with different academic backgrounds or coming from other theoretical standpoints. Those dialogues all have different affective modalities, raised various theoretical (counter) arguments, and imagined heterogeneous practices. As editors of this issue of "Social Sciences," we recognized the need to rethink feminist new materialisms, yet again accentuating and activating its ethico-political dimensions and stakes. We are undertaking this endeavour together with scholars, who have been composing the cartography of feminist new materialist research for some time now (among them: Alaimo and Hekman 2008; Coole and Frost 2010; Dolphijn and van der Tuin 2012; Van der Tuin 2015; Cielemęcka and Rogowska-Stangret 2018), and we aim at grasping specifically its ethico-political practices.
cały numer: https://etyka.uw.edu.pl/
and her alternative postcritical position. Mortensen focuses on the question of mood and does this from the
viewpoint of affirmative affective thinking, paying attention especially to the notion of mood within Deleuzian
affect theory.
The next two articles give historical interpretations on the formation of feminist epistemologies. With a
personal and autobiographical account, Nina Lykke’s article concentrates on dis/identification, ‘cruel optimism’
and everyday utopianism as instances of feminist epistemic habits, but also as structuring themes for feminist
thought. Elina Vuola also on her part engages in a re-reading of academic feminism, but from a very different
point of view compared to Lykke: Vuola discusses the epistemic habit of exclusion within academic feminism
focusing on religious feminisms. In Vuola’s text the critique becomes ‘cure’, ‘correcting’ or reconstructing versions
of a particular theoretical development.
Three articles deal with feminist epistemic habits of de/constructing dualisms. In order to problematise the
binary between poststructuralist and new materialist feminist work, Sari Irni examines as her case study the history
of steroid hormones, rethinking the relations between natural sciences and politics. She pays special attention to
Helga Satzinger’s (2012) ‘politics of gender concepts’ and suggests that in particular in relation to steroids a feminist
critique is required which does not reproduce, but bridge the binary mentioned. Monika Rogowska-Stangret
and Malou Juelskjær investigate temporalities and possibilities of thinking through new materialist theorising and
concepts in order to examine conditions of the im/possibility of living live-able (learn-able, teach-able, and
response-able) academic lives in current political climates. Addressing the temporal ontologies that drive and haunt
university life, they deal with the notion of ‘slowing down’ as a response to the ‘fast neoliberal university’. They
make visible epistemic habits from the context of our everyday lives and practices and show the challenge in
engaging in critique, proposing an ethics of a pace of our own.
The third text in the cluster of articles all engaging with the question of dualisms, is written by Liu Xin and
deals with another set of binaries, namely both specificity and universality, and unity and plurality discussing
especially the question of origin. Based on the (Irigarayan) idea of the impossibility of counting zero, Liu Xin
suggests a form of feminist critique similar to what Trinh T. Minh-ha (2016) has named ‘lovecidal’.
The last group of articles close in quite different ways around the question of feminist politics and knowledge
production. Katariina Kyrölä investigates the knowledge of Black feminist thought in the music videos of Nicki
Minaj and Beyoncé through the notion of disidentification, Kyrölä takes feminist criticism as her object in asking
what kind of racialised, sexualised and gendered power relations and affects are articulated in the habit of asking:
‘whether the videos and artists are – or are not – feminist or empowering’?
In their article about Valerie Solanas’ controversial SCUM Manifesto, Salla Peltonen Mio Lindman and Sara
Nyman and read the politics of philosophy as the grammar of patriarchy, claiming that the SCUM Manifesto text
has critical, philosophical and political significance they also point to certain difficulties of judgement that
characterise feminist and queer critique. Like Kyrölä also the authors of this article highlight the importance of
asking ‘non-habitual’ questions, refusing to apply a ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’ in reading Solanas, but considering
the Manifesto as a highly relevant, queer philosophical text.
In addition to the articles the special issue contains two separate interviews with Robyn Wiegman and Heather
Love on current debates about critique and postcritique, addressing especially the question of epistemic habits.
Assessing the state and status of critique in feminist, gender and queer studies Wiegman and Love both historicise
and contextualise the ongoing debates. They address the impact of neoliberalism, and the changing academic
practices, linking it to personal investments. Furthermore, they also reflect on the psychoanalytical and affective
aspects of critique.
Considering habitual gestures and habits of feminist academic knowledge production, and the questions,
reflections, viewpoints and thoughts expressed and discussed in the published texts, that we think are particularly
important within current feminist analysis, we hope that this special issue contribute to the surely intensifying
debate about contemporary critique/postcritique.
First, human subjectivity is understood as an effect of multiple and differentiated, human and non-human factors. In its formulation we are inspired by thinkers who capture subjectivity as simultaneously formed by power, knowledge, biology, and technology (e.g. Michel Foucault, Jakob von Uexküll, Karen Barad).
Second, we are inspired by natural sciences and the possibility (demonstrated by thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Elizabeth Grosz, Karen Barad) to use its methods, terminology and arguments in humanist research.
By making reference to two suppositions mentioned above we would like to describe research activities in humanities as a form of collective projects evolving along the lines of stigmergy. Stigmergy is a biological mechanism that enables communication and self-organization of living organisms by the means of changes that occur in the surrounding environment. We use this concept as a model for a new kind of political, ethical and in this case – research – strategy.
We wish to pose the following questions: how the stigmergic research activities reformulate predominantly individual-oriented humanities? How it changes the notion of collaboration? In which direction should we rethink humanities to make it open towards this shift in values (from valuing individuals to appreciating collective works)?
This project is grounded on two basic assumptions. First, we understand human subjectivity as an effect of multiple and differentiated, human and non-human factors. We are further inspired by philosophers who capture subjectivity as formed by power, knowledge, biology, and technology. We make reference to the work of Michel Foucault and his idea of subjects as products of power relations, Jakob von Uexküll who pinpointed the dependency of an individual on its surrounding through the concept of the Umwelt, and Karen Barad and her notion of intra-actions as a concept that helps to think objects not as prior to relations, but as intrinsically entangled in various alliances.
Second, we see the problem of life itself and its recent re-conceptualizations in contemporary philosophy and feminist scholarship as pivotal questions in today’s politics.
The concept of life that we put forward is based on elaborations of the issue of life itself in terms of biopolitics (Foucault, Hardt, Negri), “mistake” and contingency (Canguilhem), discourse (Foucault, Butler), and evolution (Darwin, Grosz).
Making reference to two suppositions mentioned above we describe stigmergic politics through spacial and temporal aspects entering into a dialogue with “politics of location” and reflecting on the importance and influence of the concept of time for political strategies (rethinking and overcoming the past, directing towards the future).
In its political dimension stigmergy serves us as a key concept to think through the idea of cooperation and grassroots organization which is not limited to human beings, but rather allows wider alliances that would include humans and non-humans alike. This strategy relies on reacting to changes and alterations in the milieu, as well as the actions and needs of others, and on participating in the common work of reshaping the world together with them.
We wish to pose the following questions: what kind of political strategies will become available if we see the human being as an animal formed by its natural environment, one that is shaped by a plethora of phenomena, of which it is a part and with which it coexists? What forms of cooperation, co-creation, and comm(on)passion will become available if we see the sphere of politics in such a way that it does not refuse to acknowledge the humans’ proximity to the non-human, and that it discerns the models of animal forms of organization and collectivity in its institutions and strategies?
By offering the category of „bodily encounters with the animal” I am aiming at underlining the role of the body as a space that enables the mentioned meeting. That is why I will try to elaborate on the question concerning the notion of the body involved here: what is its nature, how come it creates the common ground for various living beings, for that, which is alive? There might be several answers to those questions: the difference that marks the body, the body’s flexibility and changeability or its vulnerability to feeling? To conceptualize the above-mentioned issues I would use theories by Luce Irigaray, Elizabeth Grosz, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. I want to analyse the category of bodily encounters with the animal with reference to specific examples of dog-human relation (here the descriptions by Donna Haraway or Marjorie Garber would be of great importance). Dog-human relation is a special one, it has a long, well-documented history, it highlights the flexibility of the boundaries of our worlds, it points at the possibility of transgressing them and establishing anew, of bending them and omitting them. This may serve as a vantage point for the perspective of broader changes, the ethico-political aspects of which I would like to introduce in my presentation.
W numerze poświęconym utopiom antropocenu pytamy o to, jak współczesna teoria może na antropocen odpowiedzieć, w szczególności o to, jakie „kontr-apokalipsy” (Żylińska 2018), utopie czy wizje możliwości życia proponuje.
Puncta. Journal of Critical Phenomenology, 1, 41–73.