International Conference: Sighting Anthropocene: Culture, Politics & Literature

Sister Nivedita University's Department of English, in collaboration with Peter Lang, is hosting an international conference titled "Sighting Anthropocene: Culture, Politics & Literature" on November 7 and 8, 2025. The conference will be held at SNU.

Concept Note

The term "Anthropocene" describes our current geological era, a recognition of the significant and unprecedented changes human beings have made to the Earth's ecosystem since the Industrial Revolution. Global issues like rising greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, resource depletion, and widespread pollution are affecting human and non-human life.

The concept of the Anthropocene offers an opportunity for artists, critics, and scholars to reexamine and visualize contemporary concerns about humanity's place in the world. This has led to a revaluation of human-nature relationships and narrative structures in both artistic and scholarly fields. Scholars such as Dipesh Chakrabarty, Donna Haraway, Timothy Morton, and Sara Ahmed have engaged with the Anthropocene, expanding the scope of literary and cultural studies to address planetary ecological crises.

In literature, the Anthropocene has given rise to new genres like cli-fi (climate fiction), Hydrofiction, and Ecological Humanism. Works in these fields, such as Kim Stanley Robinson's novel

New York 2140, blend scientific projections with speculative narratives to address the consequences of climate change. Posthumanist perspectives, which challenge human exceptionalism, have also gained prominence in this discourse. Donna Haraway’s concept of "staying with the trouble" advocates for multi-species narratives, as seen in works like Barbara Kingsolver's

Flight Behavior, which connects human stories with the plight of monarch butterflies affected by climate change. Authors like Jeff Vander Meer and Margaret Atwood have also explored these themes, blurring the boundaries between human and non-human worlds.

Call for Papers & Submission Details

The conference invites scholars to present 10-minute papers related to different aspects of the Anthropocene, including literature, cultural studies, media, and theory.

Sub-themes include:

• Anthropocene and Climate Fiction

• Animal Studies and the Anthropocene

• Anthropocene and Gender

• Anthropocene and Artificial Intelligence

• Anthropocene in Popular Culture

• Anthropocene and Migration

Submission Guidelines:

• Abstracts should be no more than 250 words.

• A short bio-note of 50 words is required.

• Submissions can be for either online or in-person presentations.

• The abstract submission deadline is October 10, 2025.

• Submissions must be made through the provided link:

  https://forms.gle/nLLbaHuFMzBeV2Vw8.

Registration Fees:

• Faculties/Post Doctoral Fellows: 1500 INR

• Research Scholars/Independent Research Scholars: 1200 INR

• UG and PG Students: 1000 INR

Selected papers from the conference will be published as an Edited Book by Peter Lang and in a Scopus-indexed Journal.

Conference Leadership

• Conference Director: Dr. Monikinkini Basu, Head, Department of English, Sister Nivedita University

• Convenors: Dr. Priyanka Chakraborty and Dr. Archita Banerjee, Assistant Professors, Department of English, Sister Nivedita University