Please note that there have been some last-minute changes to the conference programme, as Thomas Harmsworth has withdrawn his paper. The new schedule is:
9.00 – Registration (Room 4.2)
9.20 – Welcome and Introduction (Room 4.2)
9.30 – 11.00 Session 1:
Panel 1: Photography, Corpses and Dolls: Non/Human Imprints (Room 4.1)
Chaired by Sophia Wilson (King’s College London)
- Framing the Corpse beyond ‘Humanity’
Lauren Summersgill (Birkbeck College, University of London)
- Discussing Dolls: Horror and the Human Double
Sandra Mills (University of Hull)
- ‘An infinite Number of leaf-like skins’: Balzac and the Skin of Mimesis
Polly Dickson (University of Cambridge)
Panel 2: Forming Connections in a Non/Human Environment (Room 4.2)
Chaired by Briony Wickes (King’s College London)
- Charles Avery’s The Islanders: Nonhuman Witnessing and the ‘Blind Spot’ of Humanism
Irina Chkhaidze (University College London)
- Transformations and Transgressions in the Later Poetry of Thomas Hardy
Adrian Tait (independent scholar)
- A Window on Imagined Worlds: Anthropocentrism and Fantasy
Jon Garrad (independent scholar)
- The Dog as Child: Human/Animal Psychology and Inter-Species Attachment Bonds
Jennifer Adlem (Queen Mary, University of London)
11.00 – 11.30 – Tea/coffee break (Room 4.1)
11.30 – 12.30 Session 2:
Panel 3: Humans, Animals and Inter-species Connections (Room 4.1)
Withdrawn due to last-minute cancellation, the paper by Jennifer Adlem has been moved to panel 2.
Panel 4: The Scientific Body: Brains and Microbes (Room 4.2)
Chaired by Gabriella Infante (King’s College London)
- Out-Sexing Anthropocentrism: Humans, Microbes and the Entanglements of Symbiosis
Nancy Cooper (Goldsmiths, University of London)
- Staging Posthuman Embodiment: The Brain Artefact Interface in Science Fiction Theatre
Susan Gray (Royal Holloway, University of London)
12.30 – Lunch (Room 4.1)
13.30 – 15.00 Session 3:
Panel 5: Cyborgs, Machines, Mechanized Humans (Room 4.1)
Chaired by Gerard Briscoe (Queen Mary, University of London)
- Revisiting the Politics of Cyborg-Monsters: Ein Schrei im Magen des Ungeheuers
Mayu Iida (Goldsmiths, University of London)
- Exploring Humanity in a Mechanizing World: The Case of The Transformers and Japanese Robot Anime
Geert van Iersel (Fontys University of Applied Sciences)
- Us or Other? Cylons and Terminators as Representations on the Machine/Human Divide
Ágnes Kanizsai and Gergely Nagy (University of Szeged, Hungary)
Panel 6: Bodily Limits and Instability: Experiments, Catastrophes, Genocide (Room 4.2)
Chaired by Eleanor Massie (Queen Mary, University of London)
- We Have Never Been Posthuman, or The Recognition of Difference in Posthuman Politics
Maciej Czerniakowski (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)
- Dogs, Aurochs, Zombies: Corporeality and Hurricane Katrina
Christopher Lloyd (Goldsmiths, University of London)
- Primo Levi and Robert Antelme: Mapping the Limits of the Human Body
Stefano Bellin (University College London)
15.00 – 15.30 – Tea/coffee break (Room 4.1)
15.30 – 17.00 Session 4:
Panel 7: Threatening Bodies: Weapons, Factories and Technology (Room 4.1)
Chaired by Nicola Kirkby (King’s College London)
- ‘human warious […] That’s the general panoramic view’. Figuring the Limits of Creative Destruction in Dickens’s Fiction from the 1850s and ’60s
Joanna Robinson (King’s College London/Museum of London)
Fabienne Collignon (University of Sheffield)
- The Idol That I Will Have Been: Human and Divine Origins in the Transhuman Apocalyptic Visions of Thomas Horn, Douglas Hamp and Terry L. Cook
Jonathon O’Donnell (SOAS, University of London)
Panel 8: Transformations in Fairy Tales, Fantasy, and Anime (Room 4.2)
Chaired by Hetta Howes (Queen Mary, University of London)
- Transitioning Bodies and Changeling Children in Gregory Maguire’s Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Out of Oz
Karen Graham (University of Aberdeen)
- ‘An evil power was obstructing you’: The Transformation and Solidification of the Human in Japanese Girls’ Media
Anya Benson (University of York)
- Inhumanity and Enchantment in Fairy Tales
Erin Horáková (Glasgow University)
17.00 – Closing, all are welcome to join us for drinks!