This year, our annual conference takes up the “nonhuman turn” that has been emerging in the arts, humanities, and social sciences over the past few decades. Intensifying in the 21st century, this nonhuman turn can be traced to a variety of different intellectual and theoretical developments from the last decades of the 20th century, including actor-network theory, affect theory, animal studies, assemblage theory, the brain sciences, new media theory, new materialism, speculative realism, and systems theory.

Plenary speakers include Jane Bennett, Ian Bogost, Wendy Chun, Mark Hansen, Erin Manning, Brian Massumi, Tim Morton, and Steven Shaviro. Breakout sessions will be held on the following topics: Objects, Death, Ethics, Animals, Mediation, [...] Human, Arts, Performance, Rhetoric, and Queer/Feminism/Gaga. Plenary speakers will be video-streamed live: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/c21-uwm.

Erin Manning, Brian Massumi, C21 fellow Nathaniel Stern, and others will grace the conference with the art piece Weather Patterns; and UWM's Think Make Digital Group is investigating the internet conversations circling around the conference. The TMD Group is also hosting an Instagram Hashtag Challenge and a Twitter Hashtag Challenge using the #c21nonhuman hashtag. Conference participants and attendees with Twitter accounts are also encouraged to use #c21nonhuman!

For further information . . .

Thursday, May 3 through Saturday, May 5

The C21 blog offers updates, occasional pieces, and photos to showcase the diverse ways that C21 research and programs contribute to ongoing public conversations. The blog features writing by C21 fellows, UWM students, UWM faculty members, and others. It seeks to foster conversations about contemporary issues, C21 events, and the emerging field of 21st Century Studies. We also link to blogs, both on campus and off, that we think would be of interest to you.

The blog will be quite active during our upcoming Nonhuman Turn conference, May 3 - 5. Check it out!