Posthuman Renaissance(s) – Making Self, Making World

PRE-CONFERENCE

13 January Afternoon (3 PM onwards)

 Plant Consciousness:

A Visit to the Bi-Centenary Museum at Presidency University

Curated by Dr. Upal Chakrabarti

 Followed by Tea

 

 

DAY 1 — 14 JANUARY

 9:30 10:00

Welcome Tea

10:00 10:20

Opening Circle

(led by Stefano Rozzoni )

 

10:20 11:00

Conference Inauguration

(P C Mahalanobis Auditorium )

• 10:20 AM to 10: 30: Introduction
• 10.30-10.35 AM: Welcome Address by Dr. Anirban Ray, Head of the Department, English
• 10.35-10.45 AM: Address by Prof. Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty, Hon ble Vice Chancellor, Presidency University 
• 10.40-10.45 AM: Address by Dr. Debajyoti Konar, Registrar, Presidency University
• 10: 50- 11:00: Concluding Remarks by Professor Sumit Chakrabarti

 

11:00 12:15

Plenary Multilogue: Existential Posthumanism

Francesca Ferrando, Debashish Banerji (read full paper) and Sumit Chakrabarti

Moderated by Md Monirul Islam

(P C Mahalanobis Auditorium )

12:15 – 12:30

Tea Break

12:30 1:30

Parallel Sessions

 

• PC Mahalanobis 1: Vegetal Subjectivities (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: TBA Biological Sciences

Speakers

• Ahana Bhattacharyya, Faculty Member, Chakdaha College Yeong-Hye Becomes a Tree: A Posthumanist Study of Han Kang s The Vegetarian (read full paper)
• Tohidur Rahaman, Faculty Member, Sripat Singh College Posthuman Existentiality of Weeds and Plants in Gardening Citizenship: Examining Relationality of Arrangement and Displacement through Photographic Practices (read full paper)
• Aditi Roy, Student, Presidency University The Vegetal Rebirth: Bodily Autonomy and Posthuman Interconnectedness in Han Kang s The Vegetarian (read full paper)
• Mousumi Paul, Research Scholar, University of Engineering and Management Entangled Identities: A Posthumanist Reading of How I Became a Tree by Sumana Roy (read full paper) 

• AK Basak 1: Nature as Subject (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Dr Debanjana Nayek, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Presidency University

Speakers

• Saikat Chakraborty, Doctoral Researcher, Kazi Nazrul University Natural Sublimity as Crisis: Interrogating Human Supremacy in Ranen Ghosh
• Debosmita Routh, Student, Presidency University Under His Eyes Beyond His Reach: Posthuman Resistance in Atwood s Gilead (read full paper)
• Hariom Singh, Faculty Member, University of Allahabad The Posthuman Re(turns): Sublime as a Mode of Being in Sara Wheeler s Terra Incognita
• Soumya Sur, Doctoral Researcher, IIT Mandi Toward an Inclusive Discourse of War Suffering: Expanding the Affective and Ethical Boundaries of Conflict

 

1:30 2:30

Lunch Break

 

2:30 3:30

Parallel Sessions

• PC Mahalanobis 2: The Anthropocene, Question of Agency, and Geopolitical Precarity (View Abstracts)

 Session Chair: Dr Zaad Mahmood, Professor, Department of Political Science, Presidency University

 Speakers:

• Dr Koyel Basu, Faculty Member, Jangipur College Posthumanism in the Anthropocene Era: Challenges to International Relations (read full paper)
• Apurba Mandal, Doctoral Researcher, Presidency University Existential Posthumanism and the Rohingya Community: A Reading of Roshidullah Kyaw Naing s Poetry Collection, The Painful Life of Rohingya: The Voices of Rohingya Genocide Survivor to the World (2022) (read full paper)
• Sainaz Farzana Kazi, Doctoral Researcher, Presidency University Contagious Becoming: Nonhuman Agency and the Deconstruction of Victorian Dualism in Marryat s The Blood of the Vampire (read full paper)
• Agni Guha Khasnobis, Student, Pondicherry University Posthuman Intimacies and the Crisis of Connection: Jeanette Winterson s Frankissstein in the Age of the Anthropocene (read full paper)

• AK Basak 2: Monster Hybridities (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Dr Kalyan Kumar Das, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Presidency University

 Speakers

• Reeswav Chatterjee & Shalini Chakraborty, Doctoral Researchers, Bankura University & NIT Agartala Hastar Aa Jayega : Anatomy of Humanism s Horror in the Locus of Posthuman Bodies
• Rifat Ara Khatun, Doctoral Researcher, IIT Kharagpur Breaking Free from Humanism and Branching Towards Posthumanism: Tracing Posthuman Reflections in Gieve Patel s Art
• Ajith K. Cherian, Faculty Member, GITAM Hyderabad Feral Images & Howling Words: Stasis & Anastasis in L szl Krasznahorkai & Max Neumann s Graphic Novella Animalinside
• Safia Yasmin, Doctoral Researcher, Visva-Bharati The Stone-eater, Giants, Ventriloquists, the Invisible Girl, All jumbled up together, to compose, A Parliament of Monsters : A Study of Posthuman Body and Death in Nineteenth-century Britain (read full paper) 

3:30 4:30

Parallel Sessions

•  PC Mahalanobis3: Spiritual Posthumanism (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Dr Sukanya Sarbadhikary, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Presidency University

Speakers

• Kaushiki Chowdhury, Student, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad You Are a Cosmic Dream: Reimagining Theory through Interactive Fiction (read full paper)
• Sruti Bhaumik, Student, Banaras Hindu University Of Rituals, Rivers, and Rebirth: Towards an Ethics of Posthuman Coexistence (read full paper)
• Aiswarya M. G., Doctoral Researcher, PDPM IIITDM Jabalpur The Divine Self and Posthuman Becoming: Insights from Swami Vivekananda (read full paper)
• Dr Emelia Noronha, Faculty Member, Prahladrai Dalmia Lions College of Commerce & Economics The Multiverse of Folklore: An Insight into Spiritual Posthumanism (read full paper)

• AK Basak 3: Performance & Workshop (View Abstracts)

Performance

• Katarzyna Ferworn-Horawa, Doctoral Researcher, University of Warsaw, Poland ALLOW! Sensitivity, creativity, and agentiality in a nonanthropocentric perspective

• Workshop
  • Gitanjaly Chhabra, Faculty Member, University Canada West, Vancouver Erasure and Emergence, Immersion in Infinity: Posthuman Conceptualization of Consciousness

 

4:30 4:45

Tea Break

4:45 5:30

Closing Circle

 

 

DAY 2 — 15 JANUARY

 10:00 – 11:30

Plenary Workshop: Existential Posthumanism Making Self, Making World

Led by Stefano Rozzoni (University of Bergamo)

(P C Mahalanobis Auditorium )

 

11:30 – 12:00

Tea Break

12:00 1:00

Parallel Sessions

 

• PC Mahalanobis1: Multispecies Identities (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Dr Anirban Ray, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Presidency University

 Speakers  

• Suryakanth K. B., Doctoral Researcher, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Chennai From Homo Faber to Homo Entangled: A Posthuman Renaissance of Co-existence (read full paper)
• Tanvi Deepak Shah, Doctoral Researcher, K. C. College, HSNC University, Mumbai, & Dr Shalini R. Sinha, Faculty Member, K. C. College, HSNC University Utopian Spaces Beyond the Earth: A Posthuman Analysis of Becky Chambers The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (read full paper)
• Soumyadeep Sarkar, Student, Ramakrishna Mission Residential College Decentering the Human: Posthuman Assemblages and Ethical Relationality in Denis Villeneuve s Arrival
• Rishila Mishra, Student, University of Calcutta In Body, and Become a Living Soul : Wordsworth and the Vision of Existential Posthumanism (read full paper)

 

• AK Basak 1: Birds, Beasts, and Bodies Multispecies Engagement in the Anthropocene (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Dr Shanta Dutta, Professor, Department of English, Presidency University

Speakers  

• Dr. Hiya Chatterjee, Faculty Member, Swarnamoyee Jogendranath Mahavidyalaya, Vidyasagar University Birds, Beasts, and Bodies: A Multispecies Engagement in the Anthropocene (read full paper)
• Dr Ved Prakash, Faculty Member, Central University of Rajasthan All That Breathes and All That Belongs: A Study of Air, Space, and Species in the City (read full paper)
• Sujay Thakur, Faculty Member, Gangadharpur Mahavidyamandir, University of Calcutta Invisible Palate(s) in a Violent Savarna-Centric World (read full paper)
• Dr Shayeari Dutta, Assistant Professor, Surendranath College, University of Calcutta Coolie, Cane, Kala Pani: A Multispecies Study of Caribbean Indenture History (read full paper)

 

1:00 2:00

Lunch Break

 

2:00 3:00

Parallel Session

 

• PC Mahalanobis2: Ecological Precarity (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Dr Mousumi Mandal, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Presidency University

Speakers

• Dr Surabhi Jha, Research Scholar, Aliah University Ecologies of Marginality: Nonhuman Forces in Dalit Women s Autobiographical Writing (read full paper)
• Soyel Haque, Student, Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University Posthuman Ecology and the Vulnerability of Life in Indra Sinha s Animal s People (read full paper) 
• Siddhesh S. Raut, Faculty Member, Ganpat Parsekar College of Education, Harmal-Goa Coconut, Sea, and Self: A Posthuman Reading of the Goan Everyday 
• Vaishnavi Singh, Doctoral Researcher, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University Terraforming the Self: Ecological Adaptation and Posthuman Identity in Meru (read full paper)

 

• AK Basak 2: Technological Incorporations (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Dr Samrat Sengupta, Associate Professor, Department of English, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University

 Speakers

• Akriti Kujur, Doctoral Researcher, Jawaharlal Nehru University Worlds in Superposition: Quantum Posthumanism in Select Indian Speculative Fiction 
• Tajuddeen Nadaf, Doctoral Researcher, IIT Dharwad Being in the Machine Age: Existential Posthumanism in Machinehood (2021)
• Dr. Souvik Kar, Faculty Member, Amity University, Kolkata The Girl Who Was a Bomb : Existential Posthumanism, Bioengineering Ethics, and Radioactive (Anti)Heroism in Senaa Ahmad s The Glow-in-the-Dark Girls (2021) (read full paper)
• Granthana Ganguly, Doctoral Researcher, Presidency University Empathy, Recognition and Solidarity: Biovalue and Posthumanism in Chen Qiufan s Translated Works of SF (read full paper)

 

3:15 4:15

Parallel Sessions

• PC Mahalanobis 3: Evolutionary Posthumanism /Feminist Interventions (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Dr Emelia Noronha, Associate Professor, Department of English, Prahladrai Dalmia Lions College of Commerce & Economics, Mumbai

Speakers

• Aritra Basu, Research Scholar, University of Calcutta The Anthropocentric Ma(chi)nI: Evolutionary Posthumanism in Westworld
• Swapnajeet Das, Research Scholar Evolutionary Posthumanism : Exploring the Evolution of (Post)Humans in the Post-natural Planet
• Dr Rumela Saha, Faculty Member, Kazi Nazrul University Planetary Becoming: Decolonising Posthumanism in Vandana Singh s The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories
• Eshani Bhattacharjee, Student, IIT Madras When He Wished Me to Live : Radical Reinscription of the Posthuman Feminine in Narrativizations of the Galatea Myth (read full paper)

 

• AK Basak 3: Philosophical Posthumanism (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Dr Inamur Rahaman, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Presidency University

Speakers  

• Sreyasi Dey, Student, St. Xavier s University, Kolkata Looking at Yorick: The Posthuman Condition
• Rubaiya Nasrin, Doctoral Researcher, Jadavpur University Rewriting the Human: Speciesism, Media Ecologies, and the Posthuman Renaissance
• Jayjit Sarkar, Faculty Member, Raiganj University From Studia Humanitatis to Humusities: Rethinking Human and Humanities through Parasites
• Subhagni Jana, Doctoral Researcher, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur The Who, the What, the Why of Posthuman Retellings: How Human Rhetoric and Human Mythology Meet the Posthuman Narrators (read full paper)

 

4:15 4:30

Afternoon Tea

 

4:30 5:30

Plenary Talk Francesca Ferrando 

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                   DAY 3 — 16 JANUARY

10:00 10:50

Sharing Circle (Indoor)

 

11:00 12:00

Plenary Conversation: Posthuman Renaissance(s)

Md. Monirul Islam, Samrat Sengupta, Stefano Rozzoni
Moderated by: Debashish Banerji

(P C Mahalanobis Auditorium )

 

12:00 12:15

Tea Break

12:15 1:15

Parallel Sessions

 

• PC Mahalanobis 1: Existential Praxis I (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Afsheen Toosi

Speakers  

• Kusumitha R, Doctoral Researcher, Bangalore University Meditating the Molecule: Genetic Memory, Inner Silence, and the Becoming-Posthuman
• Dr Ramapriya Ramachandran, Faculty Member, Kunthavai Naacchiyaar Government Arts College for Women Aerological Self and the Posthuman Condition: An Irigarayan Reading of Jenny Offill s Weather
• Keerthi Shree S. S., Doctoral Researcher, Kunthavai Naacchiyaar Government Arts College for Women Existential Bioethics and Foucauldian Technologies of Self in Jennifer Egan s The Candy House
• Rahana P. S., Doctoral Researcher, Kunthavai Naacchiyaar Government Arts College for Women Digital Sublime and Existential Posthumanism: A Reading of Don DeLillo s Zero K

• AK Basak 1: Existential Praxis II (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Katarzyna Ferworn-Horawa

Speakers  

• Jose Joseph, Faculty Member, Kunthavai Naacchiyaar Government Arts College for Women From Dasein to Earth-Being: Heidegger, Existential Posthumanism and Planetary Ontology in Richard Powers The Overstory
• Summer LaPointe, Research Scholar, University of Cincinnati To Be and Become: Beyond Life toward Existence in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (read full paper)
• Dr Diksha Tripathi, Faculty Member, CMP & J.C. Bose University YMCA Between Dust and Data: Liminal Existence in the Age of Existential Posthumanism
• Malang Cilangasan, Student, RCSD, Chiang Mai University When Local Wisdom Meets Sustainable Development: An Ethnic Karen Village in Northern Thailand

 

1:15 2:15

Lunch Break

 

2:15 3:15

Parallel Sessions

 

• PC Mahalanobis 2: Artificial and Cultural Intelligence (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Priyanka Das, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Presidency University

Speakers

• Deepanwita Saha, Research Scholar, Presidency University Meme and Existential Posthumanism (read full paper)
• Prerana Sana, Student When Companionship Turns Obsession: Affective Autonomy and Emotional Collapse in Posthuman Cinema
• Violina Kalita, Doctoral Researcher, Gauhati University Extending the Self: AI, Authorship, and Existential Becoming in Appupen s Dream Machine (read full paper)
• Humaira Mariyam B., Doctoral Researcher, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli Beyond Human Exceptionalism in AI-Enhanced Posthuman Language Classroom

 

• AK Basak 2: Medical Considerations (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Dr Anirban Das, Professor, The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata

Speakers  

• Debayan Das, Doctoral Researcher, Banaras Hindu University Vibrant Bacillus and the Humanist Ideal: Cholera and the Unmaking of the Bengal Renaissance (read full paper)
• Ashish Kumar Pandey, Doctoral Researcher, IIT Jodhpur Existential Becoming and Corporeal Revival in Priya Sarukkai Chhabria s Clone (read full paper)
• Dr Pritikana Karmakar, Faculty Member, GITAM Hyderabad Beyond Technomedical Victories: Counter-Narratives of Ebola and Eco-Compassion in V ronique Tadjo s In the Company of Men 

3:30 4:30

Parallel Sessions

• PC Mahalanobis 3: Workshop (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: Stefano Rozzoni, University of Bergamo

Presentation/Performance:

• Rosalie Purvis, Assistant Professor of Theatre and English, University of Maine Would You Still Love Me If I Were Secretly a Mermaid? On Love, Disclosure, and Mythic Bodies 
• Workshop by the Members ofTurin University (30 minutes)

 

• AK Basak 3: Workshop (View Abstracts)

Session Chair: TBA

Conducted by

• Pratyay Raha, Doctoral Researcher, RMIT University Sensing Entanglements: Field Recording Techniques from a Posthumanist Perspective
• Dominic Bucci, Student, California Institute of Integral Studies Posthuman Praxis: Using a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) to Optimize Scholarly Performance (read full paper)

 

4:45 5:30

Closing Reflection on the Conference and Closing Circle

(A K Basak Auditorium )

 

5:30 Onwards

An Immersive Performance by the Students of the Department of Performing Arts, Presidency University

 

Design by Dr Debaroti Chakraborty, Assistant Professor, Presidency University

Scenography: Kaushani Mukherjee

7:00 9:00

Farewell Dinner & Informal Performances (Campus)

 

DAY 4 — 17 JANUARY

Walking Tour in Kolkata: On the Footsteps of Bengal Renaissance

(Curated Trip at additional cost of Rs. 1000 payable directly to the curator )