RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, 28th – 30th August 2019
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<br>Papers are warmly invited to the following session.
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<br>*Chemical kinships*
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<br>*Conveners:*
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<br>Angeliki Balayannis, Brunel University London (
<br>angeliki.balayannis@brunel.ac.uk)
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<br>Emma Garnett, King’s College London (emma.garnett@kcl.ac.uk)
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<br>*Session sponsor:*
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<br>Participatory Geographies Research Group
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<br>*Abstract:*
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<br>A chemical turn is taking place across the social sciences and humanities.
<br>This bourgeoning field of research is increasingly approaching industrial
<br>chemicals ontologically, as heterogeneous material entanglements. These
<br>situated attunements to chemical relations and conditions are stimulating
<br>new conceptual developments, including: chemical kinship (Agard-Jones
<br>2013); chemical geographies (Romero et al. 2017); the chemosphere (Shapiro
<br>2015); chemical space (Barry 2005); and chemo-ethnography (Shapiro and
<br>Kirksey 2017). This session considers what a geographical approach to
<br>chemicals generates conceptually, empirically, and ethically. Geography has
<br>largely taken the materialities of industrial chemicals for granted – often
<br>reducing them to villainous objects. By approaching the spatiotemporalities
<br>of chemicals through their enabling and constraining capacities, this
<br>session considers the ways shared exposures afford new political
<br>possibilities (Alaimo 2016; Murphy 2006).
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<br>Divided into two complementary parts, the first is a paper session
<br>exploring chemical entanglements in embodied, material, and affective
<br>registers. The second is an open session that puts these ideas into
<br>practice, through a participatory workshop for cultivating attunements to
<br>chemical kinships in London – exploring bodily relations with chemicals,
<br>ranging from antibiotics to air pollutants to plastics. Our point of
<br>departure for this final session is Povinelli’s key question (2017: 508):
<br>‘How does one probe and discover the world that one is in, but can
<br>experience only peripherally?’.
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<br>We invite papers that explore chemical worlds from different fields of
<br>research, including but not exclusively:
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<br> - Material politics and cultures
<br> - More-than-human geographies
<br> - Feminist technoscience and STS
<br> - Discard studies
<br> - Environmental (in)justice
<br> - Creative geographies and artistic practice
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<br>*Instructions for authors:*
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<br>Please submit an abstract (max. 250 words) with institutional affiliation
<br>and email address to both Angeliki Balayannis (
<br>angeliki.balayannis@brunel.ac.uk) and Emma Garnett (emma.garnett@kcl.ac.uk)
<br>by 8th February 2019. Indicate which author will present at the conference
<br>and make note of any specific AV or access requirements. Please get in
<br>touch if you have any questions or ideas about alternative forms of
<br>presentation.
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<br>*Call for papers deadline:*
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<br>Friday, 8th February 2019
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<br>*More information on the conference:*
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<br>https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/
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<br>*References:*
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<br>Agard-Jones, V (2013) Bodies in the system. *Small Axe* 17(3): 182-192.
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<br>Alaimo, S (2016) *Exposed: Environmental Politics and Pleasures in
<br>Posthuman Times.* Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
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<br>Barry, A (2005) Pharmaceutical Matters. *Theory, Culture & Society* 22(1):
<br>51-69.
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<br>Murphy, M (2006) *Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty:
<br>Environmental Politics, Technoscience, and Women Workers*. Durham, NC: Duke
<br>University Press.
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<br>Povinelli, E A (2017) Fires, fogs, winds. *Cultural Anthropology* 32(4):
<br>504-513.
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<br>Romero, A M et al. (2017) Chemical Geographies. *GeoHumanities* 3(1):
<br>158-177.
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<br>Shapiro, N (2015) Attuning to the chemosphere: Domestic formaldehyde,
<br>bodily reasoning, and the chemical sublime. *Cultural Anthropology* 30(3):
<br>368-393.
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<br>Shapiro, N and E Kirksey (2017) Chemo-ethnography: An introduction. *Cultural
<br>Anthropology* 32(4): 481-493.
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