Towards Planetary Kinship. Queer Ecological Networks in Contemporary Romance Literature and Cinema (Univ. of Vienna)

Towards Planetary Kinship. Queer Ecological Networks in Contemporary Romance Literature and Cinema

27 – 29 January 2027, University of Vienna (Department of Romance Studies)

“Una célula proviene de una célula desde el principio de las células.” These are the opening lines of the chapter “Reino plantae” by Maricela Guerrero from her poetry collection El sueño de toda célula (Guerrero, 2018). The conceptualization of cells as a network of connections links the planet with all living beings. Using multispecies, cellular and vegetal imagery, Guerrero reimagines kinship, care and collective responsibility in her texts, fostering intimacy and solidarity beyond the human realm. This interconnectedness recalls Donna Haraway’s concept of cross species kinship. Haraway’s interpretation of “becoming kin” diverges from the perspective of biological determination or genetic inheritance. Instead, she understands it as an actively constructed, affective, and political process aimed at developing new forms of belonging and responsibility in times of ecological crisis (Haraway, 2016). By challenging established dualisms and binary oppositions in traditional humanities (subject vs. object, culture vs. nature, etc.), Haraway paved the way for a queer-ecological approach (e. g. Haraway, 1991; Teubner, 2015). In addition to highlighting the commonalities between sexual oppression and the struggle for ecological justice, as well as unveiling processes of naturalizing sex, more recent queer-ecological approaches are moving toward posthumanist, relational perspectives on the material world, breaking down binaries, while focusing on the fluid, the indefinable and the in-between (Hird, 2008; Sandilands, 2016). Likewise, Deleuze and Guattaris botanical metaphor of the rhizome is drawn upon to link Queer Theory with ecological thought. Usually pointing to a horizontal, underground plant system that stores food and helps plants grow new shoots, it enables connections between any of its components. Similar to Haraway’s multiple possibilities of belongings, it puts forward the processual notion of ‘becoming’ instead of fixed subjects. It opens the space for concepts of hybridity, continuity and empathy beyond a dualistic ontology (Cress/Murawska/Schlitte, 2023) and to imagine solidarities that exceed the human.  However, critics of posthumanism warn that such ‘decentering’ can mask the asymmetries produced by colonialism, racism and capitalism, diffusing responsibility into a generalized web of relations. In addition to oversimplifying the realities of human life, posthumanist concepts are often criticized for being too vague, obscuring the accountability and responsibility inherent in human agency (Cress/Murawska/Schlitte, 2023). Against this backdrop, we ask what forms research might take. How can rhizomatic connectivity be viewed not as a seamless network, but as a field shaped by power dynamics that calls for reparative and collaborative forms of care and political action across species? How can Queer Ecology serve as an approach to establishing kinship based on situated histories, embodied differences, and practices of accountability?

Imagination and empathy are politically central to taking responsibility and forging alliances across differences (Seymour, 2013). From the Caribbean and Amazonia to the Mediterranean, more-than-human entanglements, care practices, and vulnerabilities become palpable. Latin America has produced a particularly rich body of eco-critical work, not least due to the continent’s direct exposure to climate change and intersecting mechanisms of oppression. In Albertina Carri's Argentinian road movie Las hijas del fuego (2018), the dissolution of possession in romantic relationships unfolds through a nomadic journey across the Patagonian landscape, into which the bodies blend. Pedro Lemebel's Loco afán: crónicas de sidario (1997) reinforces the connection between Queer Studies and environmental thought, foregrounding shared key concepts such as toxicity, intimacy, and porosity in relation to an equally sick Earth (Seymour, 2013). Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña, in turn, primarily focuses on ecological and social connectedness. Her interdisciplinary approach incorporates Indigenous knowledge, as seen in her “quipoems”, where the knotted writing system used by the Incas and other Andean cultures interacts with various spatial contexts as a form of lyrical expression. In Viendra le temps du feu (2021) and Le chant de la rivière (2024), French author Wendy Delorme weaves human bodies, water, and nature into fluid, interconnected narratives that interrogate climate crisis, patriarchal control, and radical queer resistance.

Taking up the continuum of related concepts such as “vital materiality” (Bennet), “vicious porosity” (Neimanis), “becoming kin” (Haraway), “intra-action“ (Barad) or “Prekärsein” (Lorey) – which have emerged in recent years from feminist posthumanism, Queer Ecology, critical social theory, and new materialism – we invite debates on artistic forms of representation that conceive of human existence not as a definable unit, but as an ontologically vulnerable, materially permeable, and intertwined existence. The present call for submissions seeks contributions that foreground Queer Ecology as a framework for reimagining kinship and affect, and that explore planetary issues through an assemblage-like approach.  

Themes include but are not limited to: 

·         Where do Donna Haraway’s concept of kinship and posthuman theory enter into a productive dialogue? What might critical responses from a decolonial perspective look like?

·         How do Romance-language literatures and films mobilize queer ecological perspectives to challenge anthropocentric narratives of ‘nature’ and heteronormative (family) relations in favour of alternative connections?

·         How do consent, agency, and belonging work within beyond-human connections?

·         How do texts address intersectional issues concerning biopower (Foucault, 2026), and the connection between migration, environmental injustice, and queerness?

·         In what ways do posthuman perspectives express themselves in camera gaze, sound design, and materiality (e.g., water, wind, light, texture)? Where can a ‘rhizomatic aesthetic’ be found?

·         Which artistic techniques render ‘non-human’ actors ‘audible’ without attributing a human voice to them?

·         What role do empathy and imagination play in forging alliances across species boundaries and in conducting research on them?

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Article proposals should be written in English if possible, however Romance languages are also accepted. If your travel expenses are not refunded by your institution and you need them covered, please include an estimated amount in your proposal. Abstracts (300-400 words) and a short-bio should be submitted by 1st October 2026 via e-mail to all organizers:

Hannah Mühlparzer: hannah.muehlparzer@plus.ac.at 

Julia Waygand: julia.waygand@univie.ac.at 

Judith Wimmer: wimmer.judith@univie.ac.at 

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