Decodings Fall 2025

DECODINGS

Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts Newsletter                     

Fall 2025, Vol. 35, No.4

*SLSA 2026 RATIO ETHICA: University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

*SLSA 2025: Risk (Oregon State University, Corvallis)

*New Book Series: Proximities: Experiments in Nearness

*Call for Volunteer Ombudspersons
*Policies:Respectful Behavior and Freedom of Speech
*Social Media & Website Redesign

*AnthropoScene Book Series
*Configurations Book Reviews
*SLSA Europe

SLSA 2026, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, August 25-29, 2026
RATIO ETHICA: Toward Epistemic Justice

Venues: University of São Paulo (USP), Butantã Campus (FFLCH–USP, Milton Santos Auditorium, Brasiliana Library, Japanese Culture House, among other places)

USP Organizers: Prof. Dr. Paulo Farah, Prof. Dr. Artur Matuck, Profa. Dra. Neusa Maria de Andrade.
With the support of the Graduate Program in Humanities, Rights, and Other Legitimacies (PPGHDL–FFLCH–USP) and SLSA.

2026 Conference email: jusepisteme@gmail.com  
Conference website: To be announced
Conference submission site: To be announced
Submission deadline: January 15, 2026

Conference Theme

      The international conference RATIO ETHICA: Toward Epistemic Justice invites scholars, artists, writers, scientists, and practitioners from across disciplines to critically engage with questions of epistemic justice and the emergence of Alterscience. At a moment when climatic, social, and political crises destabilize established structures of knowledge, the conference seeks to reimagine what counts as valid knowledge and to amplify epistemologies historically marginalized or excluded.

       Epistemic justice is proposed here not only as a corrective to inequalities in knowledge production but also as a generative framework for constructing new, plural, and inclusive intellectual futures. This paradigm calls for encounters across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, arts, and emerging technologies. It requires us to rethink how knowledge is produced, legitimized, and transmitted, while also examining its ethical, political, and ecological consequences.

       The event continues USP’s long tradition of interdisciplinary and critical inquiry while deepening the international collaboration with the SLSA. Together, we aim to cultivate an intellectual environment open to experimentation, dialogue, and transformative practices.

Areas of Interest–We welcome proposals addressing, but not limited to, themes such as:

• Emergence of an Alterscience: deepening the discussion on Alterscience as a paradigm in construction, based on critical dialogue and the integration of diverse knowledge.
• Anticolonial Perspectives: encouraging a critical and interdisciplinary approach that considers all forms and lines of knowledge production, recognizing epistemic plurality as the basis for promoting new narratives and possible futures.
• Insurgent Epistemologies and Decolonization of Thought: critique of Eurocentrism and the valorization of Global South perspectives, challenging hegemonic narratives.
• Recognition of Indigenous and Afro-Diasporic Knowledges: valuing and integrating the rich traditions of knowledge of Indigenous peoples and African diasporas.
• Knowledges and Experiences of Refugees, Immigrants, and Stateless Persons: recognition and integration of the knowledges and experiences shared by people in situations of displacement.
• Planetary Governance and Social Innovation: discussions on models of global governance that integrate sustainability and social equity, focusing on innovative solutions.
• Environmental Sciences and the Rights of Nature: recognition of nature’s agency and advocacy of new ethical and legal frameworks for human–environment relations.
• Human–Animal Interaction: expanding ethics and epistemic recognition to include animals as rights-bearing subjects, questioning anthropocentric models that reduce animals to objects of exploitation.
• Linguistic Diversity: promoting plurilingualism as a condition for epistemic justice and the expansion of different forms of knowledge, resisting the silencing of historically excluded voices.
• Women’s and Children’s Rights: emphasizing the guarantee of full protection of women’s and children’s rights, promoting the overcoming of violence and inequalities affecting these groups.
• Queer Cultures and Epistemologies of Dissidence: exploring forms of knowledge and expression that emerge from LGBTQIAPN+ experiences, challenging norms and constructing new possibilities.
• Neurodiversity and the Autism Spectrum: integrating approaches that promote psychological well-being and rethink notions of normality by questioning hegemonic biomedical models, highlighting neurodiversity as a legitimate form of knowledge production.
• Public Policies and Mental Health: discussing the role of public policies in promoting mental health by recognizing the limits of the biomedical model and valuing community-based and integrative approaches, ensuring the universal right to care.
• Social Inclusion and Belonging: proposing environments that value diversity and strengthen respect, equity, and the sense of belonging in society.
• Institutional and Praxiological Critique: self-examination of academic practices and university structures to identify and correct biases, reinforcing the university’s responsibility in promoting social justice.
• Dialogical Processes between Science and Literature: understanding how literary processes—narratives, metaphors, myths, and fictions—can dialogue with science in the construction of knowledge, highlighting literature as an instrument of expression and social inquiry.
• Dialogical Processes between Science and the Arts: exploring the multiple interactions between science and visual, performing, musical, and multimedia arts, creating space for aesthetic practices that expand the frontiers of scientific thought.
• Digital Innovation, Technology, and Society: exploring technological resources and their application in contexts of exclusion and vulnerability, promoting autonomy, social bonds, and ethical practices in society.
• Psychoanalysis and Social Transformation: reflecting on the role of psychoanalysis in investigating contemporary social phenomena, considering the processes that shape subjective experience and influence collective dynamics, to promote more integrated forms of sociability.
• Curatorships and Interventions in the Expanded Field: curatorial practices that articulate art, science, and literature across disparate territories, producing new regimes of visibility and cultural mediation.
• Speculative Fictions, Science, and Imaginaries of the Future: Exploration of science fiction, speculative literature, and possible worlds as ways of questioning and reinventing epistemologies. Dialogue between literary, mythopoetic, and technoscientific narratives.
• Media Ecologies and Digital Epistemologies: Analysis of digital media and artificial intelligence as new regimes of knowledge. Critical inquiry into algorithms, surveillance, and digital culture.
• Technoscience, Ethics, and Critical Posthumanism: Reflections on bio art, biotechnology, robotics, and post humanist perspectives. Ethical discussion on the redefinition of the boundaries between human, animal, machine, and environment.

Addressed in an interdisciplinary way, these axes will enable the building of bridges between different fields of knowledge and the emergence of new understandings of Epistemic Justice.

The conference also welcomes proposals that, while not explicitly listed above, critically engage with the broader theme of epistemic justice and alterscience.

 
Submission Guidelines

• Abstracts: 250 words maximum
• Short biography: 50 words
• Formats include:
  • Individual papers (20 minutes)
  • Panels (3–4 participants, cross-disciplinary preferred)
  • Roundtables (focused discussions, 60–90 minutes)
  • Suggestions of artistic contributions (performances, exhibitions, multimedia works)
• Languages: English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Submissions should include title, name, affiliation, and contact details.
Submission link: [to be announced]

Important Dates [subject to revision]
Deadline for abstract submission: [January 15]
Notification of acceptance: [March 1]
Early registration deadline: [May 15]
Final registration deadline: [August 20]
Conference: 25–29 August 2026

Information about 2026 Essay and Prizes and SLSA Travel Awards will soon be posted on the society’s Awards website. https://litsciarts.org/awards/

SLSA 2025, “Risk,” August 21-24, 2025     

Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

Approximately 200 participants presented a variety of papers and performances at the 38^th meeting of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts conference focusing on “Risk.” The event was ably hosted and managed by Ray Malewitz with an excellent team of Oregon State staff and students contributing technical expertise and logistical assistance. Plenary events included a Friday evening interdisciplinary roundtable discussion on “Risk Across the Disciplines” with Oregon State faculty Tekla Bude, Ehren Pflugfelder, Shawn Hazboun, Yanni Ma, and Xeurong Lu. The Saturday evening plenary lecture “Techno-intimacies: Anxiety-love, Risk, Political economies, Governance” was presented by Geeta Patel, Professor at the University of Virginia, who holds three degrees in science and a doctorate from Columbia University in inter-disciplinary South Asian Studies (from Vedic to Urdu). Her lecture, like her publications, reflected on the conundrums posed by bringing gender, nation/state, sexuality, finance, science, media, capital, and aesthetics together in unforeseen ways. The conference included a video installation by Brazilian-American artist Rick Silva (ricksilva.net). At the Saturday business/awards lunch, Rajani Sudan, SLSA President, introduced SLSA officers and other members of the executive committee, including graduate liaisons. Sudan praised the conference, noting “the state of the society is quite strong with a new guard augmenting the old guard.” She pointed out that in today’s difficult times for academics, we would continue to benefit from working together across disciplines, and she called for members to increase the participation of scientists in the organization.

The following prizes were announced:

Bruns Essay Prize–Yondong Li, “Peasants, Workers, and Productivity—A Media History of Greenhouse Farming.”  

Schachterle Essay Prize (Shared)–Brittany Carlson, “Puzzling, effect, and ephemera in ‘The Gold Bug’ and ‘The Man of the Crowd,’ Nineteenth-Century Contexts (2025) and Madison Jones, “Sylvan Rhetoric in the Planes of Plato’s Phaedrus,” Rhetoric Review 44.1 (2024)

Michelle Kendrick Book Prize (2023)–Christina Gerhardt, Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean. University of California Press, 2023.  

Michelle Kendrick Book Prize (2024)–Sara Grossman, Immeasurable Weather: Meteorological Data and Settler Colonialism from 1820 to Hurricane Sandy.  Duke University Press, 2023.

Lifetime Achievement Award: For his decades of scholarship advancing critical ecologies of narrative and systems theory in relation to posthumanism and Gaia theory, Bruce Clarke received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

SLSA BOOK SERIES Proximities: Experiments in Nearness, from University of Minnesota Press
We are thrilled that the first volume of the Proximities Series—Microbial Resolution, by Gloria Chan-Sook Kim—is now published and available!

       Adjacencies abound. We are past the moment of merely thinking in terms of how opposites attract and nodes network. Today, disciplines and fields move consciously proximate to one another, in conversation and growing together. Further, the future is no longer sometime in the distance, but appears near to us, often grasped as an impending horizon of political, social, economic, and environmental catastrophe. Now more than ever, so much is so close. See the Call for Proposals (https://litsciarts.org/proximitiesflyer.pdf) for more information.

       Books in the Proximities series think proximately, that is, in disciplinary tandem, about the relationships within and between the arts, literature, and science, as well as how scholarship can best be in active dialogue with communities and the world around us today, and in the future. Published in association with the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, this series not only thinks across disciplines, but thinks about the continuities and crossings themselves, interrogating how and why their disciplinary proximities matter. Proximities publishes work that is crafted with nearness in mind: human nearness to one another and the world around us; nearness to one another’s thoughts; to our written and unwritten pasts; to critical trends and crises; to our futures ahead. This kind of scholarship powerfully catalyzes awareness of what it means to work interdisciplinarily by challenging assumptions about disciplinary thinking from the outside in, and the inside out. If interested in submitting a proposal, please contact the editors with a short description of your book project. Series Editors: David Cecchetto—York University (Toronto, Canada) dcecchet@yorku.ca and Arielle Saiber—Johns Hopkins University asaiber@jhu.edu

SLSA OMBUDSPERSONS: Any member interested in volunteering to serve as ombudsperson, should apply by emailing Carol Colatrella (carol.colatrella@lmc.gatech.edu); include a short statement of why you are interested in serving in this role and what experience you can bring the position. Current officers will review applications to make appointments.Each Ombudsperson is an impartial entity who strives to see that SLSA members and SLSA conference attendees are treated fairly and equitably. Any member/attendee can seek the advice of an Ombudsperson. The Ombudsperson is impartial, neutral, and confidential. The rights and interests of all parties to disputes are considered, with the goal of achieving fair outcomes.

      The primary responsibilities of the Ombudsperson are:

1. To work with individuals to explore and assist them in determining options to help resolve conflicts and problematic issues or concerns.
2. To bring concerns about the organization to the attention of leadership for resolution.

Ombudspersons: Marcel O’Gorman marcel@uwaterloo.ca and Kari Nixon mkarinixon@gmail.com

POLICIES ADOPTED:Respectful Behavior and Freedom of Speech & Call for Ombudspersons

The updated policies are posted here:

Policies for respectful behavior and freedom of speech commitment (adopted at SLSA 2019)

SOCIAL MEDIA AND WEBSITE REDESIGN: Wayne Miller, Electronic Resources Coordinator (wayne.miller@gmail.com), asks for new images for the SLSA website homepage (litsciarts.org). Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal and Ed Chang are developing SLSA social media. SLSA members interested in contributing to social media on behalf of the society are encouraged to email Ed (change@ohio.edu) and Ranjodh (ranjodhsingh.dhaliwal@unibas.ch). Adam Nocek, Wayne, Ranjodh, and Ed are working with a graphic professional to redesign the SLSA website.

ANTHROPOSCENE: This book series from Penn State University Press was published in collaboration with SLSA. While not all scientists have accepted the term “anthropocene” as part of the geological timescale, the idea that humans are changing the planet and its environments in radical and irreversible ways has provoked new kinds of cross-disciplinary thinking about relationships among the arts, human technologies, and nature. This is the broad, cross-disciplinary basis for books published in the series, which includes specialized studies for scholars in a variety of disciplines as well as widely accessible works of interest to broad audiences. Send questions to the SLSA liaison for the series, Pamela Gossin at psgossin@utdallas.edu or psgossin@gmail.com. Titles in the series appear here: https://www.psupress.org/books/series/book_SeriesAnthropoScene.html SLSA Member Discount from Penn State University Press: Use promo code NR21 for 30% off AnthropoScene titles purchased directly, plus free domestic shipping and discounts on foreign shipping!   See https://www.psupress.org/emailassets/NR_SLSA_1021.html

Configurations Book Reviews: Jay Labinger, the Configurations book review editor, will publish around 10 reviews per year, of books–on any topic–that are likely to interest a wide cross-section of SLSA members and Configurations readers. If you wish to propose a book for review, please email Jay (jal@its.caltech.edu) the author/title/publisher, a very brief description and statement of why it merits being reviewed in Configurations, and whether you would like to do the review yourself or, if not, any suggestions you may have for appropriate reviewers. Authors are welcome to propose their own recent book for review, with the same info. Jay will post a list of books on litsci-l and ask anyone interested in reviewing one of them to respond to him. Check an issue of Configurations to see the preferred length and style for reviews. After a reviewer is matched with a book, Jay will ask for submission of the review within four months and will share the estimated date of publication. 

The EUROPEAN Society for Literature, Science, and the Art is the sister organization of the international, USA-based Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. SLSAeu welcomes colleagues in the humanities, the social sciences, the arts, and all fields of science, medicine, engineering, and computer sciences as well as independent scholars, artists, and scientists. https://www.slsa-eu.org/.

SLSA EXECUTIVE BOARD (2025)

President: Rajani Sudan, Southern Methodist University (rsudan@mail.smu.edu)
Executive Director: Carol Colatrella, Georgia Institute of Technology (carol.colatrella@lmc.gatech.edu)
First Vice-President: Adam Nocek, Arizona State University (Adam.Nocek@asu.edu)
Second Vice-President: Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal, University of Basel ranjodhsingh.dhaliwal@unibas.ch

Members-at-Large: Paula Leverage (2023-25), Shane Denson (2023-25), Nat Mengist (2024-26)
Graduate Student Liaisons: Damian Enyaosah, Christina Shiea

Configurations Editors: Melissa Littlefield, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Rajani Sudan,
     Southern Methodist University. Configurations Email address: configurations@smu.edu
Configurations Book Review Editor: Jay Labinger, California Institute of Technology (jal@its.caltech.edu)

Publications Committee: Pamela Gossin; Raymond Malewitz; Bruce Clarke

Electronic Resources Coordinator: Wayne Miller (wayne.miller@gmail.com)

Arts Liaison: Dennis Summers (dennis@quantumdanceworks.com)
Social Media Liaisons: Ed Chang (change@ohio.edu); Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal (ranjodhsingh.dhaliwal@unibas.ch)

Ombudspersons: Marcel O’Gorman (marcel@uwaterloo.ca); Kari Nixon (knixon@whitworth.edu)
Past Presidents: David Cecchetto, York University, Toronto; Marcel O’Gorman, University of Waterloo; Ron Broglio, Arizona State University; Robert Markley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Laura Otis, Emory University; Richard Nash, Indiana University; Alan Rauch, University of North Carolina-Charlotte; Bruce Clarke, Texas Tech University; Eve Keller, Fordham University; Jay Labinger, California Institute of Technology; T. Hugh Crawford, Georgia Tech; Susan Squier, Penn State; Sidney Perkowitz, Emory University; Stuart Peterfreund, Northeastern University; James J. Bono, SUNY-Buffalo; N. Katherine Hayles, Duke University; Mark Greenberg, Drexel University; Lance Schachterle, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Stephen J. Weininger, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
The Executive Director can be reached at (404) 894-1241 or carol.colatrella@lmc.gatech.edu. 
Postal address: Carol Colatrella, Executive Director, SLSA, School of Literature, Media, and
     Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology, 686 Cherry Street, Atlanta, GA  30332-0165

SLSA websites: http://www.litsciarts.org and http://slsa.press.jhu.edu