In Relation to Life
Biological Relationality in Contemporary Science, Theory, and Politics
Biological Relationality in Contemporary Science, Theory, and Politics
© Lou-Anne Basse / Instagram: @lüan
This conference aims at creating bridges between contemporary science, theory, and politics through focusing on the various ways they approach and integrate biological relationality, understood as the entanglement of living entities with each other at different scales (cellular, physiological, multispecies, ecosystemic, planetary, etc.) and with nonliving entities (pollutants, machines, matter itself, etc.).
In inviting both life scientists and theoreticians of life to enter in conversation, the conference thus aims at generating a field of interdisciplinary exchanges beyond the usual separation of science and theory, where each one’s premises, concepts, and methodologies are at the same time centred and decentred. While respecting the starting points of the different disciplines and fields, it values a form of relationality thought as the merging of various insights and problems via a practice of reflexivity, response-ability, and synergy. In what ways is biological relationality operationalised across academia and what reconfigurations of knowledge could be produced through the frictional encounter of science, theory, and politics?
In addition to considerations sparking from epistemological and ontological aspects in the life sciences and theories of life, keynote sessions will aim at broadening the scope of reflection to include the social and political horizon of relationality in contemporary life sciences and theories, with particular attention put on feminist contributions. At the end of the conference, a semi informal session will be dedicated to collective remarks, feedback and exchanges focused on the frictions and synergies generated by the conference’s transversal scope.
Attending the conference
This conference is a hybrid event, attendance is free of charge. All are welcome to attend without registration, remotely or onsite.
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Supporting Institutions
The Institut d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences et des techniques (IHPST) is a joint research unit in the philosophy of science. It is supervised by the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the CNRS, where it is part of the Institut des sciences humaines et sociales (InSHS).
The IHPST's research programmes focus mainly on the history and philosophy of medicine, biology and physics; the history and philosophy of logic, mathematics and computer science; and the general history and philosophy of science and technology.
The Doctoral School of Philosophy at the Université Paris 1 (ED 280) is specifically devoted to philosophy. Its main objective is to provide young researchers with the most favourable conditions for their training and integration into the professional world of philosophy. To this end, it relies on the research teams, while respecting the autonomy of their own intellectual programmes.
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne combines the glorious heritage of the college founded by Robert de Sorbon in the 13th century with an innovative multidisciplinary project. As France's leading university in the humanities and social sciences (SHS), since 1971 it has cultivated a unique spirit that combines a demanding scientific approach with the ambition to develop new knowledge that transforms the world.
LEGS is the first interdisciplinary research unit dedicated to gender and sexuality studies in France. Created in 2014 on the initiative of the INSHS, at the suggestion of the Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis, and with the Université Paris Nanterre, the unit began its institutional career on 1 January 2015.
Gender studies is not a discipline but a vast field of research. The question of gendered constructions and gender relations concerns in one way or another all social and symbolic practices, public and private, collective and individual. It is now explicitly raised in many fields of thought and knowledge. Dealing with it therefore requires the collaboration of a wide range of knowledge and approaches. With this in mind, LEGS has set itself the task and challenge of bringing together the humanities, the social sciences and the arts.
The doctoral school brings together courses in literature, philosophy, modern languages, history, political science, educational sciences and psychoanalysis. In this way, the ED brings together disciplines that are representative of the human sciences (in the sense of ‘humanities’), and thereby differentiates itself from doctoral schools in the social sciences. The point of convergence between all the courses is a critical approach to the disciplines and their function in the contemporary world.
Founded in 1969, Université Paris 8 Vincennes - Saint-Denis is the heir to the Centre expérimental de Vincennes and the intellectual and educational ferment that followed May 68. Since then, it has been driven by a spirit of democratising access to knowledge and producing knowledge rooted in the challenges of the contemporary world. Today, it is a central teaching and research centre in the Île-de-France region in the humanities.
PhD student in History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques (IHPST)
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
PhD student in Gender Studies and Philosophy
Laboratoire d'Études de Genre et de Sexualité (LEGS)
Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis