Call for Papers

Symposium Date: November 7-8, 2025 

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Sugata Ray, University of California, Berkeley 

Deadline for Submission: June 30, 2025 

Symbiosis, from the Greek meaning “living together,” refers to long-term, close physical interactions between two or more different organisms. In a broader sense, symbiosis can be used to describe the relationships between not only human and non-human agents in ecological systems but also individuals and communities with diverse identities, cultures, and backgrounds. Highlighting relationality rather than separation, mutuality rather than individuality, interaction rather than isolation, this symposium explores the role of art and visual culture in shaping, negotiating, and disguising intimacies in ecological, communal, and social relationships. How does art construct and contest the networks among humans, non-human entities, and environments? How does art reveal and/or repress these entanglements across time and region while also envisioning a sustainable future?

We invite proposals for 20-minute in-person presentations exploring the ways in which art and visual culture engage with the conference theme. We welcome proposals from current M.A. and Ph.D. students that address topics from a wide range of time periods and geographical areas, as well as object-oriented and theoretical approaches.

Possible topics include but are not limited to the following: 

• Art and Activism
• Artist Communities
• Art in the Anthropocene
• Art Museums and Environmentalism
• Art of Science and Science of Art
• Climate Change and Art
• Ecocriticism and Eco Art History
• Environmental Justice and Ethics
• Geoaesthetics 
• Human-Nature Relations in Art
• Multiculturalism
• Planetarianism
• Postcolonialism and Decolonization
• Post-Humanism

Please submit an abstract of 250-300 words and a C.V. to kusymposium@gmail.com by June 30, 2025. Selected applicants will be notified by mid-July.