LiU Humanities welcome scholars and students of all disciplines to this conference on the contribution of qualitative, interpretative, collaborative and critical research to the ways in which we know of and with culture, society, technology, medicine and nature in different strands of research.

Piles of books

While traditional humanities disciplines and topics have become deeper and broader over the years, they have also been enriched by interdisciplinary, integrative or new humanities that cut across disciplines and problem-based themes such as the LiU Department of Thematic Studies. But despite the nowadays diverse, adaptive, and rich humanities, there seems to be a recurring debate on the value of the humanities not the least in relation to the distribution of funding for research and education. There is, hence, an imperative need for a comprehensive discussion of the role, nature and place of the humanities in academia and in society at large.

This conference aims at showing the power of various humanities by displaying research initiatives that provide the crucial social, cultural, existential, ethical, philosophical, and political dimensions of how human life is entangled with history, language, interaction, science, nature and technologies. It is organized by LiU Humanities, Linköping University, in collaboration with Humtank.

Conference programme

October 16

Time Location
09.30 Registration and Conference Welcome Folksamsalen
10.00 - 12.00 Keynotes: Nina Wormbs & Sara Guyer Folksamsalen
12.00 - 13.00 Lunch Arbetets museum
13.00 - 14.30 Parallel sessions 1a & 1b Lokatten/Alvarummet
14.30 - 15.00 Fika Arbetets museum
15.00 - 16.30 Parallel sessions 2a & 2b Lokatten/Alvarummet
18.30 Conference Dinner Arbetets museum

October 17

Time Location
09.00 - -10.30 Parallel sessions 3a & 3b Lokatten/Alvarummet
10.30 - 11.00 Fika Arbetets museum
11.00 - 12.30 Plenary session: Academic Freedom for the Humanities Folksamsalen

Keynotes (Folksamsalen)

Moderator: Marie Cronqvist (Linköping University)

The Humanties at Work

Nina Wormbs (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

Many argue that humanities knowledge and skill are essential to meet contemporary challenges. Incorporating humanities into professional and other education is therefore necessary; likewise a wider use of humanities knowledge in a wider societal context is needed. However, to overcome the practical, ideological and economic obstacles of politicians and peers, not to mention a wider public audience, we might want to re-think our arguments for the power of humanities. Nina Wormbs is a Professor of the History of Technology at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. As the operative project leader of the KTH Future Humanities Initiative, she aims to study and explore the role of the humanities in professional education and society. Her research interests include environmental history and climate studies.

The Power of the Humanities in a World under Duress

Sara Guyer (University of California Berkley)

This talk will focus on the shape of the humanities' power to ask whether the humanities are a structure of hesitation or a means of mobilization. These two theories of action both define the potential of the humanities as world-shaping work and the limit of the humanities as a worldly enterprise. Sara Guyer is Dean of Arts & Humanities and Professor of English at UC Berkeley. She is the author of several books and essays on European Romanticism and its legacies and, more recently, on the survival of the humanities. She is the editor of the book series Lit Z and director of the World Humanities Report (worldhumanitiesreport.org).

Plenary session (Folksamsalen)

Academic Freedom for the Humanities

Moderator: Thomas Kaiserfeld (Linköping Universities)

  • Andrea Peto (Central European University)
  • Peter Aronsson (Linneus University)
  • Kim Silow Kallenberg, (Södertörn University and Humtank)

Parallel sessions

Session 1a: The Power of Apocalyptic Thought – Past, Present, and Future

Chair: Marie Cronqvist (Linköping University)

  • Allan Burnett (Linköping University): Keep Calm and Carry On? Apocalyptic Thought in Britain After 1945
  • Michael Godhe & Graham Minenor-Matheson (Linköping University): Apocalyptic Visions of a Multiplanetary Future
  • Fredrik Gregorius (Linköping University): 'Til the Hight Gods Witness at Length': Apocalyptic Imaginary, Technology and Morality in the Writing of Aleister Crowley
  • Polina Ignatova (Linköping University): Undying Love: Apocalyptic Thinking and Zombie Sex
  • Carl-Filip Smedberg (Linköping University): The Great Future-Crisis among Swedish Youth and the Making of the Future Prepared Citizen, c. 1980

Session 1b: Perspectives on the Creation of Knowledge and Academia

Chair: Madina Tlostanova (Linköping University)

  • Martin Fredriksson & Marc Stuhldreier (Linköping University): The Right to Copy, The Power to Control: What Happened to the Digital Commons?
  • Juliana Porsani (Linköping University), Tatiana Sokolova (Södertörn University), Bartira S. Fortes (Södertörn University), Márcia Camargo & Suzane Lima: Knowledge Co-creation with Indigenous Peoples: Reflections from Non-Indigenous Positionalities through Dialogism, Feminist Epistemologies, and Social Studies of Science
  • Helena Pettersson & Linus Holm (Umeå University): Conditions for Curiosity: How Do Cultural and Cognitive Factors Shape Epistemic Curiosity Together?
  • Elías Brossoise (University of Malaga): Unlearning Antiquity: Refusal, Relationality and Survival

Session 2a: Lost in Digitalization: Accounting for (Un)certainties in Humanities and Data Driven Collaborations

Chair: Michael Smith (Linköping University)

  • Maria Riep (Linköping University/University of Leiden): Meandering Meaning: A Story of a River
  • Lars Ahrenberg, Marcel Bollman & Arne Jönsson (Linköping University): The Språkbanken CLARIN Unit
  • Harald Wiltsche (Linköping University): Two Cultures Revisited

Session 2b: Policy and Publishing Patters of the Humanities in Sweden

Chair: Martin Fredriksson (Linköping University)

  • Linus Salö (Stockholm University), Isak Hammar (Lund University), & Mats Benner (Lund University): Humanities in Transition: Interrogating the Politics and Practices of Swedish Humanities Research
  • Mikael Börjesson, Laura Giorio & Felix Bengtsson (HERO, Uppsala University): Mapping the Disciplinary Landscape of the Humanities in Sweden
  • Klara Müller (KTH Royal Institute of Technology): Qualities of the Humanities: Cultures of Quality in Swedish Humanities Research, 1980s-2020

Session 3a: Roundtable: Humanities as a Technical University – Challenges and Possibilities

Chair: Moa Ekbom (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

  • Moa Ekbom (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
  • Anna Åberg (Chalmers University of Technology)
  • Jenny Beckman (Uppsala University)

Session 3b: Collaborative and New Humanities

Chair: Bodil Axelsson (Linköping University)

  • Caroline Owman (Linköping University): The Use of Animal Experiments in Post-war Sweden
  • Marietta Radomska (Linköping University): Ecologising Knowledge: Transversal Dialogues Between Arts and Academia
  • Caroline Elgh (Linköping University): Ways of Knowing: Cold-water Corals and the Blue Humanities

Registration

To participate in the conference in its entirety, please register by October 8th by the latest

Link to registration

Learn more about LiU Humanities