Dear SSJ-Forum member,
The Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies at the
University of Vienna would like to draw your attention to the upcoming
u:japan lecture:

Eiko Honda:
"Becoming Slime Mould? Unearthing Multispecies Intellectual History through Interdisciplinary Connections"

Date and time: Thursday, November 21, 2024, 18:00~19:30 (CET, UTC +1h)

Location: Onsite @ Campus of the University of Vienna Department of East Asian Studies, Japanese Studies room JAP 1 (2K-EG-21), University Campus Hof 2.4, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=23548#c646040

Abstract: The planetary crisis and the urgent need for sustainability demand a radical re-evaluation of the epistemologies underlying modern academic knowledge production. Within this context, intellectual history has traditionally revolved around human-centered narratives that compartmentalized ideas of the historical past into what Arthur Lovejoy termed "unit-ideas" such as 'philosophy,' 'religion,' 'art,' and 'science.' This talk by Eiko Honda (Aarhus University, DK) argues that there are identifiable paradigms from the past that do not neatly fit into these established categories and that recognized nonhuman organisms as crucial 'actors.' One such case study is the Japanese independent naturalist and polymath Minakata Kumagusu (1867-1941). In 1893-1894 London, Kumagusu created what Honda calls cellular metaphysics: a study of metaphysics inspired by philosophical underpinnings of Daijō Buddhism and the ever-changing forms of slime moulds and other associated unicellular and multicellular organisms like amoebas and fungi. This historical research shows how epistemological binaries and hierarchies between humans and the nonhuman organisms evaporated as his ways of knowing came to resemble the nonhuman actors. Building on this historical research, Honda discusses her experiments in creating a new field of study she calls multispecies intellectual history, driven by interdisciplinary thinking and collaborations. She will introduce an overview of the research agenda, its broader implications and significance, and examples of the approaches she employs in resolving the conundrums posed by conventional intellectual frameworks--without compromising the rigorous inductive analysis of primary sources.

For more information on the speaker and future events at u:japan, please follow the link below:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/

We look forward to your participation!
Christopher Kummer, Florian Purkarthofer, Elisabeth Semmler, Astrid Unger and Ralf Windhab

PS: If you missed a lecture or want to review, head to our recorded lectures section: