MC: Rick Dolphijn: New Materialisms: Approaches in Transdisciplinary Research and Theory

Since the mid-1990’s, scholars from across academia have been working with a “new materialism”. Critiquing the dualisms that had been organizing thought since Modernity (f.i. mind versus body, human versus animal, man versus woman, white versus black, culture versus nature), and that, thus, gave form to modern man, they aim to liberating thought (and the world) from this anthropocentrism. Inspired by the critique of  modern man in feminist and postcolonial theory, but also from how fields like biochemistry and quantum physics start from a “more than human world”, new materialist scholars today, are urging us to open our eyes to the ecological (and capitalist, and humanitarian) crises that mark our world today.

In this masterclass, Rick Dolphijn will analyze how new materialism is at work in the different fields of academia and how it relates to other recent developments in theory today (think of posthumanism, object-oriented ontology, systems theory, affect theory). Special attention will be given to how new materialist scholars establish transdisciplinary connections across disparate fields in academia, not just by showing (scientifically) how things actually work, but also by stressing the responsibility (which also means, the ability-to-respond) of philosophers, scientists, and intellectuals today. This respons-ability not only concerns one’s own ‘household’ or research area; it means feeling connected to the whole world and to act accordingly.

// Dr Rick Dolphijn (Associate Professor for Media and Culture Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht University; Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong Department of Comparative Literature)