Gardens and their contexts were continually reassessed throughout the nineteenth century in form, content and significance as ownership, technologies and affective aesthetics shifted throughout the period. Essays of 6000-8000 words – with an emphasis in material ecocriticism and ecogothic – are invited for a collection to be published by Manchester University Press. Full details HERE

The intent of this interdisciplinary symposium and exhibition is to reflect on the research process, of being in research, and the documents which facilitate and inform it. The term ‘document’ is open ended, it may refer to text or image; audio or visual; object, artefact or specimen. A document can look forward and back; it can be ‘reached in to’ as a source of ideas and it can be ‘reaching’ in its speculations. From notebook to soil sample, post-it note to statistical data, the document may be the marker of a thought or a way to manage the restless plurality of thinking. Whatever they be, what is of interest is how documents operate as research and the possibilities they enshrine. Full details HERE

The latest issue of the journal L’Esprit Créateur (57.1) edited by Daniel A. Finch-Race and Julien Weber, focuses on French Ecocriticism. It illustrates the richness of a growing field by exploring French and francophone materials that have received little previous attention in ecocritical terms. Link HERE.

New from Peter Lang – French Ecocriticism: From the Early Modern Period to the Twenty-First Century, edited by Daniel Finch-Race and Stephanie Posthumus. This book considers environmental issues in a range of French texts. Scholars from Britain, Canada, France and the US examine the work of writers and thinkers including Montaigne, Hugo, Zola, Yourcenar and Houellebecq. Further details HERE.  

ECOCRITICISM 2018 – International Conference on Literature, Arts and Ecological Environment aims at providing an opportunity for the critical discussion and reassessment of scholarly and non-scholarly contributions on the relationship between cultural and artistic (literary, pictorial, cinematographic, etc.) manifestations and the development of environmental awareness produced around the last two decades. Further details HERE

The University of Gloucestershire and the International Ecolinguistics Association are pleased to announce the launch of a new open online course: The Stories We Live by: a free online course in ecolinguistics, which has been created for public benefit. More information HERE

Nature, much like the feminine, has been fetishized, exoticized, and romanticized as a signifier emptied out. Gendered Ecologies and Nineteenth-Century Women Writers invites article-length typescripts (e.g., abstracts and/or 15-20 page drafts) that consider the spaces and places women writers have occupied as part of gendering the term ecology—whether masculine, feminine, or androgynous. The edition will feature three guiding principles: transhistorical, transatlantic, and transcorporeality (Alaimo, Bodily Natures, 2010). Full details HERE

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2017 ASLE/Inspire public lecture competition is Rachel Dowse for her illustrated talk entitled, ‘Starling Song: Murmurations of Meaning’.

The annual Institute for Sustainable Practice, Innovation and Resource Effectiveness (INSPIRE) Lecture is organised by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) and the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, UK & Ireland (ASLE-UK). This year’s lecture takes place at the Hay Festival on Friday 2 June, at 7pm.

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Gothic and horror fictions have long functioned as vivid reflections of contemporary cultural fears. Now, more than ever, the environment has become a locus of those fears for many people, and this conference seeks to investigate the wide range of Gothic- and horror-inflected texts that tackle the darker side of nature. Gothic Nature seeks to address this question, interrogating the place of non-human nature in horror and the Gothic today, and showcasing the most exciting and innovative research currently being conducted in the field.  Academic papers from a variety of different subject backgrounds, as well as interdisciplinary work are welcome, as are creative submissions from artists and performers. Weblink HERE.

The February 2017 issue of Plumwood Mountain is now live with poetry guest edited by leading UK poet, teacher and researcher in ecopoetics, Harriet Tarlo.