Skip to main content
An 17ú Comhdháil de chuid Chumann na Taighde Ealaíonta (SAR)

Secondary tabs

Submission Number: 370
Submission ID: 437
Submission UUID: 21f12823-402e-4f47-ae52-32f4a0159f51

Cruthaithe: Mon, 2 Mar 2026 - 10:30
Déanta: Mon, 2 Mar 2026 - 11:11
Changed: Wed, 13 May 2026 - 09:02

Remote IP address: 188.30.133.225
Submitted by: Anonymous
Teanga: English

Is draft: Níl
Current page: webform_confirmation

Flagged:
Given name Penn
Surname Newell
Email penn.newell@gmail.com
I understand that by submitting this form, I consent to the use of my data for the purposes of the 2026 Forum on Artistic Research'.
I agree to the terms of service.
Title Critical Poetics and Ecology
Format Roundtable contribution
Main language English
Abstract This roundtable is a space to discuss contemporary critical poetics—textual and visual—as a site of ecological thought. How do textual and visual poetics think and rethink ecology? Is it possible to discover organising principles mediating questions of ecology in contemporary artistic process, style, form, material or otherwise? Do we yet possess the language that we need for speaking about these poetics? What, if anything, is stopping us from scaling critical poetics into emancipatory praxes in an ecological context?

The positioning of this roundtable draws together postcolonial and anti-racist theorists of ecology, poetry, and language, namely Mel Y. Chen, Édouard Glissant, Sylvia Wynter and Aimé Césaire. For Mel Y. Chen the ‘alchemical magic of language… animate humans, animals, and the things in between’. Sylvia Wynter and Aimé Césaire both mediate a similar critical inquiry into the history of the natural sciences through a question of language, focussing a critique of narrative and poetic struggle by interrogating the role of stories and language in colonial formations and extractive paradigms in industrial and social relations of production. In step with Édouard Glissant, such "poetics" expose and elaborate on what is required to redress the intersecting imbalances of power behind climate catastrophe.

Following a critical framing statement, the roundtable unfolds in an overlap between these thinkers. Contributors are invited to bring an example from contemporary artistic practice or research for collective close-reading, in either text, image, or descriptive format. Each participant will receive a glossary of key terms to inform the discussion. Together, we will seek to compose a descriptive space capable of thinking and scaling a critical poetics of ecology. The roundtable builds on existing research in Critical Poetics and Ecology, which has so far engaged curator Samia Henni and poets Padraig Regan, James Goodwin and frank r jagoe.

Image Image.jpg
Short biographies of the presenter(s)
  • Dr Penn Newell is Lecturer in Creative and Critical Writing at Birkbeck University, London specialising in critical ecologies, creative-critical writing and critical race studies. Their writing has featured or is forthcoming in Textual Practice, Cultural Politics and Social Text, whilst their poetry has featured in The Poetry Review, Under the Radar, London Magazine, and elsewhere.
Previous presentations or iterations of the research This roundtable will visit the themes of a creative-critical network for poets or people who seem themselves as working poetically, launched in London in February 2026, with research activities throughout 2026-7. Further large-scale work will commence in 2027 and roundtable contributors will be invited to join a mailing list.
Additional information Participants will need to be contacted in advance to make sure that their accessibility needs are met with the resources. They will be invited to share resources on the day - printing of these can be arranged by facilitator if required.
Spatial and technical requirements Roundtable set-up
Potential risks or ethical concerns Some content may be triggering for participants. This will be mitigating by gathering insight in advance on what each participant seeks to share. If this is not possible, then a general trigger warning can be provided based on the area of research and likely triggers that will arise.
Create a user account for SAR 2026 Níl
An 17ú Comhdháil de chuid Chumann na Taighde Ealaíonta (SAR)

Welcome to SAR 2026

Endangered Conceptual Worlds

The 2026 International Forum on Artistic Research takes place from 23 to 26 June 2026. Hosted by the University of Galway on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, the Forum addresses the challenges of Endangered Conceptual Worlds. As the 17th annual conference of the Society for Artistic Research it is the largest conference on practice-based research within and through the arts, bringing together more than 300 international participants: leading practitioners, scholars and policymakers from the entire range of arts-based disciplines.

Read More →

Slightly extended deadline for submissions

The 2026 Forum on Artistic Research website has been inaccessible for several hours on Friday night and Saturday morning. Unfortunately, an update to the web server was scheduled to take place, which automatically activated maintenance mode and prevented any work on the submissions during the night and the next morning. We have therefore decided to slightly extend the deadline for submissions to Monday 2 March 2026 at 23:59 GMT. Feel free to work on your proposals until then.