Récits des vivants / More-than-human narratives: an online seminar series, February-July 2023
First seminar on 8th February 1-2pm UK time: talk and discussion with visual artist Alexander Lee

Alexander Lee was born in Stockton, CA, and grew up on the island of Tahiti, French Polynesia. He earned his BFA from the School of Visual Arts (2000), his MFA from Columbia University (2002), and MPS from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University (2004). His work, which has been exhibited extensively worldwide, spans drawing, sculpture, performance, painting and video, forming a thought-provoking decolonial practice-based reflection on Polynesia’s pasts, presents and futures and on environmental collapse from the multi-layered perspectives of the Pacific. Drawing on Polynesian natural-cultural forms, concepts and images, questioning and dismantling the history and legacy of imperialism and colonial narratives, Lee’s work is concerned with the necessity and urgency of transformation on our changing planet.

All are welcome to attend this free event, which will be held online via Zoom on 8th February 1-2pm UK time. You will need to register in advance to receive the online joining link. To register please go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/recits-des-vivantsmore-than-human-narratives-seminar-series-alexander-lee-tickets-524684915707

‘Récits des vivants / More-than-human Narratives’ is a series of five online seminars in which artists and activists will discuss how their work engages with environmental and animal questions, in questioning anthropocentrism and contesting injustice, and with a view towards fostering ecological awareness and meaningful sustainability. Drawing on a broad range of media and artforms (painting, drawing, sculpture, performance, film, writing, graphic narrative), this series will explore key topics for our changing world, such as oceanic potentialities, revolutionary popular environmentalism, the biopolitics of industrial slaughter, animal ethics, and decolonial ecology. In doing so, it will shine a light on the varied modes of resistance deployed by artists and activists to create and share alternative narratives for environmental justice, care and solidarity, engaging with multispecies, feminist, queer, and decolonial ecologies.

While this series will focus on more-than-human narratives through the lens of contemporary France, it aims to open a dialogue among scholars, practitioners, and activists working in the Environmental Humanities in any subject area. Across the series, we will discuss inspiring and militant ways of exposing and challenging anthropocentric, gendered, (neo-)colonial, heteronormative, nationalistic, and capitalist ideologies, as well as their material impacts on bodies and territories. We will explore narratives, imaginaries and practices that work to create possibilities for alternative modes of representing, engaging and living with the more-than-human in our troubling times.

All the seminars will be in English (with the exception of the fifth seminar, which will be delivered in French with English simultaneous translation available).

After our first event with Alexander Lee, the following seminars in the ‘Récits des vivants / More-than-human Narratives’ series will feature:

Seminar 2 – 23rd March, 4pm UK time: political scientist, activist and author Fatima Ouassak
Seminar 3 – 19th April, 2pm UK time: film director Maud Alpi
Seminar 4 – 4th July, 3.45pm UK time: comics artist Anne Defréville
Seminar 5 – comics writer Jessica Oublié (mid-July, exact date TBC)

‘Récits des vivants / More-than-human Narratives’ is funded by the British Academy / Leverhulme Trust Small Grant scheme (SRG22\220097).