Call for Papers
A Relational World?
Shifting perceptions of the world in a time of planetary emergencies
An interdisciplinary interactive festival/conference
“A Relational World?” is a three-day interdisciplinary festival/conference organized by the Department of
Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology, the Centre for Intermediality Studies in Graz (CIMIG) and
the Botanical Garden (Institute for Biology), University of Graz.
Date: Thursday, 29th – Saturday, 31 st October 2026
Venue: In situ, University of Graz, Botanical Garden and Jesuitenrefektorium
Abstract
The world is currently facing multiple emergencies: social, humanitarian, and environmental. How these are
perceived affects how they are studied and therefore how they are addressed with possible solutions in mind.
Indeed, particular perceptions of the world also shaped how such current crises came about in the first place.
This is because the different ways humans perceive the world play a pivotal role in what action is taken. There
has been a gradual shift across various academic disciplines towards perceiving the world as constituted by
emergent relations rather than fixed laws. For instance, the physicist David Bohm in the 1980s described two
world views: explicate and implicate. In the mainstream scientific view of reality, all things are envisaged as
having discreet boundaries. This is what Bohm describes as an explicate order. In an explicate order
relationships do not affect an entity’s fundamental constitution, whereas, in an implicate order, everything is
constituted through multiple, ongoing and always changing relations. Based on their cosmologies and in light
of their historical experience of violent oppression, numerous Indigenous scholars, artists, and activists, such
as Gregory Cajete, Manulani Aluli-Meyer, Joy Harjo, Bispos dos Santos, and Kyle Whyte, have become
increasingly visible in showing how their ancestral onto/epistemologies envisage the world as relational in
different ways. In other contexts, environmental activists and ecologists have long argued for relational
understandings of the world. Processual and relational perspectives have been thoroughly theorized in
philosophy (e.g., Deleuze and Guattari) and in contemporary music (e.g., John Cage; Raven Chacon). In
biology, attention to ontogenetic development has led to increasing studies in epigenetics and the ways in
which evolutionary processes are affected by experiences and behaviour of beings during their lives, not only
in reproductive processes. Most recently, biologists and medical researchers are increasingly finding evidence
of the relationship between gut microbiomes, soil and food microbiomes and how these can work towards the
prevention of biodiversity loss and the improvement of neurological conditions.
As these examples demonstrate, historically as well as today, scholars have argued that perception itself can
be understood as a relational process of mutual constitution between the thing perceived and the perceiver
(e.g., Ingold and Goethe). In other words, the relationship between knower and known shapes both. What these
approaches show is that understanding the world from such relational perspectives can have far-reaching
consequences for understanding how to address contemporary issues.
The structure of the festival/conference will itself explore and enact relational principles, including
performative and interactive keynote presentations, workshops, and visits.
The organisers of the interdisciplinary festival/conference “A Relational World?” invite researchers and
practitioners from various fields who investigate how relational understandings of the world pertain to current
global emergencies to share their work and practices. Therefore, interdisciplinary approaches, non-traditional
presentations, and workshop proposals are encouraged.
Abstracts on and beyond the following topics are welcome:
• Relational onto/epistemologies and current crises
• Relational perception
• Relational perception as theme and practice in contemporary theater and performance
• Relationality, individuality, and community in contemporary art
• The impact of relational perception on artist–audience interaction
• Relational perception across media
• Relational perception as theme and practice in ecology, activism, politics
• Relational social organising
• Relational approaches to health and wellbeing
• Relational ecologies, and or economics
• Relational approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation
• Ecosystem restoration and (re?)establishing relationality between humans, plants, and the land
• What can plant sciences teach us about the importance of interdependence and reciprocity in
building resilient ecosystems?
• Do conservation efforts that prioritize relationality and reciprocity with nature lead to more effective
and sustainable outcomes?
• What are the implications of recognizing the relational agency of plants and ecosystems for our
understanding of climate change and environmental responsibility?
• Relational approaches vis the division between natural and social sciences
• Can research be relational? Can universities be relational?
Submit an abstract of 250 words and a short bio of 150 words by April 15, 2026, to:
relational-world-2026(at)uni-graz.at
You will receive word from the organisers – Caroline Gatt (Anthropology), Nassim Balestrini (Intermediality
Studies, American Literary and Cultural Studies), and Sarah Bürli (Biology) – by mid-May 2026.
Confirmed keynote presenters:
Francy Baniwa (University of São Paulo, Brazil)
Paola Esposito (University of Oxford, UK)
Courtney E. Mohler (Boston College, USA)
Dylan Robinson (University of British Columbia, Canada)