Geoanthropology

Geoanthropology: Metabolism, legal imagination and geopraxis
Conference, 9-11 June 2025, Venice

Call for papers

This interdisciplinary conference aims to advance the conceptual development of geoanthropology, an emerging epistemological framework in which Earth system science encounters the humanities and social sciences. Grounded in the Anthropocene debate, which has highlighted the urgency of overcoming antagonisms between disciplines, geoanthropology accepts the importance of such concepts as planetary boundaries, geological markers, and earth states while integrating them with the theory and history of phenomena such as extractivism and technology, biopolitics and exploitation, and modernity and legal thought.

Although this is a promising and ambitious epistemological undertaking, further conceptual development is needed before geoanthropology can become an established research paradigm. The conference’s objective is to explore the relevance of three concepts for the geoanthropological framework:

Metabolism

  • What is the genealogy of metabolism and its cognates, such as “Stoffwechsel” and metamorphosis, in different fields (e.g., ecology, industry, cybernetics)?
  • How can we understand the metabolism between the technosphere and the biosphere (and, perhaps, the ergosphere)?
  • What alternative metabolisms can be developed to maintain the Earth within habitable boundaries? 

Legal imagination

  • What kind of legal imagination is needed in an age of catastrophes?
  • How can we develop the concept of climate as a legal good to be protected and construct a new framework of responsibility for climate disasters?
  • How can legal techniques address “geo” problems without simply restating natural law theories, which claim that norms derive from “nature”? 

Geopraxis

  • How can we articulate transformative praxis and responsible science for a planet under pressure?
  • What agencies inhabit the Earth, to which ends do they strive, and how can these agencies become political subjects?
  • What is the relationship between the extraction–production–circulation cycle and the knowledge economy?

Programme

Dates and venue

The workshop will be held at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice on 9-11 June 2025.

Keynote speakers
  • Kohei Saito, University of Tokyo and THE NEW INSTITUTE
  • Nigel Clark, Lancaster University
  • Xenia Chiaramonte, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Applications

Scholars from all disciplines are invited to submit a short position paper (approximately two pages) on their chosen topic, including but not limited to:

  • the historical development and interdisciplinary relevance of the metabolism concept and its cognates.
  • innovative approaches to framing climate as a legal good and reconsidering collective responsibilities in the Anthropocene.
  • the role of geopraxis in addressing planetary challenges and translating them into actionable politics.

Scholars are encouraged to explore the aforementioned concepts, themes, and questions within a geoanthropological framework.

Applications should be sent to geometaconference@gmail.com before 1 March 2025. In addition to the short position paper, please include a brief biography with institutional affiliation.
Application decisions will be communicated by April 1.

Fees

There is no conference fee. Breakfast and lunch will be provided on conference days. Limited financial assistance may be available to independent scholars and those without a research budget.

Team

Conference organizers

Xenia Manuela Chiaramonte

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
ERC PI from April 2025

Justas Patkauskas

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow

Conference committee

Pietro Daniel Omodeo

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Associate Professor

Giuseppe Bianco

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Researcher

Giovanni Fava

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
PhD student

Partners