Emily Dickinson International Society + Wenshan Conference (Hybrid)
Department of English, National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taiwan
19-22 June 2025
(1 Day Critical Institute + 3-Day International Conference)
Call for Papers
Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 September 2024
The Emily Dickinson International Society, in collaboration with the Wenshan Conference, invites proposals for papers and panels at its international conference “Dickinson and Ecologies,” scheduled to take place at the Department of English, College of Foreign Languages & Literature, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, from Thursday, June 19 to Sunday, June 22, 2025.
The English prefix “eco-” derives from the Greek word “oikos,” a word closely associated with one’s dwelling place. While the word “eco-” in Chinese is often related to the concepts of home/family/community (“家園”/“jiayuan”) or environmental protection/energy conservation (“環保” / “huanbao”), the Mandarin translation of the word “ecology” is “生態” (“shengtai”), a term that can refer to “the conditions of all lives” in the Chinese language. Can Dickinson’s writings provide various ways of thinking about ecology in its multiple forms?
Dickinson often resorts to the human to explain the nonhuman world, as it happens in “A Route of Evanescence,” in which a hummingbird fluttering by is hypothesized as “The Mail from Tunis – probably –” (c. 1879). In some other instances, Dickinson would emphasize what is most alien in the non-human world. In “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –” (c. 1863), the speaker encounters an arthropodal visitor that disrupts the process of dying with its “Blue – uncertain – stumbling Buzz – / Between the light – and me –” (c. 1863). Elsewhere she finds the non-human world a site of what is unfamiliar or exotic in the human, as when she says “His oriental heresies / Exhilirate the Bee” (c. 1881); but just as often she sees that what is most unfamiliar may be fitly situated in its own biome: “Pity – the Pard – that left her Asia – / Memories – of Palm – / Cannot be stifled – with Narcotic – / Nor suppressed – with Balm – ” (c. 1862). Human diversity and biodiversity may be inseparable.
The Wenshan District, where NCCU is located, is well-known for its biodiversity, mountainous terrain, and tea culture, as well as its proximity to the Taipei Zoo, one of the most famous zoological gardens in Taiwan. Wenshan in Chinese literally means “literary mountains,” explicitly conveying the theme of cultivation. As such, NCCU is a particularly appropriate site to consider Dickinson as a person and poet. Indeed, Dickinson is as much a gardener as a poet. Her poems often engage that liminal space between human order and the unsettled nonhuman world, asking us to reconceptualize our relationship with our surroundings.
Thus, our conference seeks to address Dickinson as an eco-poet through an interdisciplinary and/or transcultural lens. It invites papers, panels, workshops, artworks, and collaborative projects that explore Dickinson and ecological imaginations. It also seeks to examine how eco-critics have used Dickinson’s works to understand the human-nonhuman relationship and its relevance to our contemporary environmental crisis.
The Organizing Committee welcomes all works on the concept of ecology, broadly understood, in Dickinson’s writing and beyond. The topics include, but are not restricted to, the following themes:
Conceptions of Kinship
Posthumanism and Multi-species Imagination
Darwinism and Scientific Imagination
Food, Spices, and Tropical Imagination
Ecologies in relation to Economics/Technology/Medicine
The Anthropocene and the Global South
Weathers, Climate Change and Natural Disasters
Gardening, Farming, and Tea Plantation
Native vs. Foreign Species
Poetics of Decay and Decomposition
EcoGothic and Ecophobia
Environmental philosophies
Garbage and waste
Swamps and caves
Underground or subterranean spaces and materials
Botany, Herbarium and arboretum
Atmosphere and Ambiance
Rurality vs. Urbanity
Eco-linguistics and Biodiversity
Pastorialism and Co-thriving
Translation and Transcultural Thought
Planetary Poetics
Indigenous cosmologies
Environmental justice
Volcanos, Islands, and Archipelago thinking
Racial Ecologies and Queer Ecologies
All proposals engaging serious scholarship, interdisciplinary collaboration and/or workshops on Dickinson’s works and ecologies will be welcome. Please upload abstracts of around 200-300 words, along with a brief biography of around 100 words, to the conference website (https://2025edisinwenshan.wordpress.com/) by September 30, 2024. Panel or workshop proposals and creative presentations are also welcome. Please specify if you plan to present virtually rather than in person. The Conference Organizing Committee will respond to proposals by November 30, 2024.
For further information and to submit a proposal, please see the conference website (https://2025edisinwenshan.wordpress.com/call-for-paper/).
荻瑾蓀與生態
艾蜜莉・荻瑾蓀國際會議 + 文山會議
（線上與實體混合）
台灣國立政治大學英國語文學系
2025年6月19日至22日
（1天 Critical Institute + 3天國際會議）
摘要受理截止日: 2024年9月30日
（會議主要由英文進行，少部分中英混合）
艾蜜莉・荻瑾蓀國際學會携手文山會議，將於2025年6月19日至6月22，在國立政治大學外國語文學院英國語文學系，舉行線上與現場之國際研討會「荻瑾蓀與生態」，誠摯向各個相關研究與跨文化、跨領域之有興趣的專家學者、對詩學與生態有興趣者以及各種藝術表演與文化工作者共襄盛舉。
英文中的前綴詞“eco-”源自希臘詞語“oikos”，與人之居所緊密相連。在中文的與鏡中，“eco-”則常與家園或環保等概念具有關聯，而“ecology”的中文又多翻譯為「生態」，這個詞語在中文中可意指「所有物種的生存狀態」。詩人荻瑾蓀的作品如何能提供多維度的生態思考呢？
荻瑾蓀經常以人類的角度來闡釋非人類的世界，就像在”A Route of Evanescence”ㄧ詩 中所描述。詩中一隻掠過的蜂鳥被想像為異地傳來的音信（“The Mail from Tunis – probably –”，約1879年）。而在某些情況下，荻瑾蓀會強調非人類世界中最為陌生的事物，像是在”I heard a Fly buzz – when I died”（約於1863年）中，講者遇到了一位蒼蠅訪客，它嗡嗡的聲響擾亂了死亡的過程（“Blue – uncertain – stumbling Buzz – / Between the light – and me –”，約1863年）。荻瑾蓀詩中也會用非人界來表達人類界中之陌生異國情調（“His oriental heresies / Exhilirate the Bee”，約1881年）；有時她詩中更強調著種族與生態之間的緊密關聯（“Pity – the Pard – that left her Asia – / Memories – of Palm – / Cannot be stifled – with Narcotic – / Nor suppressed – with Balm – ”，約1862年）。人類多樣性與生物多樣性是密不可分的。
政大所在的文山區以其生物多樣性、山地地形和茶文化聞名，而台北市立動物園亦是附近著名景點。 文山的字面意思是“文學的山脈”，其明確地傳達了與本會著重蘊育生命相關的主題，因此是一個特別適合探究荻瑾蓀詩文與生態的場域。的確，荻瑾蓀既是詩人，也是園丁。 她的詩歌經常涉及人類文明秩序與非人類世界之間不穩定的關係，激發讀者重新思考人類與環境的關係。
此會議旨在透過跨學科和/或跨文化的視角探究爬梳荻瑾蓀與生態詩之關聯，並鼓勵各種與主題相關之論文專題討論、藝術展演、工作坊，以及其他相關跨文化與跨領域合作。 本會議也歡迎與當代生態評論家如何運用詩人作品來理解人類與非人類的關係，以及其與當代環境危機的關聯性。以下羅列一些（但不受限於）可能與會議研究相關之主題：
親屬關係與概念
後人類主義與多物種想像
達爾文主義與科學想像
食物、香料和熱帶想像
與經濟/技術/醫學相關之生態學
人類世和全球南方
天氣、氣候變遷與天災
園藝、農業和茶園
原生與外來物種
腐朽與分解詩學
生態志異與生態恐懼
環保運動
垃圾和廢棄物
沼澤和洞穴
地底空間與底層物質性
植物學、植物標本館和植物園
大氣與氛圍研究
鄉村與城市
生態語言學與生物多樣性
田園主義與生態共榮
翻譯與跨文化思想
星球詩學
原住名研究
環境正義
火山、島嶼和群島思維
種族生態與酷兒生態
本會所歡迎所有與荻瑾蓀以及生態相關之跨學科、跨文化學術論文、創意展演以及工作坊之提議與構想。 請於2024年9月30日之前將200-300字左右的摘要以及100字左右的簡介上傳至會議網站（https://2025edisinwenshan.wordpress.com/）。 請與摘要提交表單上註明出席方式出席。會議委員會將於2024年11月30日告知審查結果。詳情請參閱會議網站：https://2025edisinwenshan.wordpress.com/call-for-paper/