CASCA Panel Call for Papers (Organizers: Mario Blaser and Claire Poirier)

Claire Poirier and Mario Blaser, both of Memorial University of
Newfoundland, are proposing a panel session for CASCA, May 8-11 2013,
taking place in Victoria, BC. The working title of this panel, subject to
change, is "*Relational Entanglements: Reconfiguring Notions of Sentience*".
If you are interested in participating, please submit a 150-word paper
abstract to Claire Poirier, (ccp368@mun.ca), by Friday February 22, 2013.

Organizers: Claire Poirier (PhD Candidate, Department of Archaeology,
Memorial University of Newfoundland); Mario Blaser (Canada Research Chair
in Aboriginal Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland)

Working Title: "*Relational Entanglements: Reconfiguring Notions of
Sentience*"

By probing into the boundary separating nature from culture, much current
anthropological scholarship calls for the reconfiguration of modernist
assumptions about the types of relationships humans can have with
non-humans. A disruption of our own categories not only prompts us to
unravel conceptualisations of what may qualify as sentient beings, but also
compels us to reckon with the very relational entanglements through which
those beings emerge. The effects of this reconfiguration are profoundly
political, since what constitutes right/just/ethical relations is
determined by the kinds of beings that are in relation.

In this panel we seek to discuss encounters of different entanglements, in
which competing notions of sentience may elicit claims and counter-claims
concerning the obligations inherent in human/non-human relations. We invite
contributions at different stages of development based on case studies but
also more theoretical reflections of this problematic.

Information about the upcoming CASCA conference is available here:
http://www.cas-sca.ca/conference/upcoming-conference/2013-call-for-papers