Water is an essential and ever present feature in our lives, a substance whose salience often goes unnoticed in its ubiquity. Indeed, not only does water sustain the possibility of life as we know it, it also connects us—humans and non-humans— across vast countries and disparate continents. Down to the very fabric of our beings, so much of our collective history is tied to water. From stories of creation and waterborne travel to the ongoing horrors of (neo)colonialism and enslavement, water holds a reflective mirror up to us and our societies. Today, however, our relationship with water is perhaps more tenuous than ever as the global socio-ecological crisis threatens to—among other things—submerge even more of our shared world beneath the waves. 

 

 

 

In addition to its powers of reflection, liquid water is also unique for its properties as a “universal” solvent, one which is able to dissolve more substances than any other. In this sense, water’s abilities to bind and unbind relationships on a molecular level can also be extended to the study of culture, literature, history, and media more broadly. Amongst a wealth of others, the Martinican philosopher-poet Édouard Glissant and his work on the “poetics of relation” stands out as one notable example that traces liquidity in this fashion. 

 

 

 

With these ideas in mind, this conference invites graduate students from the US and beyond to submit papers on topics including but not limited to: