With attendees from Asia, Europe, North America and Australia, the Inaugural Exeter Eco-Humanities conference hosted nearly fifty specialist speakers in a two-day event featuring multidisciplinary research panels, creative practice workshops, networking opportunities and sharing sessions. It comprised panels of international academics, authors and students. Professor Greg Garrard (University of British Columbia), one of the best-known figures in environmental criticism worldwide, delivered a keynote speech on Friday March 21st 2025. Award-winning author and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Philip Marsden, delivered a keynote speech on Saturday March 22nd 2025.
The conference was borne out of the ongoing, urgent need to address how we perceive and imagine our relationships/interactions with wider geological and biological systems as well as with all living beings. A core part of this imagining is the stories we tell. Referencing the multiple human-caused ecological crises we face, this conference offered critical and creative responses to address the need to reimagine our story ecology, encouraging engagement with and understanding of how our stories impact our interactions and perceptions of nature and non-human life.
Generously funded by HaSS Cornwall, the ESI, the CEAH and the RLI, our conference was hosted at Exeter’s Penryn Campus, a world-leading academic and research facility underpinned by a core interest in environment and sustainability, partners included the Environmental Sustainability Institute and the Centre for Ecology and Conservation.
The inaugural Eco-humanities Conference – 21st & 22nd March 2025.
University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, TR10 9FE