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Conference Presentations by Kristin Pomykala

In the midst of wonder, human relations with the more-than-human are enlivened as limited self-co... more In the midst of wonder, human relations with the more-than-human are enlivened as limited self-conceptions die for more expansive ones to be born. At the least, we are momentarily freed from the isolation of disenchanted, mechanized modernity, although the dark side of interdependence may be revealed while caught in the webs of life. Emotion, interoception, imagination and other under-developed faculties associated with magical thinking can allow further access to the entanglement of multiple causal orders when well-balanced with the analytical. Methodological openings in the investigation of/with wonder may be found along particular trajectories of Western philosophical thinking as they move through science, technology, anthropology, and religious studies. While there are dangers in blurring the boundaries between self and other/world(s) and the divisions of humanities and social and natural sciences, the stakes are great in learning how to live in more respectful and mutually beneficial relationships within the more-than-human world(s).

Exploring the intra-actions of new animist and new materialist movements within the environmental... more Exploring the intra-actions of new animist and new materialist movements within the environmental (post)humanities, this paper argues for transductive methods in-between the disciplines of the sciences and humanities and Western, Eastern, and Indigenous disciplines beyond the academy. Following such feminist technoscience scholars as Karen Barad and Donna Haraway down one outgrowth of trails and animist environmental educators like Priscilla Stuckey and M.J. Barrett and Robin Kimmerer and Winona LaDuke down others, we observe different sets of subjects and objects. Yet each scholar shares an open attentiveness to the liveliness and relational reciprocity of the more-than-human. Being present on the margins of any bounded field or at the crossroads where a pattern of intersecting lines of flight has been seen, it is advantageous to present a gift. In this way, the researcher is not only open to receiving gifts but to the habituation of a transductive relational patterning which allows for the emergence of more expansive becomings.

Presented at the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture conference on Religion and Science at the University of Florida on January 17, 2016

Papers by Kristin Pomykala

Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2017

Snakes suffer from a bad reputation, and few human allies stand to prevent their extirpation. Yet... more Snakes suffer from a bad reputation, and few human allies stand to prevent their extirpation. Yet more rhetorically powerful than any ethical injunction halting human violence upon nature, a sensuous moment of intertwining with the serpent can enact onto-epistemological shifts and dispositional transformations. Through a serpentine mêtis and mythopoetics of cunning wisdom and knowledge production, we can imaginatively, transversally, re-member the feeling of raising serpentine energy along the spine, sloughing off old skin, and slithering down among the roots and rhizomes into the depths of uncertainty. Opening up a space for the otherwise, responding to the hum of rhetorical energy coursing through our more-than-human relations, we may still live to tell new stories with the snakes and the rest of our strange kin.

Snakes suffer from a bad reputation, and few human allies stand to prevent their extirpation. Ye... more Snakes suffer from a bad reputation, and few human allies stand to prevent their extirpation. Yet more rhetorically powerful than any ethical injunction halting human violence upon nature, a sensuous moment of intertwining with the serpent can enact onto-epistemological shifts and dispositional transformations. Through a serpentine mêtis and mythopoetics of cunning wisdom and knowledge production, we can imaginatively, transversally, re-member the feeling of raising serpentine energy along the spine, sloughing off old skin, and slithering down among the roots and rhizomes into the depths of uncertainty. Opening up a space for the otherwise, responding to the hum of rhetorical energy coursing through our more-than-human relations, we may still live to tell new stories with the snakes and the rest of our strange kin.

Keywords: becoming-animal, cunning, entanglement, narrative identity, posthumanism

In the midst of wonder, human relations with the more-than-human are enlivened as limited self-co... more In the midst of wonder, human relations with the more-than-human are enlivened as limited self-conceptions die for more expansive ones to be born. At the least, we are momentarily freed from the isolation of disenchanted, mechanized modernity, although the dark side of interdependence may be revealed while caught in the webs of life. Emotion, interoception, imagination and other under-developed faculties associated with magical thinking can allow further access to the entanglement of multiple causal orders when well-balanced with the analytical. Methodological openings in the investigation of/with wonder may be found along particular trajectories of Western philosophical thinking as they move through science, technology, anthropology, and religious studies. While there are dangers in blurring the boundaries between self and other/world(s) and the divisions of humanities and social and natural sciences, the stakes are great in learning how to live in more respectful and mutually beneficial relationships within the more-than-human world(s).

Exploring the intra-actions of new animist and new materialist movements within the environmental... more Exploring the intra-actions of new animist and new materialist movements within the environmental (post)humanities, this paper argues for transductive methods in-between the disciplines of the sciences and humanities and Western, Eastern, and Indigenous disciplines beyond the academy. Following such feminist technoscience scholars as Karen Barad and Donna Haraway down one outgrowth of trails and animist environmental educators like Priscilla Stuckey and M.J. Barrett and Robin Kimmerer and Winona LaDuke down others, we observe different sets of subjects and objects. Yet each scholar shares an open attentiveness to the liveliness and relational reciprocity of the more-than-human. Being present on the margins of any bounded field or at the crossroads where a pattern of intersecting lines of flight has been seen, it is advantageous to present a gift. In this way, the researcher is not only open to receiving gifts but to the habituation of a transductive relational patterning which allows for the emergence of more expansive becomings.

Presented at the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture conference on Religion and Science at the University of Florida on January 17, 2016

Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2017

Snakes suffer from a bad reputation, and few human allies stand to prevent their extirpation. Yet... more Snakes suffer from a bad reputation, and few human allies stand to prevent their extirpation. Yet more rhetorically powerful than any ethical injunction halting human violence upon nature, a sensuous moment of intertwining with the serpent can enact onto-epistemological shifts and dispositional transformations. Through a serpentine mêtis and mythopoetics of cunning wisdom and knowledge production, we can imaginatively, transversally, re-member the feeling of raising serpentine energy along the spine, sloughing off old skin, and slithering down among the roots and rhizomes into the depths of uncertainty. Opening up a space for the otherwise, responding to the hum of rhetorical energy coursing through our more-than-human relations, we may still live to tell new stories with the snakes and the rest of our strange kin.

Snakes suffer from a bad reputation, and few human allies stand to prevent their extirpation. Ye... more Snakes suffer from a bad reputation, and few human allies stand to prevent their extirpation. Yet more rhetorically powerful than any ethical injunction halting human violence upon nature, a sensuous moment of intertwining with the serpent can enact onto-epistemological shifts and dispositional transformations. Through a serpentine mêtis and mythopoetics of cunning wisdom and knowledge production, we can imaginatively, transversally, re-member the feeling of raising serpentine energy along the spine, sloughing off old skin, and slithering down among the roots and rhizomes into the depths of uncertainty. Opening up a space for the otherwise, responding to the hum of rhetorical energy coursing through our more-than-human relations, we may still live to tell new stories with the snakes and the rest of our strange kin.

Keywords: becoming-animal, cunning, entanglement, narrative identity, posthumanism