XI Annual SARAS Conference
Artivist Con-science: Ecological Impacts and Transitions
Environmental Humanities Lab Series: Prof. Pablo Chiuminatto
The Latin American Environmental Humanities Laboratory (LabHal) invites you to a three-day gathering: on September 21 and 22 at the Maldonado headquarters of the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies (SARAS), where, in addition to keynote talks, a World Poetry event will be held; and on September 23 at the Faculty of Information and Communication of the University of the Republic.
LabHal seeks to reflect on the current state of research and emerging practices—such as art-science collaborations—within the field of environmental humanities. The main topics to be addressed are the notions of impact—in the context of the link between art and science—and of socio-ecological transitions. This gathering anticipates an experimentation with formats for the exchange of research knowledge. In addition to keynote lectures by national and international scholars, we will organize round tables, workshops, field trips, poetry readings, and book presentations on the subject.
The emergence of environmental problems has become a daily reality across various Latin American territories. In the past ten years, devastating extractivist practices have intensified, impacting territories and their inhabitants through forced displacement, the loss of food sovereignty, health impacts, and the persecution of activists and land defenders. The region’s different bodies of water have suffered from contamination and other extractive consequences, while rainy and dry seasons follow the relentless clock of climate change.
Environmental humanities are at a crossroads that has prompted their emergence within the broader field of environmental studies. While the development of capitalism and its impacts on the environment have been addressed by the humanities (Ortiz, Rama, Arguedas, Leff) and Latin American social sciences (Fals Borda, Nogueira-Neto, Cabrera), environmental humanities offer new perspectives grounded in inter- and transdisciplinary research, political readings and collaborations, as well as engagement with diverse practices and communities of thought. Increasingly, people seek in environmental humanities and their dialogue with transdisciplinary practices—such as art-science collaborations—perspectives that expand our collective capacity to address the complexity of socio-ecological issues.
From these transdisciplinary perspectives, this event will analyze the tensions, successes, and failures of the notions of socio-ecological transitions and ecological or environmental impacts, along with art-science collaborations. We will explore questions such as: What forms of collaboration or co-creation do we find between art and science from an ecological perspective in the face of environmental crises? In what ways does activism influence this encounter? What models of transition are disputed among different types of knowledge and practice between science and society? What synergies and differences can arise in the dialogues among art, science, and activism, and how do these contribute to addressing environmental problems?
This gathering pays tribute to Pablo Chiuminatto (1966–2025), academic, visual artist, and cherished colleague, who worked as an associate professor at the Faculty of Letters of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. His academic career began in the 1980s, and his research on ecocriticism, geopoetics, and environmental humanities has been pioneering in Latin American studies. He also explored the migrations of aesthetic and conceptual ideas, as well as the comparative study of the arts, books, and information technologies. He published more than ten books, among the most recent: Futuro Esplendor: ecocrítica desde Chile (2019), with Andrea Casals; La imaginación: el taller de la mente (2019), with Valentina Rosales; and Gusto, sabor y saber (2022), with Ignacio Veraguas.
Invitation to the 11th Annual SARAS Conference [Spanish]
Call for papers CFP [Spanish]
