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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86567805329?pwd=M3x3nGXX5UaWrQeU1tQF85aWFbztYZ.1

Meeting ID: 865 6780 5329
Passcode: 253392

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Abstract:

Understood in philosophy and culture as the capacity of individuals to make free choices and act independently, with their actions or interventions producing particular effects in the world around, agency has in recent times been referred to as characterizing not only humans, but also animals and even plants, with possible extensions to the natural environment and material objects (Colligs 2023). The importance of agency in society and culture ranges from theoretical to concrete issues related to political emancipation movements and the possibility of change. Since Margaret Archer’s analysis of the autonomous role of culture in sociological thinking (1988) through the emancipation movements of the last decades of the 20th century and the rise of environmental studies, posthumanism and plant and animal studies (Donna Haraway 1991 and 2003, Rosi Braidotti 2013), the meanings of agency in cultural studies have diversified and expanded. This may include agents not traditionally invested with the capacity to decide, such as children (Jens Qvortrup 2005), migrants and racial, sexual and ethnic minorities (Mieke Bal 2011) and even nonhumans and inanimate entities (Serenella Iovino and Serpil Oppermann 2014). How is agency understood in contemporary British society and culture and in British Cultural Studies? What are its implications in literature and the arts of all times? What challenges do the new definitions of agency raise and how do they relate to the history of the concept?

PROGRAM

10.00-10.15 Conference opening

Maria-Sabina DRAGA-ALEXANDRU (Conference organiser, University of Bucharest, NEC Alumna)
Dragoș IVANA (Head of the English Department, University of Bucharest, NEC Alumnus)
Bogdan ȘTEFĂNESCU (British Cultural Studies Programme Co-Chair, University of Bucharest, NEC Alumnus)

10.15-11.00 Keynote lecture:
Sorana CORNEANU (University of Bucharest)
“Becoming an Agent: A View from the Past”

(Chair: Maria-Sabina DRAGA-ALEXANDRU, University of Bucharest)

11.00-11.15 Coffee break

11.15-12.45 Panel 1: Agency in Philosophy and Culture
(Chair: Sorana CORNEANU, University of Bucharest)

Tamara STERMIN (MA graduate, University of Bucharest)
“Virtuous and Vicious Agency: The Question of Moral and Epistemic Responsibility in Ancient Philosophy and Early Modern Epistemology”

Irina COSTACHE (MA student, University of Bucharest)
“Facets of epistemic and moral agency in Mary Wollstonecraft’s pedagogical writings”

Daniel-Gabriel OPRIȘ (PhD candidate, University of Bucharest)
“Political Agency, Petitioning, Democratization, Comparative Analysis, Structural Constraints”

12.45-13.45 Lunch break

13.45-15.15 Panel 2: Agency and Diversity
(Chair: Maria-Sabina DRAGA-ALEXANDRU, University of Bucharest)

Andreea MOISE (PhD candidate, University of Bucharest)
“‘A Chrysalis Heart’: Queer and Affectual Agency in Berg”

Diana NOVĂCEANU (PhD candidate, University of Bucharest)
“Who Speaks for Whom? Agency and Decolonisation within the British Medical Humanities”

Alexandra SERBENCO (MA student, University of Bucharest)
“‘My Parents are Most Real to Me in Fictional Terms’: Reclaiming Agency through Intertextuality in Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes and Fun Home”

15.15-15.30 Coffee break

15.30-17.30 Panel 3: Rebranding Agency
(Chair: Alexandra BACALU, University of Bucharest)

Ioana CIUCĂ (MA student, University of Bucharest)
“Rebranding Colchester’s Roman ‘connection’ in the 21st Century”

Daria NEDELEA (PhD candidate, University of Bucharest)
“Reclaiming Agency: The Cultural Legacy of Lady Diana’s Subversive Fashion”

Ana COMAN (MA student, University of Bucharest)
“Digital humans: a case-study of extending agency beyond death”

Antonia VĂRZARU (MA student, University of Bucharest)
“Moral Agency and Artificial Intelligence after the Posthumanist Turn

17.30-18.00 Closing remarks followed by wine and pretzels

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This conference is organized by the Centre of Excellence for the Study of Cultural Identity (CESIC) and the British Cultural Studies Centre (BCSC) of the University of Bucharest, in collaboration with New Europe College (NEC).