Honouring the interdisciplinary and multi-modal focus of the conference, we are proud to offer three distinctive plenary sessions.
Plenary 1: Installation and colloquia ‘Project Tension’
“Project Tension” explores the embodied and psychic cost of environmental change in the Western Himalayas, centring the experiences of the Gaddi tribal community who practice shepherding in its Dhaula Dhar range. It is an artistic render of ethnographic monograph ‘Tension’, written by anthropologist Dr. Nikita Simpson – forthcoming with Duke University Press. Soujanyaa Boruah, Assamese new media artist, and Shyam Lal, Gaddi tribal shepherd and artist, created this immersive art installation inspired by the content and themes of the book upon being awarded a Himalayan Fellowship from Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) in 2023. It was included in the “The shape of the wind is a tree” group exhibition curated by FICA in Delhi in 2024. The formative research for the installation was piloted with the support of Research Culture Fund from SOAS, with which the duo and the anthropologist explored the parallels between mental distress of the Gaddi pastoral community and their changing ecological habitat.
The plenary session, held at the site of the installation, will include a colloquia and chaired Q&A with the artist-scholars.
Plenary 2: Keynote speaker Jennifer Clark
Dr. Jennifer (Jen) Clarke, Associate Professor at Gray’s School of Art, is an anthropologist, artist, and transdisciplinary researcher. Her work addresses environmental and social issues, by combining art and anthropology. Jen currently leads artistic research for the UKRI-funded Agroforestry Futures Treescapes project, reimagining our relationships with forests and farming futures. Grounded in feminist approaches, her work challenges existing narratives and creates opportunities for alternative perspectives.
Jen also collaborates on transnational projects in the UK and Japan, where she has lived and researched since 2003. In 2022, she held a Visiting Professorial Research Fellowship at Tohoku University to develop her project Feminist Hospitalities. Her practice spans analogue, digital, and social art forms, as well as public engagement producing diverse artworks and texts, including moving image, installation, and socially engaged projects that work across languages to create spaces for reflection and action. She writes both academically and creatively, contributing to broader discourses related to her artistic and research practice. Since 2018, she has chaired the Board of the Scottish Sculpture Workshop and co-chaired ANTART, EASA’s Anthropology and the Arts Network (2020–2022).
Plenary 3: Interdisciplinary roundtable panel on ‘Fire and Ash’
Details TBC