Narratives for Ecological and Sustainable Transition(s):
Nesting Theory and Praxis through Literature-based Workshops

21-22 May 2025
University of Bergamo

What is the primary focus of our conference?

The conference centers around the concept of ‘nesting’ conceived of along two main ways: a) in its metaphorical sense, as illustrating the ethical framework for applied approaches to narratives for maturing a sense of care for human and nonhuman vulnerabilities, and to build a more sustainable, inclusive, intergenerational, and post-anthropocentric (Braidotti 2019) sense of home as ‘oikos’ for different forms of life ; b) in a more descriptive sense, understood as “arranging one object or entity within one another” (OED, 2024), ‘nesting’ points to the idea of narratives put in contexts, especially along embodied and embedded educational experiencing  - broadly defined to include both institutional and non-institutional settings across various educational levels (with particular focus on local communities and civil society).

What is driving the urgency for this conference?

The urgency of the climate crisis remains persistent and shows no signs of slowing down, with its effects becoming undeniable in everyday experiences, including frequent record-breaking temperatures, droughts, unusual weather patterns, and associated socio-economic issues such as migration, famine, and inflation. Critiques of environmental discourse are also increasing, as examples of greenwashing (Pál and Tuomas, 2023; Bowen, 2014) and ecofascism (Julien, 2024) underscore the distance often existing between promoting ecological principles and implementing them in practice. Similarly, international policies are often criticized for their failure to offer effective solutions to global warming (Naef, 2024). Alongside these phenomena, the distance between rational awareness on climate change and affective engagement with it is also gaining attention by scholars, who advocate for new forms of ‘sentimental education’ (Marchesini, 2022) fostering tangible solutions to – and a deeper sense of connectedness with – current emergencies. 

Within the transdisciplinary scope of the Environmental Humanities, where the need for “broad thinking, teamwork across disciplines, and knowledge that is affective, or emotionally potent in order to be effective, or capable of mobilizing social adaptation” (Emmerett and Nye, 2017, 8) is established, the pursuit of these new ways of engaging with climate change remains ongoing. Narratives play a key role in bridging the gap between abstraction and materiality, theory and praxis in environmental discourse, by influencing both individual and collective actions in response to contemporary crises (James, 2015; James and Morel, 2020). The affective power of narratives is widely discussed as a means to foster positive responses to ecological urgencies (Weik von Mossner, 2017; Bladow and Ladino, 2018), also through engaging emotions in lifelong learning initiatives. Recent trends in ecocriticism also emphasize the relevance of activism and expressions of public engagement through creative practices involving narratives for engaging with public audiences beyond academia along with a “fifth wave” in the field (Slovic, 2019). New empirical methods (Hanauer, 2021; Schneider-Mayerson et al., 2023) are also being developed to assess the impact of narratives both quantitatively and qualitatively, demonstrating applied approaches to narratives across disciplines, from literature to media studies.

What research question(s) are we exploring together?

Building on the abovementioned awareness, this in-person conference aims to bring together researchers, artists, and thinkers (in general) studying narratives—broadly conceived across genres and media—as tools for raising climate change awareness and inspiring individual and collective action, especially along with the framework of cognitive narratology to help understand (Herman, 2019). We specifically invite submissions of scholars who involve in their study literature-based activities through participatory workshops developed within local communities, and that engage with empirical methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method approaches) to evaluate the impact of their activities. 

Other information:

• Format: in-presence only.

• Venue: The conference will take place in Bergamo, Italy, in the beautiful setting of Città Alta (Upper Town), where the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures of the University of Bergamo is located.

• Fee: There is NO participation fee for the conference. Participants are responsible for arranging their own accommodation; a list of recommended partner hotels will be provided to the accepted proposals. A buffet lunchtime will be offered on the conference days to the participants. Dinners are at the participants’ expense, though organizers will suggest some informal gatherings for meals.

• Website: www.nestresearchnetwork.com

Reference List

Bladow, Kyle A., and Jennifer K. Ladino, eds. Affective Ecocriticism: Emotion, Embodiment, Environment. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018.

Braidotti, Rosi. Posthuman Knowledge. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019.

Bowen, Frances, and J. Alberto Aragon-Correa. "Greenwashing in Corporate Environmentalism Research and Practice: The Importance of What We Say and Do." Organization & Environment 27, no. 2 (2014): 107–112.

Emmett, Robert S., and David E. Nye. The Environmental Humanities: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2017.

Hanauer, David Ian. "Qualitative Inquiry." Qualitative Inquiry 27, no. 1 (2021): 37–44.

Herman, David. "Cognitive Narratology." In Handbook of Narratology, edited by Peter Hühn, Jan Christoph Meister, John Pier, and Wolf Schmid, 46–64. 2nd ed. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.

James, Erin. The Storyworld Accord: Econarratology and Postcolonial Narratives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015.

James, Erin, and Eric Morel, eds. Environment and Narrative: New Directions in Econarratology. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2020.

Julien, Christopher Felix. "A Political Ecology of Modernist Resistance: Turning the Tide on Ecomodernism and Ecofascism in the New Climatic Regime." Krisis 44, no. 1 (2024): 68–83.

Marchesini, Roberto. L’educazione sentimentale: Per una filosofia dell’affettività. Modena: Mucchi Editore, 2024.

Naef, Alain. "The Impossible Love of Fossil Fuel Companies for Carbon Taxes." Ecological Economics 217 (2024): 108045.

Pál, Viktor, and Tuomas Räsänen, eds. Green Development or Greenwashing? Environmental Histories of Finland.Winwick: The White Horse Press, 2023.

Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew, Alexa Weik von Mossner, Wojciech Małecki, and Jemeljan Hakemulder, eds. Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2023.

Slovic, Scott. "Editor’s Note." ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26, no. 3 (Summer 2019): 513–517.

Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. "nest (v.)," March 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1470948479.

Weik von Mossner, Alexa. Affective Ecologies: Empathy, Emotion, and Environmental Narrative. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2017.

This conference is funded by the European Union (NextGenerationEU) and the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) -FondoPromozione e Sviluppo Through the DM 737/2021. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Italian MUR. Neither the European Union nor MUR can be held responsible for them.