The Posthuman Wound

We’re delighted to share that our team member María Ferrández-San Miguel took part in the 2025 AEDEAN Conference, contributing to the rich discussions on contemporary literature and posthuman studies. 🌍📚

María delivered the paper “The Science behind Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Series: On the Performativity and Creativity of Matter,” where she explored the intersections between science, ecology, and posthuman ontology in VanderMeer’s acclaimed trilogy. Her analysis highlighted how The Southern Reach reimagines matter as an active, creative force—an idea central to posthumanist and new materialist frameworks.

In addition to her presentation, María also introduced the recently published volume The Posthuman Condition in 21st Century Literature and Culture: Interdisciplinary Insights (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), co-edited with Esther Muñoz-González and Carmen Laguarta-Bueno. The book gathers contributions from international scholars exploring posthumanism across literature, film, and culture.

It was an inspiring event that once again showcased the vibrant dialogue between literary studies, philosophy, and science—core to our group’s ongoing research. ✨

We are delighted to announce the upcoming seminar “Posthumanismo y Estética Digital del S. XXI”, to be delivered by our team member Miriam Fernández Santiago on December 17, 2025, at 11:30 a.m. in Aula Ana Pardo (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Zaragoza).

In this session, Miriam will delve into the cultural and philosophical transformations that define what has been called the Third Media Age (Li) or the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Schwab). These profound shifts, marked by both socioeconomic and technological change, resonate with the key tenets of Posthumanism—both in its critical and transhumanist strands.

As she explains, the variety of labels proposed for our current aesthetic framework—post-postmodernism, digimodernism, metamodernism, new sincerity, among others—attests to the difficulty of identifying a stable paradigm for the new millennium.

To address this, Miriam proposes the concept of the “Neoapolíneo”, an aesthetic paradigm that captures the ergodic (participatory) and synthetic dimensions of 21st-century digital culture. Her talk will highlight how this framework fits within agential materialism, drawing connections to the principles of quantum physics.

This promises to be a stimulating exploration of how posthuman philosophy and digital aesthetics intersect in contemporary cultural production. ✨

📅 Date: December 17, 2025
🕦 Time: 11:30 A.M.
📍 Venue: Aula Ana Pardo, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras

We look forward to seeing you there!

📢 This week, several of our team members took part in the #LimLitConference2025, organized by our colleagues from the LIMLIT Research Group at the University of Zaragoza. It was an inspiring week full of vibrant discussions, critical reflections, and interdisciplinary exchanges! ✨

Throughout the conference, our researchers presented their latest work exploring posthumanism, relationality, and contemporary American literature:

📃 Ana Chapman delivered the paper “The Narrative of ‘Murmure’ and ‘Memor’: Relationality and Evolution in Marshall’s The Migration.”

📃 Our co-PI Mónica Calvo-Pascual presented “Body Agency and Radical Kinship in Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts.”

📄 María Ferrández-San Miguel shared her work “Mourning the Human? Posthuman Death and Ontological Vulnerability in Jeff VanderMeer’s The Southern Reach Trilogy.”

📄 Miriam Fernández-Santiago discussed “The Posthuman Wound: Neo-Apollonian Aesthetics for Transcendental(ist) Relations in the Literary Productions by Tao Lin and Francesca Ferrando.”

On day 2, our doctoral student Aurora Rodríguez-Bermejo Fraile presented “The Embodied Other: New Materialism and Critical Posthumanism in The Deep (2019).”

📄 In the same panel, Esther Muñoz-González delivered “Resurrected Identities: The Posthuman and Gothic Relationality in Kelly Link’s The Book of Love.”

📄 Our co-PI Sonia Baelo-Allué explored “Narrating Relationality: Language, AI, and the Nonhuman in Louisa Hall’s Speak.”

📄 Rubén Peinado-Abarrio presented “Mise en abyme as a Feminist Strategy in Recent US Fiction.”

On day 3, our predoctoral researcher Laura García-Soria delivered “‘A New Structure of Feeling’: Social Media, Planetarity and Relationality in The Ministry for the Future.”

The conference wrapped up after three intense days of engaging talks and meaningful academic exchanges. It’s been a pleasure to share our research and connect with colleagues from Zaragoza and beyond.

This week, the Spanish Association of American Studies will host its 17th Conference in Alicante!

As every edition, our team members can’t miss this biannual appointment with American Studies in Spain, and presented their research across the different pannels.

Our team member Miriam Fernández-Santiago chaired the panel “Posthuman fantasies: Dreaming America along the utopian-dystopian arch”. In it, our team member Esther Muñoz González delivered the paper “Disrupting Identity: Posthumanism and the Evolution of the Gothic in Catherine Lacey’s Pew (2020)”. In session 2, Rubén Peinado Abarrio presented the paper “New Materialism and the Wounded Self in Ruth Ozeki’s The Book of Form and Emptiness”. In session 3, our predoctoral researcher Lucía Bennet Ortega delivered the paper ““I Only Want My Life Back”: Spectacle, Surveillance, and Mass Media in Richard Powers’ Generosity”. In session 4, Carmen Laguarta Bueno delivered the paper “Ted Chiang’s “It’s 2059, and the Rich Kids Are Still Winning”: Transhumanism, Cognitive Enhancement, and the American Dream”. Lastly, Ana Chapman presented the paper “Dreaming in the Digital Age: Constructing a Personal Narrative in The Sleepless”.

Besides, our co-PI Mónica Calvo-Pascual chaired the panel “Technological nightmares and post humanity in contemporary US Fiction”. In Session 1, our co-PI Sonia Baelo-Allué delivered the paper “From Dreams to Nightmares: The Posthuman Trauma Novel in 21st century US Fiction”. Then, Mónica Calvo-Pascual delivered the paper “American Nightmares, Trauma and Posthumanity in Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland”.

We’ve had some very enriching days in Alicante, exchanging with our mates in American Studies. Looking forward to the next edition!