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The Posthuman Wound

Welcome to the website of the research projects «The Posthuman Wound: Subject and Agency in the North American Literature of the 21st Century» (PID2022-137627NB-I00. 2023-2026), «Contemporary North American Fiction and the 4th Industrial Revolution: From Posthumanity to Privation and Social Change» (PID2019-106855GB-I00. 2020-2023) and «Trauma, Culture and Posthumanity: The Definition of Being in Contemporary American fiction» (FFI2015-63506-P. 2016-2020).

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Asides

Posted on June 1, 2018January 28, 2025

ExRey Conference 2018

Some of the members of our research team attended the conference ExRe(y): Exhaustion and Regeneration in Post-Millennial North-American Literature and Visual Culure.

Posted on January 15, 2017January 28, 2025

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posthuman_uz

Research group on US literature at @fyl_unizar (Universidad de Zaragoza). Posthumanism, science fiction, trauma studies.

🎓 Exciting seminar alert! Our team member @miria 🎓 Exciting seminar alert! 

Our team member @miriamfernandezsantiago will be delivering a talk on:

“Writing an Abstract: The Difficulties of a Simple Task”
as part of SAAS Young Scholars.

📝 Learn practical tips and insights on abstract writing and how to tackle this deceptively tricky task!

📲 Scan the QR code to register and secure your spot!

#AcademicLife #SAASYoungScholars #Seminar #AbstractWriting #ResearchTips #HigherEd #WritingSkills
✨ New Publication Alert! ✨ We’re thrilled to shar ✨ New Publication Alert! ✨

We’re thrilled to share that our talented team members Ana Chapman and Miriam Fernández‑Santiago have just published a thought‑provoking article on AI: Reality or Fiction, now live on Substack! 🚀🧠

🔍 Join the conversation on what artificial intelligence really means — separating fact from fiction and exploring its impact on our world.

Read the full piece via the link! 🔗 https://open.substack.com/pub/anachapmanuma/p/inteligencia-artificial-realidad?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Substack #NewArticle #Research #TechAndSociety #ThoughtLeadership
Our predoctoral researcher María Abizanda-Cardona Our predoctoral researcher María Abizanda-Cardona has just presented the poster “Fostering Critical Thinking through Literature: Assessing the Literary Criticism Workshop as a Teaching Innovation Experience in English Studies” at the XVIII Conference on Teaching Innovation and Educational Research (Universidad de Zaragoza).

The presentation took place in Thematic Panel I-A: Rethinking Teaching Innovation in the New Regulatory Context, a space dedicated to sharing and debating innovative practices that respond to the changing landscape of higher education. 📚💡

The poster was developed by a group of Literature PhD students from the Department of English and German Studies to showcase the results of their three-year ongoing teaching innovation project, which investigates how literary analysis can be used to foster critical thinking, analytical skills, and reflective engagement in the English Studies classroom.

👏 Congratulations to María and the whole team for this important contribution to teaching innovation and educational research!

#TeachingInnovation #CriticalThinking #EnglishStudies #HigherEducation #AcademicLife #UNIZAR #ConferencePoster #EducationalResearch
🍬 Posthuman Fridays (a little late, but still post 🍬 Posthuman Fridays (a little late, but still posthuman 👀)

The Candy House (2022) by Jennifer Egan imagines a world where memories can be uploaded, shared, and traded through a technology called Own Your Unconscious. What happens when your past becomes data — and your identity something others can access, remix, or monetize?

Through a dazzling web of interconnected stories, Egan explores surveillance, digital selves, and the quiet violence behind the promise of “free” connectivity. As one character warns: never trust a candy house.

If you’re fascinated by how technology reshapes what it means to be human, this near-future novel will haunt you long after the last page.

#PosthumanFridays #TheCandyHouse #JenniferEgan #SpeculativeFiction #DigitalIdentity #MemoryAndTechnology #BookRecommendation #Posthuman #SciFiLit
✨ New Contribution from Our Team! Don’t miss “Hop ✨ New Contribution from Our Team!

Don’t miss “Hope to Do Some Good, No Matter How Fed Up You Are”: Ecoterrorism, Trauma and Ecological Affect in The Ministry for the Future by Laura García Soria, a compelling ecocritical exploration of climate affect, ecological trauma, and radical environmental activism in Kim Stanley Robinson’s powerful novel 🌍🔥. This piece tackles how ecological emotions — from anxiety to despair — intersect with radical responses to climate collapse and how these affective landscapes challenge and reflect our posthuman present.

🔗 Tap the link to read the full article! https://revistascientificas.us.es/index.php/ESTUDIOS_NORTEAMERICANOS/article/view/28455

Stay tuned for more highlights from our researchers 😍

#Posthumanism #ClimateFiction #Ecocriticism #EnvironmentalAffect #AcademicResearch #EstudiosNorteamericanos #TeamResearch #MinistryForTheFuture #ClimateJustice #EcoAnxiety #NovelStudies
✨ Team Research Highlight! Check out “Transgressi ✨ Team Research Highlight!

Check out “Transgressing the Code of Desire: Queering the Posthuman in Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous” by Laura Larrodera‑Arcega 🎓⚡️

In this exciting piece, Laura explores how Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous dismantles binaries of gender and desire by centering queer and trans identities alongside bio‑engineered beings — challenging heteronormative codes and imagining posthuman futures that are fluid, disruptive, and vibrant. Through a queer posthumanist lens, this article shows how speculative fiction can unsettle norms and open up new ways of thinking about bodies, technology, and identity 📚🤖💫

🔗 Tap the link in bio to read the full article! https://revistascientificas.us.es/index.php/ESTUDIOS_NORTEAMERICANOS/article/view/28470

Stay tuned for more from our researchers 👀

#Posthumanism #QueerTheory #SpeculativeFiction #AnnaleeNewitz #Autonomous #AcademicResearch #TeamResearch #EstudiosNorteamericanos #CyborgStudies #GenderAndTech
✨ Spotlight on Posthumanism! Check out “Black Uto ✨ Spotlight on Posthumanism!

Check out “Black Utopia and Body Agency in Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts” by Mónica Calvo Pascual — a powerful engagement with Black utopian futures, critical posthumanism, and radical forms of kinship and body agency within Solomon’s groundbreaking novel. This article explores how non‑normative identities and affective bonds disrupt colonial and Enlightenment constructions of the human in speculative fiction, offering fresh perspectives on autonomy, resistance, and more‑than‑human relationality 📖⚡️

🔗 Link to read the full article! https://revistascientificas.us.es/index.php/ESTUDIOS_NORTEAMERICANOS/article/view/28501

Stay tuned for more highlights from our team’s contributions 👀

#Posthumanism #BlackUtopia #CriticalTheory #RiversSolomon #LiteraryAnalysis #AcademicResearch #EstudiosNorteamericanos #TeamResearch #ReadersRecommendation
✨ New from our team! Dive into “Critical Perspect ✨ New from our team!

Dive into “Critical Perspectives on the Already Posthuman World”, an introduction to the Posthumanism section of the special issue, co‑authored by Rubén Peinado Abarrio and Ana Chapman 🧠🔍.

This piece sets the stage for thinking beyond traditional humanist frameworks, inviting us to explore how posthuman theory reshapes our understanding of bodies, technologies, environments, and identities in today’s complex world — where the “posthuman” is not just future speculation but a lens on the present.

📖 Tap the link to read the full article! https://revistascientificas.us.es/index.php/ESTUDIOS_NORTEAMERICANOS/article/view/28501

Stay tuned — we’ll be unpacking more contributions from our researchers soon 👀

#Posthumanism #AcademicResearch #CriticalTheory #EstudiosNorteamericanos #TeamResearch #NewPublication #BeyondHumanism #MoreThanHuman
📣 New Special Issue out now! We’re thrilled to an 📣 New Special Issue out now!

We’re thrilled to announce the publication of a special issue on Posthumanism in Estudios Norteamericanos, edited by two members of our team:
Rubén Peinado Abarrio and Ana Chapman 🧬📚

This issue brings together cutting-edge research on posthuman theory, literature, culture, and the politics of the more-than-human, offering powerful new ways to think about bodies, technology, ecology, and identity in the contemporary world.

✨ It also includes publications by several of our own researchers, showcasing the breadth and depth of work being done across our team.

Stay tuned — we’ll be sharing more posts soon with highlights and details on each of these contributions 👀

🔗 Link to explore the full issue: https://revistascientificas.us.es/index.php/ESTUDIOS_NORTEAMERICANOS/issue/view/1606

Huge congratulations to Rubén and Ana for this fantastic achievement! 👏

#Posthumanism #SpecialIssue #AcademicPublishing #CriticalTheory #AmericanStudies #MoreThanHuman #LiteraryStudies #ResearchSpotlight
🎥✨ #PosthumanFridays — Research Spotlight This we 🎥✨ #PosthumanFridays — Research Spotlight

This week’s featured video breaks down the open-access chapter “Outfacing the ‘In’ Face: The Posthuman Wound and the Defacing of Relationality in Joma West’s Face” by Ana Chapman, from The Posthuman Condition in 21st Century Literature and Culture: Interdisciplinary Insights (Palgrave, 2025). 

In this critical reading of Joma West’s dystopian novel Face, Ana shows how a world obsessed with digital faces, bioengineering, and surveillance fragments embodiment and affective relationality — turning bodies into data and challenging what it means to connect, feel, and be human in a techno-mediated society. 🌐🔍🤖

This chapter is open access, so you can read and share it freely! 📖🔓 Link in bio.

#OpenAccess #PosthumanFridays #Posthumanism #CriticalPosthumanism #JomaWest #FaceNovel #Relationality #Embodiment #DigitalCulture #PosthumanCondition #TYPH #HumanitiesResearch #SpeculativeFiction
✨ #PosthumanFridays — Book Recommendation This wee ✨ #PosthumanFridays — Book Recommendation
This week we’re spotlighting The Sleepless by Victor Manibo, a gripping sci-fi thriller set in a near-future world where a mysterious condition leaves a portion of the population unable to sleep—without suffering any negative effects. 🌙🧬

What begins as a global miracle quickly becomes a social divide, reshaping labor, class, identity, and the very meaning of humanity. Through murder, mystery, and bio-tech intrigue, The Sleepless explores what happens when bodies and abilities become commodities—and how power shifts when humans become “more” than human. 🔍⚙️

Have you read it? Tell us your thoughts below! 👇✨

#TheSleepless #VictorManibo #SciFiThriller #PosthumanFridays #Bookstagram #SpeculativeFiction #BioTechFiction #NearFutureSciFi #Posthumanism #ReadingRecommendations
📢 #PosthumanFridays We’re excited to share a new 📢 #PosthumanFridays

We’re excited to share a new open-access article by our co-PI Mónica Calvo-Pascual:

“Ethico-onto-epistem-ology and Traumatic Memories in The Deep and Sorrowland” — published in European Journal of American Culture (2024). 

In this article, Mónica combines posthumanism, new materialism, and affect theory to analyze how memory, trauma, identity, and body — human and non-human — intertwine in speculative fiction. Through the imaginative landscapes of The Deep and Sorrowland, she explores trans-species belonging and the haunting legacies of history. 🌊🧠✨

What’s more: the article is open access, meaning you can read it for free right away. 📖✅

#OpenAccess #Posthumanism #NewMaterialism #SpeculativeFiction #TheDeep #Sorrowland #RiversSolomon #HumanitiesResearch #TYPH #EuropeanJournalOfAmericanCulture #ResearchToPublic #AltFutures #CriticalTheory
🌟 New Publication Alert! 🌟 We’re proud to announc 🌟 New Publication Alert! 🌟

We’re proud to announce that our co-PI Mónica Calvo‑Pascual has published a new essay: “Herland’s Speculative Fiction Offspring: New Materialist Posthuman Ethics in Larissa Lai’s @haamyue Salt Fish Girl and The Tiger Flu” in Contemporary Women’s Writing (2025).

In this piece, Mónica uses new-materialist and posthumanist theory — from thinkers like Karen Barad, Stacy Alaimo, and Rosi Braidotti — to read Lai’s dystopian speculative fiction through ethical, embodied, and interspecies lenses. 

🌿✨ The essay argues that Lai’s imagined communities defy anthropocentric norms, proposing alternative modes of relationality, agency, and ecological connection. 🌀👥🌱

A must-read for anyone interested in posthuman ethics, speculative fiction, and feminist materialism! 🔍📚

#NewPublication #Posthumanism #MaterialFeminism #SpeculativeFiction #LarissaLai #ContemporaryWomensWriting #TYPH #UniversityOfZaragoza #CriticalTheory #HumanitiesResearch #NewMaterialism #PosthumanStudies
✨📚 New Publication Alert! We’re thrilled to celeb ✨📚 New Publication Alert!

We’re thrilled to celebrate the latest article by Carmen Laguarta-Bueno (UNIZAR): “Navigating troubled waters: Posthumanist vulnerability and entanglement in Richard Powers’s Playground (2024)”, published in Orbis Litterarum (2025). 

This thought-provoking work explores how Powers’s newest novel invites readers to rethink human exceptionalism through the lenses of critical posthumanism, ontological vulnerability, and relational ethics. Drawing on themes of oceanic wonder, interdependence, Indigenous knowledge systems, and the risks of AI, the article shows how Playground continues — and expands — Powers’s ecological and philosophical project. 

#PosthumanStudies #RichardPowers #Ecocriticism #NewPublication #UNIZAR #CriticalPosthumanism #OceanFutures #LiteraryStudies #PlanetaryFutures
📚✨ #PosthumanFridays — Book Recommendation This w 📚✨ #PosthumanFridays — Book Recommendation

This week’s pick is Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon — a bold, genre-blending novel where horror, identity, and posthuman change collide. 🌿🔥

After escaping a cult as a heavily pregnant teenager, protagonist Vern retreats to the woods with her twins — only to discover that her body, and the world around her, will never be the same. As she transforms, contends with hauntings, and uncovers dark conspiracies, the novel forces us to reimagine what survival, motherhood, and humanity can mean. 🧬🌲💫

If you’re drawn to unsettling, powerful fiction that merges Gothic horror, speculative sci-fi and fierce social critique — Sorrowland is not just a read, but an experience.

#Sorrowland #RiversSolomon #Posthumanism #EcoHorror #GothicFiction #SpeculativeFiction #WeirdLit #PosthumanFridays #ReadingRecommendation #SciFiBooks
Our researcher Rubén Peinado Abarrio will be prese Our researcher Rubén Peinado Abarrio will be presenting his paper “Recovering Heritage in Trauma Literature: The Case of Sarajevo” at II Congreso Internacional Visiones Interdisciplinares sobre el Patrimonio (CONIVIP), held at @universidadsanjorge.

His talk will take place today from 17:00 to 17:10 in the panel Linguistic and Literary Heritage, part of a rich three-day programme exploring cultural, artistic, and literary heritage from multiple perspectives.

🔗 More info here: https://patrimoniocultural.usj.es/index.php/ii-conivip-2025/
🎓✨ Today several of our predoctoral researchers de 🎓✨ Today several of our predoctoral researchers delivered the informative session “PhD 101: What Is a PhD?” — and we had a full house!

A huge thank you to all the degree and master students who attended, asked questions, and brought such great energy to the room. It’s inspiring to see so many students eager to explore the path of academic research.

💜 Thank you for supporting our outreach initiatives.
🎥✨ #PosthumanFridays — New Video Summary! This we 🎥✨ #PosthumanFridays — New Video Summary!

This week we spotlight the research article “Mourning the Human?: Posthuman Death and Ontological Vulnerability in Jeff VanderMeer’s The Southern Reach Trilogy” by our team member María Ferrández-Sanmiguel. 🌿📚

In this video, we explore how VanderMeer’s haunting trilogy reframes death, vulnerability, and the boundaries of the human through a posthuman lens. From ecological enmeshment to unsettling transformations, María’s work offers a powerful reading of how the series challenges our understanding of identity, mortality, and coexistence in an ever-shifting world. 🌱👁️‍🗨️

▶️ Watch the full video to dive into posthuman death, ontological uncertainty, and the strange beauty of the Southern Reach.

#PosthumanFridays #Posthumanism #WeirdFiction #JeffVanderMeer #SouthernReach #Annihilation #PosthumanStudies #Ecocriticism #ResearchVideo #AcademicResearch #WeirdLit #NewMaterialism #AffectTheory #SpeculativeFiction #ContemporaryFiction
🌟 New Publication Alert! 🌟 We’re thrilled to shar 🌟 New Publication Alert! 🌟

We’re thrilled to share the latest article by our team member Esther Muñoz González (@esther48123):

📝 “When the Puppet Becomes Human: The Gothic Posthumanism of In the Lives of Puppets (2023)”
📚 Complutense Journal of English Studies, 33.
🔗 https://doi.org/10.5209/cjes.98190

In this article, Esther offers a fascinating reading of T.J. Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets, a dystopian reimagining of Pinocchio where the boundaries between human and machine blur in unsettling—and deeply moving—ways. 

👀 A must-read for fans of posthumanism, the Gothic, and contemporary speculative fiction!

#NewPublication #Posthumanism #GothicFiction #InTheLivesOfPuppets #TJKlune #AffectTheory #CriticalPosthumanism #SpeculativeFiction #HumanitiesResearch #ResearchSpotlight
📚✨ #PosthumanFridays — Book Recommendation Today 📚✨ #PosthumanFridays — Book Recommendation

Today we’re diving into one of the most haunting, genre-defying novels of 21st-century weird fiction: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. 🌿👁️‍🗨️

Set in the enigmatic Area X, this novel blends ecological mystery, posthuman transformation, and psychological horror into a hypnotic reading experience. VanderMeer invites us to question what it means to be human when the world around—and within—us begins to transform. 🧬🌱

#JeffVanderMeer #Annihilation #AreaX #WeirdFiction #EcoFiction #SpeculativeFiction #NewWeird #Posthumanism #PosthumanStudies #ClimateFiction #Bookstagram #SciFiBooks #HorrorBooks #DystopianFiction #ReadingRecommendations
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OUR LATEST NEWS:

  • XVIII Jornadas de Innovación e Investigación Educativa
  • Exploring Posthumanism: New Special Issue in Estudios Norteamericanos
  • II Congreso Internacional de Investigación del Patrimonio (CONIVIP 2025)
  • AEDEAN 48
  • Upcoming Seminar: Posthumanismo y Estética Digital del S. XXI

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