What could bio-communism be? Perhaps it is a form of communism where the workers, freed from the tyranny of capitalism has reconnected with their species-being (Gattungswesen)? Or rather a form of communism which aims to emancipate not only human but also non-human workers from their bonds? Maybe it is neither, and instead, it is a form of communism which stresses the need for creating new relationships with the environment by abolishing private property? These are but three broad questions which could be addressed during this workshop.

By arranging this workshop we hope to facilitate an earnest discussion on what the communist promise of emancipation might mean in our post-(post?)-modern world. A world which has increasingly become, at least in works of some theorists, open to the possibility of recognizing both biological, mechanical and ecological entities as acting both within and upon it. Hence, under the umbrella term of Bio-communism, we invite each participant to voice their vision, critique or comment on the communist promise and how it could be reconceptualised in a Bio-political age. Such a discussion seems needed because of those present conditions in which biological, ecological, and economic catastrophes seem to multiply at an ever-increasing pace, and because the status quo upheld by late capitalism has proven itself ill-suited to respond to these calamities.

We, therefore, invite interested researchers, students, and independent thinkers to answer our call for abstract and attempt to reconceptualizing the communism promise of emancipation. As an inspiration for topics we suggest the following list:

• alienation: biological and ecological perspectives

• species-being: is non-speciesist communism possible?

• species-being: is racism an integrated problem of Marxism?

• species-being: a perspective of contemporary Marxism

• the future of labour: in times of environmental catastrophe reconceptualizing communism under new prefixes (eco-, bio-, zoe-communism)

• utopian and dystopian visions of communism: possibilities of the emancipation/enslavement of the human species

• biopolitics: governing population of whom (humans? nonhumans? or life itself?) biopower and its relation to alienation

• feminism: mutual influences of eco-feminism, new materialism and Marxist theory

Each presentation is allocated 20 minutes with an additional 10 minutes for comments. Each presentation is part of a one and a half hour long panel with two other presentations.

To submit a proposal please send an abstract via email to the coordinators at Biocommunism@gmail.com Please submit a written abstract (maximum 400 words) with a title and descriptive subtitle. This text should include an descriptive abstract of your paper/presentation and a list of any facilities you might need (technical equipment, powerpoint). As of now, we do not accept participants who are not also presenters. This might change in the future but for now, we are seeking to fill the first round of applications with presenters.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is the 1st of December, 2019. The final program will be announced by email in early January 2020 and on http://www.nordic.university. In case of receiving more submission than we can accommodate we reserve the right to accept those most fitting with the theme of the symposium.

To see the full call please follow this link
http://nordic.university/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CfA-Bio-communism.pdf