[Commlist] Call for Papers: SPOTLIGHT Summer School Conceptual Seminar –More‑than‑humans in the Semi‑Peripheries

We are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the *II SPOTLIGHT 
Conceptual Seminar*, to be held on *29 September 2025* at *CINETIc, 
UNATC* (I. L. Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film, 
Bucharest, Romania)
This seminar will conclude the fourth edition of the SPOTLIGHT Summer 
School on documentary filmmaking in the social sciences (21–28 September 
2025), funded by the University of St. Gallen and co‐hosted by New 
Europe College and UNATC. Building on SPOTLIGHT’s tradition of 
critically exploring Central and Eastern European urban phenomena, the 
2025 edition centres on multispecies relations in urban contexts. The 
call interrogates the epistemic marginalization of non‑human actors in 
CEE and foregrounds the ways in which humans assert or deny agency to 
other species.

*Date:* 29.09.2025

*Venue*: Cinetic, UNATC (I. L. Caragiale National University of Theatre 
and Film)

*Organizers*: UNATC & University of Opole, Poland

*Contact*: Dr. Michał Wanke, UO, Dr. Anna Vlad, UNATC


The semiperipheral status of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) creates 
path dependencies and renders knowledge produced in the region in an 
epistemologically handicapped position, further marginalizing vulnerable 
voices, especially those whose intersectionalities systematically drag 
them away from public vision or recognition. If humans of the 
non-dominant genders, races, ethnicities or classes are out of sight, 
then the non-human actors tend to be rendered invisible, or acutely 
misrepresented. Similar arguments and distinctions – nature vs culture, 
humanity vs animality – have been used to dominate others – both human 
and non-human and can be said to have contributed to the climate crises 
we find ourselves in. Other species’ relationships to humans, the 
ultimately dominant group, is defined by neglect, coercion or 
exploitation. Also, their presence is often romanticized or 
aestheticized, depriving them of agency, let alone dignity.
Scholars argue for a transformative approach to urban studies that 
incorporates multispecies justice, which acknowledges the rights and 
needs of both human and non-human residents in the city . The right to 
the city, traditionally focused on human residents, is also being 
reevaluated through a multispecies lens. Current research seeks to 
explore non-human placemaking in cities enabling the planning of 
multispecies-friendly urban policies and address the rights of non-human 
urban residents, advocating for their access to urban spaces.
Some multispecies encounters are undesirable, creating unintended, feral 
effects of human activity – colonialism, segregation, 
hyper-inequalities. These agents are making their own agency known in a 
way that evokes disgust or detest. Another group of non-humans is 
anthropomorphised and enclosed in apartments whereas others appear only 
as already processed meat or fur. Proposing that human and 
more-than-human interests are not at odds, but can benefit from being 
considered together, through the lens of multispecies justice, we look 
for proposals on city dwelling, planning and inhabiting which serve 
multispecies interests' analysis of multispecies marginalisations.
_Submission and timeline_:
-Abstracts for the seminar are due on *July 21, 2025*;
-Submit 300-500 word abstract to (michal.wanke /at/ uni.opole.pl) together with 
keywords and authors’ short bio;
-Notification of acceptance by July 28, 2025;
-Selected papers (ca 8000 words) are due on Nov 3, 2025;
-Expected publication in the series Interdisciplinary Studies on Spatial 
Dynamics and Marginalization in Central and Eastern Europe by Lexington 
Books is in late 2026;
There is no participation fee. Organizers do not provide catering or 
other services.
_More information here:_
https://nec.ro/call-for-papers-more-than-humans-in-the-semi-peripheries-on-ways-of-seeing-and-being-seen-as-other-species-spotlight-summer-school-conceptual-seminar-29-september-2025-unatc-bucharest/ 
<https://nec.ro/call-for-papers-more-than-humans-in-the-semi-peripheries-on-ways-of-seeing-and-being-seen-as-other-species-spotlight-summer-school-conceptual-seminar-29-september-2025-unatc-bucharest/>


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