Book Series: Beyond Humanism: Trans- and Posthumanism / Jenseits des Humanismus: Trans- und Posthumanismus (Peter Lang).

Humanism, which is characterized by the special status of human beings within the world, i.e. human beings do not differ gradually but categorically from other natural beings, is in a crisis. It gets attacked from various directions. Basically, it is possible to distinguish two main movements which try to transcend Humanism: Trans- and Posthumanism. In the book series „Beyond Humanism: Trans- and Posthumanism/Jenseits des Humanismus: Trans- und Posthumanismus“, monographs and essay collections can get published which discuss aspects of this range of topics historically or systematically.

Editorial Board Members:

• Prof. Dr. H. James Birx, Anthropology, Canisus College, SUNY Geneseo, USA
• Prof. Dr. Irina Deretic, Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Dr. James J. Hughes, Sociology, Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies Lecturer, Public Policy Studies, Trinity College, Associate Editor, Journal of Evolution and Technology, USA
• Prof. Dr. Evi Sampanikou, Art History, University of the Aegean, Greece
• Prof. Dr. Domna Pastourmatzi, American Literature, University of Thessaloniki, Greece

The book series 'Beyond Humanism: Trans- and Posthumanism/Jenseits des Humanismus: Trans- und Posthumanismus' is being published by the international publishing house Peter Lang: http://www.peterlang.net/.

"Audiovisual Posthumanism: Aesthetics, Cultural Theory and the Arts," University of the Aegean, Greece, September 24–26, 2010.

Posthumanism is not only an academic theory interpreting the recent cultural attitudes of scholars, but a reality becoming more and more visible to the totality of the audiovisual media of our times. It’s about time to see and examine all posthumanist aspects as they are expressed in a wide range of the Humanities, Social Sciences and the evolution of the Arts. Therefore, the Conference aims at approaching Posthumanism not only as an alternative for Transhumanism (which reflects a lot of American theory), but also as a New Humanism (an attitude mainly adopted by European theory) or an expression of Postmodernism. For the above reasons, papers discussing Neo-Humanistic approaches are most welcome. Moreover, we also welcome papers criticizing Posthumanism, either as a form of Transhumanism or as an expression of the Postmodern, as the main ambition of the organizers of this conference is to set more fertile ground for serious and unprejudiced discussions on the contemporary directions of philosophy, theory and aesthetics.

Themes include:

• Posthumanist Cultural Theory and Art Theory
• Posthumanism, Visual Arts and Digital Media
• Posthumanist Aesthetics
• Posthumanism and Transhumanism
• Posthumanism as a New Humanism
• Posthumanism and the Postmodern
• Criticizing Posthumanism
• Posthuman Identities
• Posthumanist Utopias and Dystopias
• Posthumanist Literary Theory
• Posthumanism and Science Fiction
• Posthumanism and Comics [from comic strips to graphic novels]

Submissions (by June 15, 2010) to:

1. Evi Sampanikou: e.sampanikou@ct.aegean.gr
2. Stefan Lorenz Sorgner: sorgner@web.de
3. Domna Pastourmatzi: pastourm@enl.auth.gr
4. Irina Deretic: ideretic1@gmail.com