Interdisciplinary Workshop " Rights of Nature in Anthropocene Literature", Vechta

Languages: German and English

Chairs: Gabriele Dürbeck & Simon Probst

Program, Thursday 02. Juli 2026

9:15-9.30 Introduction Gabriele Dürbeck and Simon Probst

9:30-10:00 Matthew Birkhold (Ohio State University, Columbus): Cold as Claimant: Arctic Poetics and the Limits of Climate Testimony

10:00-10:30 Sören Barkey (Potsdam University): Rechte der Natur vor Gericht. Zur doppelten Repräsentationsproblematik in literarischen Prozessdarstellungen

Break

11:00-11:30 Ruxandra Teodorescu (FAU Erlangen): Companion Technologies: Co-Evolving Subjects and the Relational Rewriting of Legal Personhood in Ted Chiang’s “The Lifecycle of Software Objects”

11:30- 12:00 Susanne Knittel (Utrecht University): Ecocide on Trial: Tribunal Theater and the Agency of the Aesthetic

Break

12:15-12:45 Simon Probst (Vechta University):  Vom Leben und Sterben der Flüsse. Die Verflechtung von Animismus und Rechten der Natur in Robert Macfarlane‘s „Is a River Alive?“ (2025)

12:45-13:00 Discussion