The workshop “Matter and Meaning” investigates both material histories and the intricate relationships that exist between societies and their material and ecological environment. It is informed and yet seeks to move beyond the ‘constructivist- essentialist impasse’ that has long dominated environmental history, for instance.

Inspired by New Materialism while also critical of it, this workshop discusses contributions curious to explore a theoretical position that deems these two polarized positions of a postmodern constructivism and positivist scientific materialism as untenable. Instead, it endeavors “co- constitutive ‘intra-actions’ between meaning and matter, which leave neither materiality nor ideality intact” extrapolating both how this plays out in history, social, and cultural studies and where the limits of such an ontology lies.

This is the second workshop in a series of three, in a collaborative sequence between the Universities of Augsburg, Konstanz, Tübingen, Basel and ETH Zürich, and takes place on September 30 and October 1, 2024 at the Environmental Science Centre (WZU), Room 101