The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) is holding its biennial conference at the University of Maryland, College Park, July 8-11, 2025, and virtually, July 17-18. Here is your guide to all things Canadian at the conference.*
*if we missed anything, let us know!
Wednesday, July 9th
Session 3: 8:30 – 10am
3.3 Health and Breath in Literature (Disease and Health Humanities) – Tawes Hall, Room 0201
- The Dual Nature of Atmosphere: Linking Environmental and Emotional Landscapes in N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season—Emma D’Amico, Carleton University (HYBRID)
3.5 Airborne Gothic (Disaster, Dystopia, Pollution, Toxicity, Wastes) – Tawes Hall, Room 0207
- Airborne Paranoia and American Power in The X-Files— Colby Payne, University of British Columbia
- ‘An Eerie Orange’: The Airborne Gothic of Canadian Wildfire Smoke—Alexandra Rahr, University of Toronto
Session 4: 10:30am – 12pm
4.5 Cinematic Atmospheres: Aesthetics and Politics of Air in Women’s Ecocinema (Ecomedia, Ecocinema, and Eco-art) – Tawes Hall, Room 0207
- There’s Something in the Air: Anticolonial and Colonial Atmospheres in Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust— Kirsten Favreau, University of Ottawa
4.8 Global Indigenous Perspectives (De/colonial and Indigenous Perspectives) – Tawes Hall, Room 0221
- Decolonizing the Atmosphere: Analyzing Environmental Justice through the Lens of NFBC’s Productions—John Bessai, Trent University (HYBRID)
4.9 Plants and Trees (Plants, Food, Agriculture, and Gardens) – Tawes Hall, Room 0223
- From Kith to Kin: Grounding North American ginseng relations in patchy feminist plant studies—Oriana Schwartzentruber, York University (HYBRID)
Thursday, July 10th
Session 6: 8:30 – 10 am
6.4 What’s in the Modern Air: Modernist Atmospheres and Environmental Justice (Atmosphere, Sky, Water, Weather) – Tawes Hall 2025
- Gertrude Stein, the Dust Bowl, and Climate Grief—Anne Raine, University of Ottawa
Session 7: 1:30 – 3pm
7.4 Historical Climates of Health (Disease and Health Humanities) – Tawes Hall, Room 0201
- Promises of a “Healthy and Temperate Climate”: Mary Ann Shadd’s Endorsement of Canada in A Plea for Emigration (1852)—Charity Matthews, College of New Caledonia
Friday, July 11th
Session 9: 8:30 – 10am
9.4 Scent Environments (Breath and Breathing, Sensory Studies) – Tawes Hall, Room 0221
- “There is a scent”: Landsensing and the Sovereignty of Scent in Jordan Abel’s Empty Spaces—Stephanie Oliver, University of Alberta – Augustana (HYBRID)
9.7 Sound Environments I (Breath and Breathing, Sensory Studies) – Tawes Hall, Room 0236
- Amplifying Change: The Intersection of Music and Environmental Responsibility—Lindsay Fleming, McGill University
9.10 Eco Poetry II (Ecopoetics and Ecoaesthetics) – Tawes Hall, Room 1106
- Empire of the Elements: John Franklin, Eleanor Anne Porden, and the Myth of Climate Conquest—Adeline Johns-Putra, Queen’s University
Session 10: 10:30am – 12pm
10.6 Weather and Creativity (Pedagogy, Public Engagement, and Activism) – Tawes Hall, Room 0221
- Atmospheric SF from the Microclimate Meteorological Institute—Aftab Mirzaeie, York University STS (HYBRID)
10.7 Creative Narratives of Air Pollution Roundtable (Air Quality, Temperature, Atmospheric Justice) – Tawes Hall, Room 0223
- Atmospheric Intimacies: Visibility, Pollution, and Relational Decay in Mugre rosa by Fernanda Trías— Samiksha Puri, McGill University
Session 11: 1:30 – 3pm
11.9 Fire Humanities: Theory and Practice (Disaster, Dystopia, Pollution, Toxicity, Wastes) – Tawes Hall, Room 1106
- Where There’s Fire There’s Smoke—Andreas Rutkauskas, The University of British Columbia
Session 12: 3:30 – 5pm
12.7 Contemporary Climates of Health (Disease and Health Humanities) – Tawes Hall, Room 0221
- All Breath is Assisted: Air/Pressure, Ventilation Systems, and the Mechanical Reproduction of Breath—Lindsay LeBlanc, University of Toronto (HYBRID)
12.8 Literary Animals (Multispecies and More-than-Human Ecologies) – Tawes Hall, Room 0223
- “Birds in the Smokeless Air”: Human and Nonhuman Co-Belonging in South Asian Bengali Poetry—Yusuf Saadi, McGill University (HYBRID)
ASLE 2025 Virtual Conference Schedule – Thursday, July 17, 2025
8:30-10am EDT — Session 1
1.1 Indian Ocean Environmentalisms (Borders, Commons, Regions, Transnationalism, Urban Spaces)
- Water-Human Relations: Ostracised Occupations of Deltaic Ecologies of the Indian Ocean— Amrita DasGupta, SOAS (London)
1:30-3:00pm EDT — Session 3
3.3 Queer and Trans Climate Futures (Gender and Sexuality)
- White Heat and Trans Plants: An Ecomaterialist View of Medieval Romance—Aylin Malcolm, University of Guelph
3:30-5:00pm EDT — Session 4
4.1 Collective Breathing and Atmospheric Connection (Breath and Breathing, Sensory Studies)
- Breathing as Listening: Relational Atmospheres in Jeppe Hein’s Breathe with Me—Steve Tu, University of Toronto
5:30–7:00pm EDT— Session 5
5.5 Pedagogies for the Atmospheric and Climate Humanities (Pedagogy, Public Engagement, and Activism)
- Energy Emergency Repair Kit—Mark Simpson, University of Alberta, and jessie beier, Concordia University
ASLE 2025 Virtual Conference Schedule – Friday, July 18th, 2025
1:30-3:00pm EDT — Session 8
8.1 Air, Smell and Socio-Environmental Inequality (Breath and Breathing, Sensory Studies)
- Atmo-racism and fragrant being – PoCs in Germany—Jayanthan Sriram and Neslihan Sriram-Uzundal, Concordia University
8.2 Ecocinema: India in Focus (Ecomedia, Ecocinema, and Eco-art)
- Through Haze and Heart: Atmospheric Identification and Transpecies Empathy in Shaunak Sen’s All that Breathes (2022)—Alex Ventimilla, University of Alberta
8.4 Aesthetics of Air Pollution (Disaster, Dystopia, Pollution, Toxicity, Wastes)
- Hazy Commons: Wildfire Smoke’s Dissociative Structure of Feeling—Fergie Maxwell, Toronto Metropolitan University
