{"id":848,"date":"2026-05-30T18:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T17:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/?p=848"},"modified":"2026-05-31T18:27:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:27:52","slug":"naturalness-norms-and-complex-societies-a-gsej-end-of-year-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/2026\/05\/30\/naturalness-norms-and-complex-societies-a-gsej-end-of-year-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Naturalness, Norms and Complex Societies: A GSEJ End-of-Year Event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\"><strong>Time: 30 June 2026 | 10:00\u201313:00<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Venue: Cornwallis East Seminar Room 1, University of Kent, Canterbury<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice (GSEJ) is delighted to invite colleagues, students and friends to <em>Naturalness, Norms and Complex Societies<\/em>, our end-of-academic-year event taking place on Tuesday 30 June 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Organised in collaboration with the <a href=\"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/social-political-movements\/\">Centre for the Study of Social &amp; Political Movements (CSPM)<\/a>, the event brings together scholars from sociology, anthropology, criminology, digital sociology, medical humanities and science and technology studies to explore a deceptively simple question: <strong>what do we mean when we describe something as &#8216;natural&#8217;?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">From identity and belonging to artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, this event creates a space for critical and interdisciplinary reflection on the ways ideas of naturalness inform social norms, political claims and emerging futures.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Session 1: Identities and the &#8216;Natural&#8217; Self (10:00\u201311:20) <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The morning begins with reflections on identity, authenticity and belonging.<\/p>\n<ul data-spread=\"false\">\n<li><strong>Sweta Rajan-Rankin<\/strong> \u2013 <em>The Nature of Race: Nomadic Subjectivities and New Materialisms<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Jack Cunliffe<\/strong> \u2013 <em>Identity Fusion, Bonding and New Directions in Criminological Research<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Anna Waldstein<\/strong> \u2013 <em>Nature and the Authentic Self in Rastafari<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tea Break (11:20\u201311:40)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Session 2: Technology and Reconfiguring the Natural (11:40\u201313:00)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The second session turns to the ways emerging technologies challenge, reshape and reimagine understandings of the natural world.<\/p>\n<ul data-spread=\"false\">\n<li><strong>Vince Miller<\/strong> \u2013 <em>Artificial intelligence and unconditional love<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Keira Pratt-Boyden<\/strong> \u2013 <em>Attuned Listening: Politics of Care and the Refusal of Clinical Capture among Mental Health Activists in London<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Oliver Pritchard Moore<\/strong> \u2013 <em>&#8216;Why is natural not good enough?&#8217; Imaginaries of nature and naturalness in stakeholder discussions on plant synthetic biology<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Together, these talks examine how contemporary societies negotiate the boundaries between the natural and the artificial, the authentic and the engineered, the human and the technological.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The event also marks an opportunity to celebrate another busy academic year and to strengthen connections across disciplines. Following the morning programme, several GSEJ members (including Joy Y. Zhang, \u00a0Trude Sundberg and Ceylan Hassan) will be speaking at the CSPM afternoon event, creating opportunities for further discussion across research communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Refreshments and lunch will be provided. Please register your participation here: <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSc-rfioWH2MsYaQksDCDw5z4hg2iHxYgZSqHDSC-LQ0dRR0hA\/viewform\">https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSc-rfioWH2MsYaQksDCDw5z4hg2iHxYgZSqHDSC-LQ0dRR0hA\/viewform<\/a><\/p>\n<p>We warmly invite colleagues to join us for what promises to be a stimulating morning of discussion, debate and community-building.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-855\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/files\/2026\/05\/GSEJ-Event-2026-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1536\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Time: 30 June 2026 | 10:00\u201313:00 Venue: Cornwallis East Seminar Room 1, University of Kent, Canterbury The Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice (GSEJ) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/2026\/05\/30\/naturalness-norms-and-complex-societies-a-gsej-end-of-year-event\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78017,"featured_media":853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78017"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":857,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions\/857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/global-science-and-epistemic-justice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}