Personal Information
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Given name: Penn









Surname: Newell









Email: penn.newell@gmail.com









I understand that by submitting this form, I consent to the use of my data for the purposes of the 2026 Forum on Artistic Research'.: Yes









I agree to the terms of service.: Yes













Your contribution
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Title: Critical Poetics and Ecology









Format: Roundtable contribution (5)









Main language: English









Abstract:
This roundtable is a space to discuss contemporary critical poetics—textual and visual—as a site of ecological thought. How do textual and visual poetics think and rethink ecology? Is it possible to discover organising principles mediating questions of ecology in contemporary artistic process, style, form, material or otherwise? Do we yet possess the language that we need for speaking about these poetics? What, if anything, is stopping us from scaling critical poetics into emancipatory praxes in an ecological context?

The positioning of this roundtable draws together postcolonial and anti-racist theorists of ecology, poetry, and language, namely Mel Y. Chen, Édouard Glissant, Sylvia Wynter and Aimé Césaire. For Mel Y. Chen the ‘alchemical magic of language… animate humans, animals, and the things in between’. Sylvia Wynter and Aimé Césaire both mediate a similar critical inquiry into the history of the natural sciences through a question of language, focussing a critique of narrative and poetic struggle by interrogating the role of stories and language in colonial formations and extractive paradigms in industrial and social relations of production. In step with Édouard Glissant, such "poetics" expose and elaborate on what is required to redress the intersecting imbalances of power behind climate catastrophe. 

Following a critical framing statement, the roundtable unfolds in an overlap between these thinkers. Contributors are invited to bring an example from contemporary artistic practice or research for collective close-reading, in either text, image, or descriptive format. Each participant will receive a glossary of key terms to inform the discussion. Together, we will seek to compose a descriptive space capable of thinking and scaling a critical poetics of ecology. The roundtable builds on existing research in Critical Poetics and Ecology, which has so far engaged curator Samia Henni and poets Padraig Regan, James Goodwin and frank r jagoe.












Image: https://www.sar2026.ie/system/files/webform/submit_contribution/437/Image.jpg









Short biographies of the presenter(s):
- Dr Penn Newell is Lecturer in Creative and Critical Writing at Birkbeck University, London specialising in critical ecologies, creative-critical writing and critical race studies. Their writing has featured or is forthcoming in Textual Practice, Cultural Politics and Social Text, whilst their poetry has featured in The Poetry Review, Under the Radar, London Magazine, and elsewhere. 










Previous presentations or iterations of the research:
This roundtable will visit the themes of a creative-critical network for poets or people who seem themselves as working poetically, launched in London in February 2026, with research activities throughout 2026-7. Further large-scale work will commence in 2027 and roundtable contributors will be invited to join a mailing list. 














Requirements
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Additional information:
Participants will need to be contacted in advance to make sure that their accessibility needs are met with the resources. They will be invited to share resources on the day - printing of these can be arranged by facilitator if required. 










Spatial and technical requirements :
Roundtable set-up










Potential risks or ethical concerns:
Some content may be triggering for participants. This will be mitigating by gathering insight in advance on what each participant seeks to share. If this is not possible, then a general trigger warning can be provided based on the area of research and likely triggers that will arise. 










Create a user account for SAR 2026: No