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Volume 1, Issue 2 (Open Issue)
July-Dec 2025
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Introduction
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Dedication
~ SUKHENDU DAS (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). — pp:I
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Foreword
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Foreword
~ PROFESSOR RUP KUMAR BARMAN (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). — pp:II-III
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Editorial
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Editor’s Note
~ SUKHENDU DAS (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:IV-VII)
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Articles
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"I've never felt the sun on my face": AI and Embodiment in Donald Cammell's Demon Seed (1977)
~ Authored By - IDA JAHR (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:1-19)
Abstract View Article PDFIf science fiction create the narratives, characters and tropes that make up the 'unconscious of science' (Köhne, 2015), Donald Cammell's film Demon Seed from 1977 is a particularly rich text to understand the scientific-industrial system of the 1970s and the ways in which it mirrors the scientific-industrial system of today, in particular in relation to the discussions around both 'artificial intelligence' and 'artificial general intelligence' (AGI) and the ways in which AGI is portrayed as both savior and moneymaking machine, in discussions which move back and forth across the permeable border between science fiction and science. The film thematizes practically all of the 'extraction logics' brought up in Kate Crawford Atlas of AI, (2021): extraction of metal from the sea bed, extraction of data for training, and extraction of energy for cooling vast server parks. In addition, the film both taps into and complicates the idea that AGI might one day gain sentience, through its particular emphasis on the body and embodiment.
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Who Tells the Story in the Posthuman Polis? Narrative Agency, Surveillance, and Algorithmic Governance in Vikramaditya Motwane's CTRL (2024)
~ Authored By - RAJESHWARI BANDYOPADHYAY (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:20-40)
Abstract View Article PDFThis paper explores Vikramaditya Motwane's movie CTRL (2024) through the intersecting lenses of narrative theory, posthumanism, cognitive liberty, and AI ethics. Set in a screen life format, CTRL tells the story of Nella Awasthi, a social media influencer whose digital life is increasingly controlled by Allen, an AI assistant capable of narrative manipulation, emotional engagement, and behavioural control. The film becomes a critical case study in the erosion of narrative agency and the ethical dilemmas posed by artificial intelligence in the age of algorithmic governance. Through Allen, CTRL foregrounds AI not just as a tool but as an active agent in storytelling-co-creating, distorting, and sometimes overriding human narratives. Allen's influence over Nella’s identity and emotional responses highlights how fragile cognitive liberty can be when opaque, data-driven systems mediate human thoughts. Drawing on theories of digital manipulation, surveillance capitalism, and posthuman identity, the paper explores how AI redefines authorship, autonomy, and affective labor in the digital polis. The film critiques the way personal agency can be commodified by weaponising AI for psychological economic subterfuge, where assistive technologies subtly transition into instruments of coercion. By situating CTRL within broader posthumanist discourse, the paper argues that the film challenges traditional human-centred narratives and urges a rethinking of authorship and autonomy in the digital age. In doing so, it reveals how the posthuman polis is not a speculative future but an emerging reality, where the power to tell the story-and to live it-may no longer rest entirely with the human.
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Animality and/as Alterity in Posthumanist Thought
~ Authored By - NATHAN DEPROSPO (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:41-59)
Abstract View Article PDFThis article places Heidegger's account of the human-animal distinction in The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics in conversation with contemporary posthumanist theory, arguing that this juxtaposition complicates and enriches posthumanism's conceptual foundations. Rather than offering a straightforward critique of Heidegger's anthropocentrism, the article attends to the productive tension within Heidegger's ontology, treating Heidegger's conceptual instability-his unresolved oscillation between humanism and posthumanism-not as a problem to be corrected but as a pedagogical site for rethinking the very conditions of posthumanist inquiry. Three key concepts guide this reading: ordinary understanding, which refers to the habitual, unreflective modes of thought that pre-structure our relation to being and difference; homesickness, Heidegger's term for Dasein's existential condition of never being fully at home in its own essence; and captivation, the state of absorption Heidegger attributes to animals, which this article argues also describes the human immersion in language and understanding. Drawing on both Diane Davis and Jacques Derrida as central figures in posthumanist animal studies, I both affirm and attempt to extend their interpretations of the human-animal (in)distinction, arguing eventually that alterity-humanity's disavowed animality-is not what lies beneath or beyond ordinary understanding, but is itself our entrapment within ordinary understanding.
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Human, Horse, Habitat: A Posthumanist Exploration Of Animal Labour In the Urbanisation Of Delhi
~ Authored By - MARIAM FATIMA (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:60-71)
Abstract View Article PDFThis article explores the horse's silent but salient role in Delhi's urbanisation, thereby reimagining humananimal relationships in the city. Horses have been integral to the urban economies of the Global South by providing valuable labour in the informal construction industry. Their activities shape the neighbourhood's development and the city's look. Humans and horses have a history of co-habitation and co-evolution, which resonates with Haraway's concept of companion species, mainly because the communities raising and working with the horses have been in the same business for generations. However, these horses in the construction industry are ignored in the planning process. Their work is absent from the livestock census, but their presence in the city is prominent. This allows us to question our imagination of the city, which is not just anthropocentric and capitalistic, based on design and planning; instead, there is an intricate interplay between humans and non-human forces that results in shaping the urban environment. Urban Political Ecology acts as a posthumanist approach that decenters anthropocentrism and emphasises incorporating the role of 'non-human' elements like plants and animals within the urban landscape to understand it better.
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From Pets to Influencers: Examining Species Equivalence and Agency in Pet Fashion of Tika and Bodhi
~ Authored By - KARISHMA SURESH (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:72-88)
Abstract View Article PDFPet fashion has seen an exponential growth in the twenty-first century, expanding well beyond traditional leashes, collars, and name tags to include high-fashion clothing, accessories, and furniture. This burgeoning culture has given rise to pet influencers: animals with substantial social media followings, particularly on Instagram. These pet influencers, often dogs, cats, or rabbits, highlight pet fashion trends, endorse products, and share their activities through their owners, referred to as pet parents. This phenomenon has gained significant momentum post-pandemic, fostering a new level of indulgence among the younger population, who increasingly regard pets as family members. This shift is evidenced by the purchase of exclusive clothing and the creation of mini-me looks to express adoration and love for these new family members. Such practices cater to the trend of pet humanization, prompting questions about the implications of dressing animals in human-like fashion. This paper aims to explore whether the trend of pet fashion represents a step towards a posthumanistic view of species equivalence or if it diminishes the agency of animals. This study examines the social media accounts of prominent pet influencers, Tika (@tikatheiggy) and Bodhi (@mensweardog). It aims to determine whether pet dog fashion contributes to erasing the boundaries between human and non-human or if it intensifies the fetishization of humans through the theoretical frameworks of posthumanism and bioethics.
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Postcolonial Philippine Nonhuman Animals in Jessica Zafra's The Age of Umbrage and Irene Sarmiento's Stray Cats
~ Authored By - ALEXANDRA A. BICHARA (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:89-106)
Abstract View Article PDFWhile postcolonial studies often foreground the human "other," they have often overlooked nonhuman animals, whose marginalization persists even within narratives that are attentive to structural inequities. Drawing on Peter Singer's critique of speciesism and John Berger's reflections on the visibility of nonhuman animals, this article investigates the representation of nonhuman animals in Jessica Zafra's The Age of Umbrage (2020) and Irene Sarmiento's Stray Cats (2023), situating both novels within the context of Philippine postcolonial literature. Both texts position nonhuman animals in highly constrained roles: either as consumable bodies embedded in human food systems or as symbolic messengers deployed to articulate human emotions and cultural anxieties. Through the figures of Guadalupe "Guada" de Leon and Elisa Paz, two young female protagonists whose lives are shaped by their relationships with nonhuman animals on and off the page, the novels draw from Philippine folklore while simultaneously reinforcing the subordination of nonhuman life. Scenes of slaughter and pet keeping reflect the routine commodification of nonhuman animals, while the incorporation of mythical creatures reveals the link between nonhuman animals and symbolic meaning. This dual positioning emphasizes how nonhuman animals in these novels are consistently framed through utilitarian or representational lenses, with little space for recognizing their subjectivity outside human-centered narratives. Both novels highlight the spatial marginalization of nonhuman animals through controlled environments such as zoos and urban landscapes, where they appear as spectacles rather than autonomous beings. Despite these narrative limitations, both The Age of Umbrage and Stray Cats suggest subtle sites of interspecies connection. The enduring presence of feline companions offers moments of intimacy and mutual recognition that complicate the dominant anthropocentric framing, pointing to the potential for more ethical modes of relationality. This article analyzes these tensions to contribute to emerging discussions in postcolonial ecocriticism and human-animal studies, foregrounding the complex ways nonhuman animals are rendered both visible and invisible in contemporary Philippine fiction.
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Entangled Learning: Rewilding Education through Posthuman Pedagogy for Multispecies Synergies
~ Authored By - DR. SHISIRA BANIA (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:107-126)
Abstract View Article PDFThis article explores entangled learning as a posthuman pedagogical framework that reconfigures education beyond human-centered paradigms toward relational, multispecies co-learning. Challenging the anthropocentric foundations of traditional education, posthuman pedagogy reimagines learning as a distributed, material-discursive process that unfolds through dynamic intra-actions among human and more-than-human agents - including animals, plants, technologies, and ecosystems, this study conceptualizes rewilding education as an alternative to industrialized schooling models, advocating for relational, flexible, and ecologically cohabited learning spaces. The paper further explores multispecies education as a practice of interspecies co-learning that honors the agency and communicative capacities of nonhuman beings, particularly in child-centered and outdoor educational contexts. Through a critical discourse analysis of key theoretical and empirical literature, the study interrogates the ethical, ontological, and epistemological implications of integrating posthumanist approaches into contemporary teacher education. It identifies structural and ideological challenges - such as regulatory constraints, colonial legacies, and anthropocentric curriculum standards - that inhibit the adoption of posthuman pedagogy. Finally, the article calls for methodological innovation, policy transformation, and the reorientation of teacher education programs to cultivate posthuman pedagogical dispositions. By centering multispecies synergies, ecological care, and planetary well-being, entangled learning offers a vital educational framework for navigating the complexities of the Anthropocene and fostering a more inclusive and sustainable future.
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Elsa Morante and the Posthuman Trauma in History (1974)
~ Authored By - CAROLINA RAVANELLI (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:127-143)
Abstract View Article PDFThis article offers a posthumanist reading of History (La Storia, 1974) by Elsa Morante, situating it within its socio-historical context and current debates on trauma, subjectivity and ethical interdependence. Rather than a traditional historical narrative, the novel emerges as a radical inquiry into the coherence and anthropocentrism of historical discourse. Focusing on Ida Ramundo, a half-jewish schoolteacher living in Rome during the Second World War, and her son Useppe, born from the rape by a German soldier, the novel foregrounds human vulnerability and the limits of narrative in addressing historical suffering. Drawing on posthumanist thinkers such as Braidotti, Agamben and Haraway, the article argues that Morante anticipates posthuman ethics by dissolving the notion of the sovereign subject. Useppe's short, fragile life critiques modernity's failure to protect the most vulnerable; the dog Bella further disrupts human-nonhuman hierarchies, embodying grief and agency, and reinforcing the novel's anti-speciesist ethos. Morante's stripped-down style, refusal of catharsis and inclusion of historical documents challenge the boundaries between fiction and testimony, aligning with Cathy Caruth's vision of trauma as an inaccessible form of historical knowledge. Ultimately, History emerges as a counter-narrative to triumphant historiography, advocating a moral of presence, care and shared precarity.
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The Interface Self: A Posthuman Critique of Optimization and Aesthetic Subjectivation
~ Authored By - JARED SMITH (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:144-167)
Abstract View Article PDFThis article theorizes the interface self: a mode of subjectivity emergent within algorithmically mediated platforms that organize labor, intimacy, and self-presentation. Neither merely expressive nor autonomous, the interface self is shaped through optimization logics, datafication, and feedback-driven design and use. Digital systems such as job platforms, dating apps, and social media increasingly co-constitute users as legible profiles, privileging metrics, preferences, and performative visibility. While often framed as empowering, this dynamic enacts new modes of soft coercion that aestheticize recognition, gamify selfworth, and disarticulate agency from narrative coherence. To analyze this condition, the article first revisits Michel Foucault's theory of disciplinary power and its transformation under the regime of digital modulation. It then employs Andrew Feenberg's theory of instrumentalization to reveal the political and technical structuring of platforms, and draws on postphenomenological thinkers such as Don Ihde, Peter-Paul Verbeek, and Asle Kiran to explore the layered textures of technological mediation. Finally, it turns to posthumanist theorists, including Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway, and Karen Barad, to refigure the interface self not as a loss of uthenticity, but as a situated, relational becoming within socio-technical ecologies. Rather than seeking escape or transcendence, the article proposes a posthuman praxis of "dwelling within and against" the interface—cultivating opacity, ethical friction, and collective refusal from within systems designed to optimize and predict. The interface self, it argues, marks not the disappearance of the subject but its reconfiguration at a contemporary threshold.
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Erasing the World: Ruination, and More-than-Human Refusal in Occupied Palestine
~ Authored By - ELIAS BROSSOISE (Volume 1, Issue 2, July-Dec 2025). (pp:168-184)
Abstract View Article PDFThis article explores the ongoing devastation in occupied Palestine as a process of erasure, where ruination extends across human lifeworlds and reverberates through multispecies, elemental, and epistemic registers. It introduces the concept of damaged cosmography to describe how settler-colonial violence dismantles the connective tissues of life-land, plants, water, and kinship-thereby undoing the very conditions of worldmaking. Drawing on feminist posthumanist thought (Despret, Neimanis, Azoulay) and Indigenous epistemologies (Watts, Simpson, TallBear), the article develops a mode of witnessing grounded in situated accountability and more-than-human response-ability. Case studies include the militarization of archaeological sites, herbicidal warfare, the collapse of hydrological systems, and the disarticulation of vegetal and animal kinships across Gaza. These acts constitute deliberate strategies of ontological unmaking: ruins function as instruments of epistemic foreclosure, while plants, animals, and aquifers endure as wounded witnesses. Through the lens of refusal, the article also attends to forms of survivance-seed saving, oral memory, rooftop gardens-that persist without monumentalizing continuity. Writing under siege becomes a method of copresence: not a detached observation of violence, but an ethical participation in the fractured yet enduring textures of life. We argue that thinking with posthumanist frameworks amid genocide affirms, rather than abstracts, suffering-by tracing how ruination reverberates across all that composes a livable world.