easlce conference utrecht lecture Join the Orca Uprising: 11th Biennial Conference of EASLCE at Utrecht University, 14-17 April, 2026
Join the Orca Uprising!

The 11th Biennial Conference of the European Association for the Join the Orca Uprising! – Nonhuman Resistance and Multispecies (In)Justice[/caption]Study of Literature, Culture, and Environment took place at Utrecht University from 14–17 April 2026 under the theme “Join the Orca Uprising! Nonhuman Resistance and Multispecies (In)Justice.” Hosted by the Faculty of Humanities, this was the first biennial EASLCE conference to be held in the Netherlands. It brought together scholars, artists, writers, and practitioners from around the world to explore questions of nonhuman resistance, multispecies justice, and more-than-human coexistence.

The orcanizing committee, led by Kári Driscoll, Susanne Ferwerda, and Mia You, consisted of members of the Utrecht Network for Environmental Humanities: Tom van Bunnik, Salomé Lopes Coelho, Trisha Bhaya, Mace Bielderman, Imre de Graaf, Laura op de Beke, Merve Tabur, and Sara Bédard-Goulet. One of the explicit aims of the conference was to foster dialogue between ecocriticism and animal studies, and the theme clearly resonated strongly across both fields. We received roughly twice as many submissions as we had been led to expect, and it quickly became clear that we were going to need a bigger boat! In the end, we had almost 230 presenters spread over 62 panels, and a total of 278 registered participants, and more on the individual days, making it the largest biennial conference in EASLCE’s history.

Across four days, participants engaged with a rich and varied programme of panels, workshops, roundtables, and keynote lectures. Discussions ranged from literary and cultural representations of nonhuman agency and resistance to questions of environmental justice, extinction, care, activism, and multispecies futures. While approaches and disciplinary perspectives varied widely, most contributions shared a concern with rethinking inherited human–nature binaries and exploring new forms of solidarity across species boundaries. With up to twelve parallel sessions, it was impossible to go to everything, but there was certainly something for everyone—from “Multispecies Malice” and “Vegetal Vengeance” to “Uncanny Intimacies” and “Convivial Communities” and everything in between.

The conference began with a series of pre-conference events aimed especially at early-career researchers. These included a graduate masterclass led by Greg Garrard on cultural analysis and conservation policy, which was particularly well attended (standing room only!), as well as several workshops, on publishing a first monograph, on “slow librarianship” and thinking ecocritically about the contemporary bookscape, and a creative Monopoly eco-hackathon. Together, these events provided valuable opportunities for learning, mentoring, and community-building before the formal opening of the conference.

The conference proper got off to a lively start with Greg Garrard’s keynote, entitled “Orca Uprising or Co-Extinction? Killer Whale Cultures in Flux.” Drawing on popular culture, documentary film, and marine biology, Garrard traced shifting cultural imaginaries of killer whales, from fearsome predators to charismatic performers and, more recently, to icons of anti-capitalist resistance. At the same time, Garrard argued that it is not only our perceptions of orcas that are changing, but rather that orca cultures themselves may be in flux in response to climate change, ecological disruption, and shifting patterns of interaction with humans. He also questioned the extent to which dominant understandings of killer whale behaviour have been shaped by research on a relatively small number of populations, notably in the Pacific Northwest, while the lives and cultures of orcas elsewhere in the world’s oceans remain comparatively understudied. Moving between cultural analysis and marine biology, Garrard ultimately invited us to consider what it means to ask what orcas want, and how such a question might be approached within both scientific and humanistic frameworks.

The following morning, Kate Rigby’s keynote, “Ask the Beasts,” offered a complementary but cautionary perspective. Beginning from the provocation to “be ungovernable and aligned with the orcas,” which she translated into an invitation to align oneself with Leviathan, Rigby examined the contemporary desire to identify signs of nonhuman resistance to human domination. Bringing an intercultural and decolonial lens to questions of multispecies justice, she questioned whether such imaginaries risk reproducing narratives of antagonism and vengeance. Rather than embracing the figure of Leviathan, Rigby ultimately turned to Jonah as a more productive companion for the present moment, advocating forms of humility, compassion, and solidarity grounded in an acceptance of alterity and interdependence.

On the final day, Eva Meijer’s keynote, “Multispecies Storytelling as Resistance: Writing with, for and about Nonhuman Animals,” turned more explicitly to questions of method and practice. Arguing that writing is not an exclusively human activity, Meijer explored how dominant forms of knowledge production continue to marginalise nonhuman voices and experiences. Their lecture invited participants to consider what it might mean to write and think with nonhuman animals rather than merely about them, foregrounding practices of attentiveness, co-creation, and epistemic humility.

Together, the three keynotes framed the conference as a sustained reflection on how nonhuman agency is imagined, interpreted, and narrated. Moving from representations of animal resistance to critical examinations of the desire to read resistance, and finally to proposals for more collaborative forms of multispecies meaning-making, they set the tone for many of the discussions that followed.

The conference also provided many opportunities for participants to engage with Utrecht and its surroundings. On Thursday afternoon, attendees could choose from a variety of workshops and excursions. These included trips to the Griftpark, a vibrant urban park created on the site of a former gasworks once considered the most polluted location in the Netherlands, and to Amelisweerd, a historic woodland that has long served as a focal point for environmental activism and resistance against infrastructure expansion, as well as a visit to the nearby Sonnenborgh observatory museum, which included a letter-writing workshop where participatns were invited to reflect on their relationship to the Earth in the form of a letter addressed to the Earth itself. These excursions offered participants the chance to encounter local histories of ecological transformation, restoration, and resistance beyond the halls of the univerisity. For those who preferred to remain closer to the conference venue, a series of parallel workshops explored more experimental and embodied approaches to ecological thought. These included Becoming in the Bog (inviting participants to “reconnect with your peat alter ego”), a Warm Data Lab facilitating the sharing of personal narratives in order to attune participants to systemic interdependencies, and a workshop by the Off the Menu Research Group, which approached taste—through the tongue, teeth, and nose—as a mode of ecocritical engagement.

The social programme began on the opening evening with a conference dinner following Greg Garrard’s keynote lecture. Held in the Aula of Utrecht University’s Academiegebouw—the historic hall where the Union of Utrecht was signed in 1579, laying the foundations of the Dutch Republic—the dinner provided an opportunity for participants to reconnect with old friends and forge new connections. On Thursday evening, a drinks reception in the University Library courtyard brought attendees together once again after the excursions and workshops. During the reception, the winners of the inaugural book raffle were announced. This was a new initiative, which we hope will become a regular feature of EASCLE conferences, providing participants with an opportunity both to showcase their publications and to discover the work of colleagues across the field. The day concluded with a film screening at BAK Basecamp, one of Utrecht’s leading spaces for contemporary art and cultural engagement.

One of the most frequently remarked-upon aspects of the conference was its convivial atmosphere. Despite its record size, the event retained the openness, collegiality, and spirit of exchange that have long characterised EASLCE gatherings. Conversations continued between sessions, over coffee, during meals, and late into the evening. Participants enjoyed excellent vegan catering throughout the conference and, thanks to the unexpectedly generous spring weather, lunches were served outdoors in the courtyard of the University Library. In a country where weather planning is often an exercise in cautious optimism, we were fortunate that the weather gods smiled upon us throughout the week.

The vitality on display in Utrecht also reflected a broader period of growth for the association. At the AGM, members learned that EASLCE membership had increased by nearly 40 percent between 2024 and 2025. Whether this rise can be attributed to the “orca effect” remains a matter for future research, but the conference provided ample evidence that EASLCE continues to grow as a vibrant and welcoming intellectual community.

The orcanizers would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who made the conference possible: the keynote speakers, panel chairs, presenters, workshop leaders, volunteers, student assistants, and the many members of staff at Utrecht University whose work behind the scenes ensured that the event ran smoothly. We are also deeply grateful to our sponsors and institutional partners for their generous support.

The Utrecht conference demonstrated not only the continued growth of EASLCE, but also the vitality and diversity of the environmental humanities more broadly. If the conference theme invited participants to “join the orca uprising,” many of the discussions ultimately pointed beyond narratives of resistance and revenge towards questions of coexistence, solidarity, care, and shared vulnerability. We thank all participants for contributing to such a memorable gathering and look forward to continuing these conversations at future EASLCE events.

On behalf of the Orcanizing Committee, Kári Driscoll

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