         **[Home](<https://flame-lunge-b9b.notion.site/Swiss-Literary-PhD-Network-1e366beb5e888017870ae2ca05a0d1be>)   |   [About](<https://flame-lunge-b9b.notion.site/About-DocNetCH-1e366beb5e888137ae23c55daa231757>)   |   [Workshops](<https://flame-lunge-b9b.notion.site/Workshops-20266beb5e8880ef8cfffe3aa93d143b>)   |   [Opportunities](<https://flame-lunge-b9b.notion.site/Opportunities-20266beb5e88804791dfe881167fdfa7>)   |   [Join DocNetCH](<https://flame-lunge-b9b.notion.site/Join-DocNetCH-1e366beb5e8881649ea2fdca0e0c033c>)   |   [Contact](<https://flame-lunge-b9b.notion.site/Contact-us-1e366beb5e8881db817dc6b8712ef950>)**

<aside>

DocNetCH meets once per semester at a different university to discuss contemporary questions, exchange ideas, and build collaborations. The format varies depending on the organisers but it will always entail

a formal component, such as a keynote lecture, or panel of speakers
an informal component (coffee break) for networking
a workshop component relating to the topic (discussion of a text, feedback to PhD speakers, brainstorm of a topic) </aside>

Upcoming Workshop:

More-Than-Species Storytelling

When: 24. October 2025 @ 14:00

Where: ISEK – Populäre Kulturen, University of Zurich Affolternstrasse 56, 8050 Zürich Oerlikon (AFL-E-020)

RSVP: jacqueline.heinzelmann2[at]uzh.ch

Program

14:00-14:15

14:15-15:45

15:45-16:30

16:30-17:30

17:30-18:00

18:00-19:30

Welcome

Prof. Dr. Julia Grillmayr (Kunstuniversität Linz) Interactive Workshop on More-than-Species Storytelling

Coffee Break

Discussion More-than-Species Storytelling & Individual PhD Research

DocNetCH Townhall & Closing

Apéro

Transfer to ETH Audimax, Rämistrasse 101, HG F 30

20:15-21:30

Prof. Dr. Eva Horn (Universität Wien) (in GERMAN) „Steuerungsfantasien. Science Fiction im Anthropozän“

Interactive Workshop: More-Than-Species Storytelling

Prof. Dr. Julia Grillmayr (Art University of Linz) will be hosting an interactive on More-Than-Species Storytelling – here is a short description of the interactive workshop:

The novels Creation Lake (2024) by Rachel Kushner, Venomous Lumpsucker (2022) by Ned Beauman, The Extinction of Irena Rey (2024) by Jennifer Croft and Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach series (2014-2024), invite us to think about concepts of ‘wilderness’ and ‘nature’, about deep time perspectives and extinction as hyperobject, about more-than-human liveliness that is barely graspable with (human) language. However, these novels are far from what you would usually call nature writing. While their settings include rural areas, the bottom of the ocean, old growth forests, swamps and caves, their protagonists and focal points are, for the most part, very confused humans – p.ex. translators, spies, activists and corporate executives – who are mingled in very human affairs – like plotting, spying, pretending, worrying about social status, filling out forms, reporting to their bosses, …

In the workshop, we will read some passages of these novels together as well as some theoretical inputs on more-than-human communication/expression. Taking this case study that I am about to develop as a starting point, we will discuss different ways of what is often referred to as “giving voice to the non-human” – and why this is something writers and readers aspire to. If this connects to your own work, please feel free to bring further examples, quotes and analyses.