NatureCultures of Milk

Cornelia Goethe Colloquium
Summer 2016
Interdisciplinary Lecture Series

Do cows cause climate change? Does milk cause cancer? Why do we find cheese made from human breast milk revolting but love to eat cheese made from cow's milk? Can men lactate? Who produces milk substitutes made from soy, rice, almonds? Where does the milk surplus of EU productions go? How do societies change when their milk consumption changes? How do cows live? How would cows like to live? Is dairy for strong bodies and for strong minds? Why are milk sops weaklings? Does milk matter?

As such questions suggest the topic of milk evokes various academic and non-academic discourses and practices of knowledge. Issues around milk relate to health as well as to agrobusiness and postcoloniality; they concern animal welfare, sustainability, cultural representation as well as gender and species justice.

With a series of lectures by international speakers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds the colloquium discusses practices of knowledge and chains of agency from diverse trans/disciplinary angles, aiming to
promote a paradigm change from an anthropocentric to a multispecies perspective that recognizes the resilience as well as individual and interactive dynamics of all biological, socio-technical and cultural processes. This way the traditional nature/culture divide can be questioned from a transdisciplinary vantage point.

For a programme overview (incl. a download link to the programme booklet with more detailed information on all lectures and speakers) pls. see the main project page: NatureCultures of Milk at www.visuelle-kultur.info

"NatureCultures of Milk – Feminist Perspectives" is an interdisciplinary lecture series taking place as the Cornelia Goethe Colloquium in Summer 2016, hosted by the CGC Cornelia Goethe Centrum for Women's and Gender Studies of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.
Concept: Prof. Dr. Susanne Bauer, Prof. Dr. Birgit Blättel-Mink, PD Dr. Diana Hummel, Prof. Dr. Verena Kuni, PD Dr. Susanne Lettow, Dr. Christine Löw, Prof. Dr. Susanne Opfermann
Organisation/Support: Anna Krämer M.A. (CGC)

projects: Cultures of Sustainability, TechnoNatureCultures

tags: agency, art & science, biodiversity, biology, biosciences, cultural history, cultural studies, ecology, economy, everyday cultures, gender, history, history of science, image & imagination, knowledge, knowledge cultures, laboratory culture, material culture, media, medicine, nature, popular culture, representation, sociology, stories & histories, sustainability, technology, topography, topology, typology, visual culture