Sacts Reads

SACTS monthly Reading Group is an open two-hour moderated get-together committed to working through texts from the environmental humanities and beyond, with a focus on nonverbal interspecies communication. We welcome the participation of academics, practitioners, and others interested in selected themes and texts. Each session is centred on a single theme, always with the goal of addressing SACTS’s objectives from a unique angle. We review up to three texts (depending on length and complexity), and if authors are present, we invite them to summarize their work. Otherwise, group members and/or graduate students provide a summary of texts prior to discussion. We appreciate all attendees having read the text(s) ahead of time. A core aim of the group is to help sharpen our methodological and conceptual lenses as researchers of nonverbal communication.

To join our mailing list for a monthly invitation, please contact: alex.oehler[at]uregina.ca

Reading Schedule¹:

SACTS-RG#024 Interspecies Empathy: Embodied Communication – Date: Friday, March 21, 2025, 10:00am – 12:00pm, Regina, SK time (CST) – Text for discussion: Despret, V. (2013). Responding Bodies and Partial Affinities in Human–Animal Worlds. Theory, Culture & Society, 30(7-8), 51-76. https://doi-org.libproxy.uregina.ca/10.1177/0263276413496852

SACTS-RG#023 (February): TBA

SACTS-RG#022 Architecture 2: Trap Structure and Hidden Intent  – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Traps – Date: Friday, January 17, 2025, 10:00am – 12:00pm, Regina, SK time (CST) – Text for discussion: Corsín Jiménez, A. and Nahum-Claudel, C., 2019. The anthropology of traps: Concrete technologies and theoretical interfaces. Journal of Material Culture, 24(4), pp.383-400. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183518820368

SACTS-RG#021 Architecture 1: Intent and Animal Architecture – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Animal Architecture – Date/Time: Friday, December 20, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (CST) – Text for Discussion: Laidre, M.E., 2021. Animal architecture. Current Biology, 31(22), pp.R1458-R1464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.082

SACTS-RG#020 Linguistics: From Gesture to Vocalization? – Date/Time: Friday, November 22, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (CST) – Theme: Language evolution – Text for discussion: Fröhlich, M., Sievers, C., Townsend, S.W., Gruber, T. and van Schaik, C.P., 2019. Multimodal communication and language origins: integrating gestures and vocalizations. Biological Reviews, 94(5), pp.1809-1829. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12535

SACTS-RG#019 Materialities – Date/Time: Friday, October 18, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (CST) – Theme: Materials as communicative devices – Text for discussion: Barman, P., 2024. From Gee to Haw (and Everything in Between): Deconstructing the Transspecies Pidgin of Mushing in Northern Saskatchewan (MA thesis, URegina). Pp. 51-64.

SACTS-RG#018 Choreography 2: Interspecies Affect – Date/Time: Friday, September 20, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (CST) – Theme: Learning through movement – Text for discussion: Gieser, T., 2024. Wolf Affect. In Living with Wolves: Affects, Feelings and Sentiments in Human-Wolf-Coexistence. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. Pp: 33-62. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/media/pdf/16/50/7d/oa9783839474709w5e3ZQc04FlUu.pdf

SACTS-RG#017 Choreography 1: Body Positioning – Date/Time: Friday, May 17, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (CST) – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Dance – Text for discussion: Sheets-Johnstone, M., 1981. Thinking in the Moment. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol 39(4): 399-407. https://doi.org/10.2307/430239.

SACTS-RG#016 Voice 2: Voice in the Field – Date/Time: Friday, April 19, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (CST) – Theme: Methodological Approaches to Voice – Text for discussion: Graper, Julianne. “Bat/Man: echolocation, experimentation, and the question of the human.” Sound Studies 10.1 (2024): 59-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/20551940.2023.2180858

SACTS-RG#015 Voice 1: Vocalizing Connections – Date/Time: Friday, March 15, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (CST) – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Voice – Text for discussion: Andics, A. and Faragó, T., 2018. Voice perception across species. The Oxford handbook of voice perception, pp.362-392. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198743187.013.16

SACTS-RG#014 Sight: Seeing/Being Seen – Date/Time: Friday, February 16, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (CST) – Theme: Methodological Approaches to Sight – Text for discussion: Zhaoping, L., 2023. Peripheral and central sensation: multisensory orienting and recognition across species. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27(6), pp.539-552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.03.001

SACTS-RG#013 Shared Pre-linguistic Features – Date/Time: Friday, January 19, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (CST) – Theme: Turn-taking in Interspecies Interactions – Text for discussion: Mondémé, C., 2022. Why study turn‐taking sequences in interspecies interactions? Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 52(1), pp.67-85. https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12295

SACTS-RG#012 Touch 2: Tactile Encounters – Date/Time: Friday, November 17, 2023, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Methodological Approaches to Touch – Text for discussion: Due, B.L., 2023. Interspecies intercorporeality and mediated haptic sociality: Distributing perception with a guide dog. Visual Studies, 38(1), pp.3-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2021.1951620

SACTS-RG#011 Touch 1: Haptic Spaces – Date/Time: Friday, October 20, 2023, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Touch – Text for discussion: Paterson, M., 2009. Haptic geographies: ethnography, haptic knowledges and sensuous dispositions. Progress in human geography, 33(6), pp.766-788. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132509103155

SACTS-RG#010 Sound: Sonic Ethnography – Date/Time: Friday, September 15, 2023, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Methodological Approaches to Hearing – Text for Discussion: Gieser, T., 2019. Sensing and knowing noises: an acoustemology of the chainsaw. Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 27(1), pp.50-61. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12595

SACTS-RG#009 Encounter: Sensory Encounters – Date/Time: Friday, June 16, 2023, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Bear-human encounter – Text for discussion: Ness, S.A., 2019. Never just an any body: Tourist encounters with wild bears in Yosemite National Park. In Tourism and Embodiment (pp. 23-40). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203701539-3/never-body-sally-ann-ness

SACTS-RG#008 Signs 2: Semiotic Ethnography – Date/Time: Friday, May 19, 2023, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Methodological Approaches to Signs – Text for discussion: Rice, T. and Feld, S., 2021. Questioning acoustemology: an interview with Steven Feld. SoundStudies, 7(1), pp.119-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/20551940.2020.1831154

SACTS-RG#007 Signs 1: Peirce & Multispecies – Date/Time: Friday, April 21, 2023, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Signs – Text for discussion: Goodwin, C., 2017. The emergence of conventionalized signs within the natural world. In Co-operative action. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 329-347. https://www.cambridge.org/ca/universitypress/subjects/psychology/educational-psychology/co-operative-action?format=HB&isbn=9780521866330

SACTS-RG#006 Thought 2: Distributed Multispecies Cognition and Politics – Date/Time: Friday, March 17, 2023, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Methodological Approaches to Cognition – Text for discussion: Hartigan Jr, J., 2019. Plants as ethnographic subjects. Anthropology Today, 35(2), pp.1-2. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12491 AND Lien, M.E. and Pálsson, G., 2021. Ethnography beyond the human: the ‘other-than-human’in ethnographic work. Ethnos, 86(1), pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2019.1628796

SACTS-RG#005 Thought 1: What did Bateson Leave Us With? – Date/Time: Friday, February 17, 2023, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Cognition – Texts for discussion: Guddemi, P., 2020. Gregory Bateson on Relational Communication: From Octopuses to Nations. Springer International Publishing. (Chapters 1-4. Pp. 1-40). https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-52101-1.pdf

SACTS-RG#004 Perception 2: Taking Uexküll to Task – Date/Time: Friday, January 20, 2022, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Methodological Approaches to Biosemiotics – Text for discussion: Maran, T., 2020. Ecological repertoire analysis: A method of interaction-based semiotic study for multispecies environments. Biosemiotics, 13(1), pp.63-75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-020-09378-9

SACTS-RG#003 Perception 1: Uexküll Then and Now – Date/Time: Friday, December 16, 2022, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Biosemiotics – Text for discussion: Schroer, S.A., 2021. Jakob von Uexküll: The concept of umwelt and its potentials for an anthropology beyond the human. Ethnos, 86(1), pp.132-152. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2019.1606841

SACTS-RG#002 Scent 2: Does Scent Defeat Language? – Date/Time: Friday, October 21, 2022, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Methodological Approaches to Scent – Text for discussion: Keil, P.G., 2021. Rank atmospheres: The more‐than‐human scentspace and aesthetic of a pigdogging hunt. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 32, pp.96-113. https://doi.org/10.1111/taja.12382

SACTS-RG#001 Scent 1: Mapping with Granö’s Nose – Date/Time: Friday, September 16, 2022, 10:00am-12:00pm Regina, SK time (MDT) – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Scent – Text for discussion: Helm, H. and Manfred F. Buchroithner (2018) Helm, H. and Buchroithner, M.F., 2018. Johannes Gabriel Granö and his Cartography-Oriented Landscape Research. A Reviewing Appreciation. Landscape Online, pp. 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3097/LO.201860

Planned discussions:

SACTS-RG#023 Melody: Music and Melody in Interspecies Households – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Melody

SACTS-RG#024 Literacies: Body Reading Skills as Ancestral Literacy – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Prelinguistic Literacy

SACTS-RG#025 Weather: Reading Wind and Weather with Birds – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Weather

SACTS-RG#026 Mimesis: Mimesis and Inuit Drum Dance – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Mimesis

SACTS-RG#027 Intuitive Communication 1: An Emerging Field – Theme: Conceptual Approaches to Intuition

SACTS-RG#028 Intuitive Communication 2: Ecosomatics to Phytosemiotics – Theme: Methodological Approaches to Intuition

1. (November 2022, July/August 2023, and December 2023 meetings were cancelled.) ↩︎