{"id":257,"date":"2026-08-26T20:17:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T20:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/?page_id=257"},"modified":"2026-08-28T11:57:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T11:57:55","slug":"keynote-speakers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/conference\/keynote-speakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Keynote Speakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Khairani Barokka<\/span>\"Khairani-Barokka<\/h4>\n

Khairani Barokka is a writer, artist, and former Editor of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Modern Poetry in Translation<\/span><\/span>. Among her honours,\u00a0<\/span>she\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0been a UNFPA Indonesian Young Leader Driving Social Change, Delfina Foundation Associate Artist, Associate Artist at the UK\u2019s National Centre for Writing, an\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Artforum\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Must-See, and a\u00a0<\/span>shortlistee<\/span>\u00a0for the 2023 Asian Women of Achievement Awards. Okka\u2019s latest artistic commission (2025) was four short films directed in Jakarta for Birmingham\u2019s Grand Union, and her fourth and fifth sole-authored books are both experimental translations:\u00a0<\/span><\/span>amuk<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>(2024, longlisted for the Jhalak Poetry Prize) and prose debut\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Annah, Infinite<\/span><\/span>\u00a0(2025,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>The Bookseller<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Expert Pick).<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ursula K. Heise\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"Ursula-Heise<\/h4>\n

Ursula K. Heise is Distinguished Professor in the Department of English and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, and a co-founder of the Lab for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS). Her research and teaching focus on the environmental humanities; contemporary environmental literature, arts, and cultures in the Americas, Germany, Japan, Spain, and Vietnam; literature and science; science fiction; and narrative theory.\u202f<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>
<\/span>Her books include, among others,\u202f<\/span><\/span>Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global<\/span><\/span>\u202f(Oxford University Press, 2008) and\u202f<\/span><\/span>Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species<\/span><\/span>\u202f(University of Chicago Press, 2016), which won the 2017 book prize of the British Society for Literature and Science. She is co-editor of\u202f<\/span><\/span>The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities<\/span><\/span>\u202f(2017),\u202f<\/span><\/span>Environment and Narrative in Vietnam<\/span><\/span>\u202f(2024), and\u202f<\/span><\/span>Unsettling Extinction\u202f<\/span><\/span>(2026).\u202fShe co-edits the series\u202f<\/span><\/span>Literatures, Cultures, and the Environment\u202f<\/span><\/span>with Palgrave Macmillan. She is also producer and writer of<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u202fUrban Ark Los Angeles<\/span><\/span><\/a>, a documentary about urban parrots created as a collaboration of LENS with the public television station KCET-Link.\u202fThe first episode of\u202f<\/span><\/span>Grand Theft Eco<\/span><\/span>, a series of “machinima” animated videos about the environmental futures of Los Angeles based on the\u00a0<\/span>storyworld<\/span>\u00a0and game engine of the videogame\u202f<\/span><\/span>Grand Theft Auto V<\/span><\/span>, was launched in 2025.\u202f<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>Heise\u2019s work has consistently investigated how environmental storytelling converges and conflicts across different languages and cultures. She has proposed the concept of \u201ceco-cosmopolitanism\u201d as a way of approaching cross-cultural environmental thought and\u00a0<\/span>activism, and<\/span> has emphasised the importance of environmental justice and multispecies justice as ways of thinking across the boundary between human and nonhuman species. She is currently at work on the second episode of\u202f<\/span><\/span>Grand Theft Eco\u202f<\/span><\/span>and\u202fa book entitled\u202f<\/span><\/span>Reclaiming Ecotopia: Speculative Fiction and Environmental Futures<\/span><\/span>.\u202f<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>In 2024, she was awarded the Biophilia Award for Environmental Humanities by Spain’s BBVA Foundation. In 2026, Heise was elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.\u202f<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Eva Meijer<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"Eva-Meijer<\/h1>\n

Eva Meijer is a philosopher, visual artist,\u00a0<\/span>writer<\/span>\u00a0and singer-songwriter. They wrote over twenty books including novels, philosophical essays, and poetry collections. Their work has been translated into over twenty languages. Meijer is affiliated with the University of Amsterdam as a postdoctoral researcher. They\u00a0<\/span>write<\/span>\u00a0essays and columns for Dutch newspapers, and are a member of the Multispecies Collective, a multispecies art collective. Meijer co-chairs the Dutch study group for Animal Philosophy. Recent books in English include\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Multispecies\u00a0<\/span>Assemblies,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Multispecies<\/span>\u00a0Dialogues. Doing Philosophy with Animals, Children, the Sea and Others<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and the novel\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Sea Now<\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span> www.evameijer.nl<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

C\u00e9sar Rodr\u00edguez-Garavito<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"Cesar-Rodriguez-Garavito<\/h1>\n

C\u00e9sar Rodr\u00edguez-Garavito is an Earth rights scholar, field lawyer, and founding director of the MOTH (More-Than-Human Life) Program at NYU School of Law, a leading global initiative advancing rights and well-being for humans, nonhumans, and the web of life that sustains us all. He is a Professor of Law and Director of the Earth Rights Research & Action (TERRA) Clinic at NYU. C\u00e9sar\u2019s work has advanced new ideas and legal actions worldwide on issues such as climate justice, Indigenous rights, and what he proposes to call \u201cmore-than-human rights\u201d (rights of nature). His recent contributions to Earth rights have been recognised with a spot in the UN Museum\u2019s Top 10 Culture for Impact 2024 List and a More-Than-Human Fellowship by the London Design Museum 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

His ongoing initiatives include a pioneering ethical and legal framework for AI-assisted animal communication studies, a partnership with Project CETI on the legal implications of AI-assisted whale language translation, collaborations with Indigenous leaders and communities of the Amazon and Pacific Island nations to protect forest and ocean beings, and work with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks on legal pathways to protect the fungal kingdom of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u015eebnem Susam-Saraeva<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"Sebnem-Susam-Saraeva<\/h1>\n

\u015eebnem Susam-Saraeva holds a Personal Chair of Translation Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her recent publications have focused on\u00a0<\/span>ecotranslation<\/span>, particularly translation and ecofeminism, (knowledge) translation in climate crisis discourse, and interspecies communication. She is the co-founder of Eco-translation Network. Among her relevant publications are Translating with the Earth: Gender, Feminism and Eco-Translation (eds. with Carolyn Shread, 2025); Translation Rights of the More-Than-Human – Thoughts on Whale Bioacoustics (Translation Studies, Routledge, 2026); and, Eco-translation and Museums: In Search of Whale Communication (Cambridge Elements Translation and Interpreting, forthcoming). She was a Visiting Fellow at Trinity Long Room Hub for her work on translation and representation of cetacean communication in arts and music (2023) and Leverhulme International Fellow for her project ‘Translation and Cetacean Communication Systems: Interactions and Synergies’ (2024).<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Khairani Barokka Khairani Barokka is a writer, artist, and former Editor of\u00a0Modern Poetry in Translation. Among her honours,\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0been a UNFPA Indonesian Young Leader Driving Social Change, Delfina Foundation Associate Artist, Associate Artist at the UK\u2019s National Centre for Writing, an\u00a0Artforum\u00a0Must-See, and a\u00a0shortlistee\u00a0for the 2023 Asian Women of Achievement Awards. Okka\u2019s latest artistic commission (2025) was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2036,"featured_media":0,"parent":32,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-257","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post-preview"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/257\/revisions\/275"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}