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Special Issue: SYNTOLOGY: ON THE ONTOLOGY OF RELATIONS

Guest Editors

Roy Ben-Shai - Sarah Lawrence College
Verónica Zebadúa-Yáñez - University of Maryland

This Special Issue examines relational ontology, for which we propose the name "synontology." Joining the prefix "syn-" to "ontology," we emphasize the ontological conception of being as being-with. Synontology foregrounds temporality and becoming, indeterminacy and possibility over substance and identity. This applies not only to human-being but to everything that exists. The turn to relational ontology has been in effect in different disciplines, including physics, biology, environmental studies, anthropology, psychology, economics, and sociology. Our volume seeks to gather philosophical approaches that provide conceptual basis for this turn, and ethico-political perspectives on relational ontology.

We welcome a diversity of perspectives and approaches, including but not limited to:

  • Decolonial and indigenous ontologies
  • Interspecies relations and environmental justice
  • Revisions to concepts such as freedom, subjectivity, and accountability
  • Relational approaches to affect and affection
  • Technology, A.I., and machine learning
  • Relational ontology in art and artistic practices Virality (social or biological)
  • Re-thinking sex and sexual difference in/through relational encounters
  • Relational ontologies and/in disability studies
  • Comparative analyses of relational ontology and critical phenomenology, existentialism, and/or Africana philosophy

Deadline for email submission of a 400-word abstract: April 15, 2022.

Invitations to submit a full manuscript will be sent by April 25, 2022, with a July 31st deadline.