Post-Grad Interest Group: More than human
- Written byPost-Grad Community
- Published date 18 February 2025
A global network of researchers exploring more-than-human ways of worlding
Welcome to the More-than-human Interest Group, bringing together researchers from across and outside UAL to question, share and collaborate for more equitable and just multispecies futures.
We benefit from connections with the Central Saint Martins' Grow Lab, Central Saint Martins' Livings Systems Lab Research Group and London College of Communication's Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP), as well as proximity to London College of Fashion's Centre for Sustainable Fashion, SoWhat Matters Lab and Active Materials Lab.
Group Leaders
- Lucy Jane MacAllister Dukes - PhD Candidate at Central Saint Martins
- Sara Vanore Rewkiewicz - PhD Candidate at Central Saint Martins
Meetings
The flow and shape of the group is very much alive and in-the-making with members and multispecies relations.
Meetings are ongoing, happening as-and-when we have questions to collectively ponder and work-in-process to share. It is a communal wayof-working that is fluid and responsive to different needs, desires and happenings.
Participation without pressure
More Than Human follows the flows, capacities and possibilities of its members. We do not expect constant activity, attendance or contribution. Just as ecosystems move through different seasons, people participate in different ways and at different times.
You are welcome whether you join every conversation, attend occasionally, contribute a project, share a resource, quietly observe, or return after months away. There is no requirement to justify your level of engagement.
We believe that community can be sustained through care rather than obligation, and that sometimes doing less is exactly what is needed. The group remains open to both current students and alumni, creating space for relationships and ideas to develop over time rather than to fixed schedules or expectations.
How we will meet
Meetings are a hybrid format for our global network.
There is also a termly, inperson London-based meet-up.
What to expect
Embracing the more-than-human, we are not a traditional reading group; rather, we are working across varying media to engage with different ways of living, thinking, knowing and making.
Sometimes we’ll watch films, listen to recordings, read speculative fiction short stories, discuss journal articles and book chapters, embracing multi-species and multi-sensory learning.
This group is a growing organism, which responds to the curiosities and needs of anyone who wants to take part. Everyone is invited to bring their questions, energies and ideas, suggest readings, listenings, watchings, makings, etc.
As a group, our research interests are varied and growing including queer ecologies, Indigenous Knowledges, decolonial practices, embodied learning, designing-with living systems, sustainable fashion and regenerative materials, more-than-human sounds arts, and posthuman feminist theory.
Past Events
- Composting Knowledge: A Convival Gathering, a two-day event in collaboration with the UAL Doctoral School, hosted by MtH members Lucy Jane MacAllister Dukes and Agnese Politi
- Small Worlds: Figments of More-than-human Ethics workshops, hosted by MtH members Sara Vanore Rewkiewicz and Lucy Jane MacAllister Dukes
- Strange Weather Documents: Autumn Rest, a sound-based meditation hosted by MtH member Daniel Freeman
- Amphibian Ways of Listening workshop working with water as a shared language, hosted by MtH member Valentina Cerquerera Camacho at Mircroscope
- Group visits to the More-than-human Symposium at the Design Museum; Material World After Hours at Kew Gardens; and Mushroom Language: A Fungal-Gothic performance at Omnibus Theatre
What's coming up
We will be promoting special events in the Post-Grad Community monthly newsletter. Get in touch to be added to our Group Meetings invite!
Get in touch
If you have any questions, or would like to formally register with this Interest Group, then please contact Interest Group Leaders Lucy Jane MacAllister Dukes l.dukes1020241@arts.ac.uk or Sara Vanore Rewkiewicz s.vanorerewkiewicz1220211@arts.ac.uk.
Post-Grad Interest Groups at UAL
UAL’s Post-Grad Community Programme supports a growing number of issue-specific, cross-disciplinary interest groups led by postgraduate students and academics.
These groups connect creatives with shared research/practice interests across different specialisms and subject areas.
Students have launched interest groups in the past to coincide with exhibitions and symposiums that they have organised under the same theme, or have used Interest Groups as a working group towards research or a standalone event or series.
Interest Groups are a great way to build new networks at UAL for MA and PhD students with shared interests, a useful tool for finding cross-disciplinary students to work with on planned projects/activities, creating new audiences and ways to formally promote your practice.