Symposium
24 April 2026
Pathfoot Lecture Theatre, Pathfoot Building
University of Stirling
Download full programme including abstracts (PDF)
Overview
Distemporalities is a one-day interdisciplinary conference examining how experiences of violence, colonialism, displacement and environmental destruction disrupt lived temporalities and reshape relations to past and future. Bringing philosophical, legal, anthropological and creative perspectives into dialogue, the conference explores how communal rhythms of time are fractured, reconfigured and inhabited in the aftermath of rupture.
Conference papers explore colonial archives, disaster reconstruction, environmental law, sacred geographies, architectural perception and transfeminist aesthetic practice in order to examine how disrupted temporal lifeworlds are lived, remembered and re-imagined.
Across the day, speakers consider how temporal disruption is encountered in archives, landscapes, legal orders, ritual practices and processes of reconstruction. The conference asks how disrupted temporal worlds persist in material, affective and political form, and what kinds of futures become imaginable in their wake. The event concludes with an evening book launch celebrating Rahul Rao’s The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire (Pluto, 2025).
Programme
09:30–10:00 Coffee & welcome
10:00–10:15 Introduction
Session 1 — Colonial archives & historical legalities
10:15–10:40 Vanja Hamzić — “Bonsoir, Seigneur Négritte”: Interruptive Truth-Claims in the Colonial-Legal Ordinary
10:40–11:05 Alice Finden — Unsettling Feelings: Colonial Archives, Decolonial Possibilities
11:05–11:35 Discussion
Session 2 — Disaster, memory & heritage
11:35–12:00 Vanicka Arora — Earthquake Afterlives
12:00–12:25 Safet HadžiMuhamedović — Surviving Chronocide in the Bosnian Highlands
12:25–12:55 Discussion
12:55–14:50 Lunch break & visit to the Pathfoot Stone
Session 3 — Law, hauntology & temporalities
14:55–15:20 Gina Heathcote — Arboreal Jurisdiction
15:20–15:45 Emily Jones — The Hauntology of International Environmental Law and the Slow Cancellation of the Future
15:45–16:15 Discussion
Session 4 — Sensings & worldings
16:15–16:40 Mark Rego — Cave Paintings, Death Masks, X-Rays, Cinema, and Flesh
16:40–17:05 Mijke van der Drift — Trans Aesthetics: Senses Against Empire
17:05–17:35 Discussion
17:35–18:00 Break
Evening book launch
18:00–19:30 Rahul Rao in conversation with John Sutton and Paul Max Morin
Rahul Rao — Reader in International Political Thought, University of St Andrews. Author of The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire (Pluto, 2025). The evening conversation reflects on the politics of monuments, imperial afterlives and contested practices of memorialisation.
Speakers
Vanja Hamzić — Professor of Law, History and Anthropology, SOAS University of London. Their research explores formations of selfhood across gender, race and legal tradition through fieldwork and archival study.
Alice Finden — Assistant Professor of International Politics, Durham University. Their work examines the normalisation of colonial violence through counterterrorism law and policy.
Vanicka Arora — Lecturer in Heritage, University of Stirling; Associate Member, Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory. Their research focuses on built heritage under conditions of crisis.
Safet HadžiMuhamedović — Research Fellow, Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory. An anthropologist whose work investigates memory, place and belonging in landscapes shaped by nationalist violence.
Gina Heathcote — Professor of International Law, Newcastle Law School. Their research develops feminist and posthuman approaches to international law and ocean governance.
Emily Jones — Senior Research Fellow (NUAcT), Newcastle Law School. Their interdisciplinary work applies feminist and ecological theory to re-imagine environmental futures.
Mark Rego — Architect and philosopher teaching at the Boston Architectural College. His research explores relations between architectural experience and temporal perception.
Mijke van der Drift — Tutor (Research), Royal College of Art. Their work explores transfeminist and anti-imperial ethics through writing, performance and sound.
Practical information
This conference is organised by Safet HadžiMuhamedović, with academic coordination by Safet HadžiMuhamedović and Vanja Hamzić.
Event logistics and communications are supported by Tania Manuel Casimiro.
For enquiries please contact
placememory@stir.ac.uk
The Pathfoot Lecture Theatre is accessible. Additional accessibility requirements can be indicated in the registration form.
Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory 