PREMIS
PREMIS Seminar
Practices, relations, and interspecies mediation
2.10.25 to 21.05.26
Introduction:
In the context of the environmental crisis specific to the Anthropocene, marked in particular by the collapse of biodiversity (IPBES, 2019), there is an urgent need to rethink the relationship between humans and other living beings. PREMIS (Pratiques, relations et médiations inter-espèces) is a monthly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research seminar, held in French with some exceptions, in a hybrid format.
It is open to anyone interested in ecological issues—citizens, students, researchers, mediators, museum curators, etc.—who work on the relationships between humans and other living beings and who wish to explore how to develop these relationships harmoniously.
The seminar covers all inter-species relationships, whether with non-human animals or plants, linking empirical data and conceptual frameworks. It focuses on ways of talking, feeling, and relating to other living beings, as well as the social architectures—both symbolic and material—that structure these interactions. In this context, it also questions the role of education and mediation in supporting these transformations in a sustainable manner.
The seminar aims in particular to provide a framework for theoretical and methodological reflection for researchers working on these issues and to facilitate inter-institutional exchanges, particularly between neighboring research and educational institutions such as the University of Neuchâtel, the Neuchâtel Natural History Museum, the Neuchâtel Botanical Garden, the HEP BEJUNE, and the canton’s schools and high schools.
It also builds on the interdisciplinary and interfaculty master’s degree in biodiversity conservation created by the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Neuchâtel (https://www.unine.ch/ formation/master-of-science-or-arts-in-biodiversity-conservation), as well as the educational approaches of “open schooling,” “boundary crossing,” “utopian pedagogy,” and “performative pedagogy” promoted by the Institute of Psychology and Education at the University of Neuchâtel.
Urban corridors, common worlds, school vegetable gardens, plantness, plants in cities, human-insect relationships, soil life, performative research, human-nonhuman conflicts, perception of endangered species, user-friendly conservation, affective configurations and imagination, invisible biodiversity, forest schools, imagination and the experience of visiting museums and zoos, botanical garden education, affective relationships between humans and other animals at the zoo, and conservation…
What mediations can be proposed today to overcome the nature-culture dualism and rethink the relationships between humans and non-humans?
Methodologically, how can inter-species relationships be analyzed?
Theoretically, what concepts can be used to think about inter-species relationships and their development today?
What are the conditions for implementing mechanisms that enable or promote inter-species relationships and encounters?
How does the ability of humans to relate to other species develop over the course of their lives, in their historical, cultural, and socio-material worlds? How can we analyze the agency of non-humans in the development of this relationship?
What practices, forms of relationships, and encounters are fruitful from the perspective of protecting biodiversity in contemporary urban environments? How can we rethink the city as a place of cohabitation from a More-than-Human perspective?
How can we take into account the diversity of our contemporary relationships and mediations with nature? What roles can emotions, imagination, art, play, various forms of language, and technology play in this relationship? How do certain direct and indirect “experiences of nature” become transformative? Of what? For what purposes?
What links and educational processes connect school practices with those that combine school and extracurricular activities, such as forest schools, nature schools, school gardens, etc.?
How do they help transform young people’s relationship with nature, school, and the representation of nature in the school setting?
How does the language we use shape our relationship with nature, and how can we transform it?
How can we take into account the presence, forms of sentience, and agency of non-humans in the analysis of human language production?
Guattari, F., & Antonioli, M. (1989). Les trois écologies (Vol. 70). Paris: Galilée.
IPBES, W. (2019). Intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Summary for policy makers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services. IPBES Secretariat, Bonn, Germany.
Chanvallon, S. (2016). Regard sur la rencontre animale et pistes méthodologiques. Natures Sciences Sociétés, 24(1), 57-66. https://doi.org/10.1051/nss/2016009.
Davidson, G. L., Butler, S., Fernández‐Juricic, E., & Thornton, A. (2021). The city as a new habitat: Implications for bird cognition and behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 376(1838), 20200515. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0515
Hall, M. (2011). Plants as persons: A philosophical botany. SUNY Press.
Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
Lahire, B. (2023). Sciences sociales du vivant. La Découverte.
Lee, V. E., & Thornton, A. (2021). Animal cognition in an urbanised world. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 633947. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.633947
Marzluff, J. M., & Angell, T. (2005). In the company of crows and ravens. Yale University Press.
Mueller, M. L. (2017). Being salmon, being human: Encountering the wild in us and us in the wild. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Pedersen, H. (2023). Post-anthropocentric pedagogies: Purposes, practices, and insights for higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 30(2), 344–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2023.2222087
Sebeok, T. A., & Umiker-Sebeok, J. (Eds.). (1992). Biosemiotics: The semiotic web 1991. Mouton de Gruyter.
Stépanoff, C. (2024). Attachements: Enquête sur nos liens au-delà de l’humain. La Découverte.
Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press.
Viveiros de Castro, E. (2014). Cannibal metaphysics. Univocal Publishing.
The PREMIS seminar is hosted by the CURIOUS research center at the Institute of Psychology and Education (IPE) at the University of Neuchâtel, and co-facilitated by:
Prof. Laure Kloetzer (Sociocultural Psychology, IPE, UniNe)
Dr Alain Sénécail (Science Education, TECFA, Université de Genève)
Dr Thierry Deshayes (Sociolinguistics, Taiwan)
Calender 2025-2026
The seminar takes place on Thursday afternoons, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the University of Neuchâtel (FLSH, Espace Tilo-Frey 1, 2000 Neuchâtel) or at one of the partner institutions, and in hybrid format, with mandatory registration with one of the organizers.
Dates for the year 2025-2026:
October 2, 2025
October 23, 2025
November 20, 2025
February 26, 2026
March 26, 2026
April 23, 2026
May 21, 2026
Each seminar offers readings for discussion (sent to participants before the seminar) and an in-depth presentation and discussion of one or more ongoing research projects.
