CIDRAL PGR Poster Competition

Interviewing by feeling the volcano: Drifting as an affective encounter

Francisca Vergara-Pinto, PhD candidate, Humanitarianism and Conflict Response (HCRI), University of Manchester

Email: francisca.vergarapinto@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

The human body is not something separate from the world of things and more-than-human beings. In fact, "the human body is what it is because of its unparalleled capacity to co-evolve with things" (Thrift, 2008, p. 10). In the context of volcanic landscapes, humans connect with volcanoes affectively, a quality shared by inhabitants and volcanologists.

Thus, understanding human-volcano interactions through the prism of affect theory (Anderson, 2006) allows us to approach affective encounters between bodies affected by volcanism in dissonant ways and from different distances and temporalities. However, it can also allow us to see shared attributes.

In this context, attention is often paid to the knowledge and information gaps between communities and scientists. However, there is also an emotion gap, which is necessary to explore to imagine new bridges between those who live with volcanoes and those who study volcanic risk.

In particular, volcanologists interact with the volcano through the body, tools and long walks that involve a re-encounter with familiar spaces and the surprise of discovering new sites and material to study. Emotions are thus embedded in scientific questions. How to approach what scientists feel in volcanic places and how someone becomes a volcanologist is the main question of this poster.

This poster presents the methodology used in one of the objectives of my interdisciplinary ethnographic research that includes an "insider's approach" to the paths followed by volcanologists in their geological fieldwork.

To this end, I developed the drift technique with voice recordings of unstructured interviews, and sketches of drifts in different locations that show the value of emotions in dealing with the inherent unpredictability and uncertainty of the volcanic landscape. By exploring this question, I attempt to evidence how scientists "studying risk" and people "at risk" could better dialogue about volcanic risk in an emotion-centred way.

Modest Fashion and Feminism for British Muslim Women

I aim to begin by defining hijab and modest fashion, including its origin, significance and history, within the social community of British Muslim women. I will then explore how the hijab and modest fashion are increasingly integrated into contemporary British fashion. The main objective of this research is to effectively explicate the relationship between modest fashion and British Muslim women.

I aim to then use a framework of a critical feminist discourse, which deconstructs the relationship between fashion and feminism. The purpose of this is to ascertain the extent to which the changes in how British Muslim women perceive and integrate the hijab and modest fashion into their identity, is connected, affected or paralleled with the increasing images of public fashion and available hijabs and modest garments in the British market.

I intend to use my research to reflect on whether the growing public images and retail opportunities are beneficial and progressive, with positive impacts on the personal fashion, image and identity of British Muslim women.

My ultimate objective is to use this research foundation to argue that the growing exposure and liberty in the relationship between hijab, modest fashion and Muslim women, in public settings, primarily exudes a feminist rhetoric. I intend to present, through my research, feminist notions such as, the encouraging and enabling of Muslim women in developing an individual modest fashion identity, as any other woman in society can, without being restricted. However, I aim to also expose some less apparent anti-feminist consequences, such as the potential disguised desire to unveil the Muslim woman.

Within this overall objective, I will be exploring and contextualising what modesty is for the British Muslim women and how the image of modesty has different interpretations. I hope that this will not only shed light on a minority of British society but that it will also promote cultural and societal cohesion, by highlighting, focusing and building on the pro-feminist notions, for example by promoting the autonomy of British Muslim women being able to adopt a Western fashion style, while maintaining their religious beliefs on dress codes.

Can We Still Be ‘Human’ in a World With Artificial Intelligence?

In the dominant Western Christian theological discourse, understanding of human ontology has been highly influenced by a well-established exegesis of Biblical literature. The Genesis 1 account of creation is particularly influential due to its detailing of how humans were created. Within this passage humans are marked as distinctly different, belonging to their own category of ‘being,’ due to their creation in God’s image: “So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

(Gen 1:27) Whilst academics have disputed what exactly this shared image means, the popular discourse posits that it is the human capacity for reason that is encapsulated through this imaging. In other words, it is human intelligence that defines us as human, separate from the rest of God’s creation.

This research is concerned with investigating how the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) disrupts this understanding of human ontology. AI is, in its broadest sense, the theory and development of computer systems designed to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence. This can include, but is not limited to, visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making.

Emphasis on replicating human intelligence can be seen as a direct challenge to human ontology because it calls into question the uniqueness that our ontology hinges itself upon: Can we continue to state that our intelligence is what makes us human if AI, a non-human entity, shares in this intelligence? The wider impact of this challenge is that we gain the ability to critique the Christian hierarchical framework through which this ontology is justified.

The methodology that will be used within this research is the utilisation of Constructive Theology. This method of ‘doing’ theology is an innately interdisciplinary discourse as its aim is to engage in open ended interactions with other ‘forms’ of knowledge. This means that the dominant Christian theological discourse can be put into conversation with developments within the field of AI, permitting a dialogue between how this theological idea will be influenced by this new technology.

The benefits of this research is that AI is being used as a liberative tool, providing an opportunity for us to re-define what it means to be human, whilst simultaneously allowing for a re-framing of our current hierarchical worldview. This encourages us to reflect on our own anthropocentrism, promoting an understanding of human ontology that is level with the rest of creation.