Initial annoucement of Lifetimes project concluding conference

Info on the concluding conference for the University of Oslo based Lifetimes project. temporalities.no/

Time is suddenly everywhere in the eyes of humanities scholars and social scientists: in the webs of life that have evolved to maintain life on this planet; in the everyday lives of cab drivers, scientists and calendar software developers; in the stories we turn to in order to understand the present; in histories of growth and expansion; in the timelines, plans, and deadlines defining fundamental stakes of politics. There is growing interest in historiographies of time, ethnographies of time, media theories, social theories and aesthetics of time. But ultimately, why does it matter that time is multiple and ubiquitous? 

The Lifetimes project’s concluding conference is dedicated to the issues that arise when we no longer live the same histories, endure the same experiences, follow the same beat, or even conceptualize the times we live in with the same vocabulary, the same timekeeping technologies, or from within the same academic disciplines. 

When: 9-11 August 2023
Where: The University of Oslo (Sophus Bugge's House) and Online
What else: In the days preceding the conference, 7-8 August, we'll be organizing a PhD seminar. Keep your eye on our web page for a call for papers after the Christmas break. 

Lifetimes: A Natural History of the Present is a four-year research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council (2019-2023) and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Oslo. The project presents a new way of studying time across the socio-natural divide, using concepts like synchronization, entanglement, materiality, and futurity. Emerging from discussions in postwar theories of history, our framework draws on approaches to time in anthropology, STS, and critical time studies. Time is approached both as part of the real, and as analytical lens, through which we study objects, practices and events.

More information to follow.