Digital Memory Agents in the Canadian Anthropocene

On Friday March 6th, the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University hosted a “Posthumanist Roundtable” at Balsillie School of International Affairs, in association with the Posthumanism Research Institute (Brock) and co-sponsored by SSHRC. Titled “Digital Memory Agents in the Canadian Anthropocene,” and moderated by Dr. Russell Kilbourn, the roundtable featured presentations from a diverse group of scholars: Dr. Sandra Annett, Dr. Jenny Kerber, and current PhD student Stephanie Lewis, all from English and Film Studies. Rounding out the roundtable were: Dr. Matthew Cormier (English Studies, Université de Moncton), Dr. Amanda Spallacci (Gender and Social Justice, McMaster University and EN/FS alumnus), and Christine Daigle (Philosophy, Brock University). The roundtable was a true posthumanist mash-up, putting two recent publications—Spallacci and Cormier’s Digital Memory Agents in Canada: Performance, Representation, and Culture (University of Alberta Press 2024) and Clara de Massol’s Remembering the Anthropocene: Memorials Beyond the Human (Palgrave Macmillan 2024)—into dialogue, with this diverse group of scholars exploring specific issues, questions, and problems arising from the juxtaposition of the two texts and their respective interventions into debates at the intersection of the Anthropocene, climate change, memory, and posthumanism. Participants offered brief but detailed presentations of projects bringing together Indigeneity, Canadian literature, post-apocalyptic eco-narratives, graphic novels, digital animation, counter memories and counter-archives, and nonhuman memory agents. Conceived independently, all six presentations nevertheless wove together with surprising seamlessness. The highly engaged audience participated in a lively discussion following each half, and the day concluded with the shared recognition of the world in its astonishing capacity as an agent of memory beyond the human and the myriad cultural forms through which our experience of the world is mediated.