Paper submissions
Those who wish to participate in the paper sessions must send a proposal (150–175 words) to pilzarbe@unav.es before March 15, 2026.
Women, Nature, and Science in Modernity (17th and 18th Centuries)
June 29–30, 2026 Pamplona
Overview
Modernity has been conceived as a historical and intellectual period that can be understood in either a broad or a narrow sense. This distinction is linked to the relevance and originality attributed to an epistemological, scientific, philosophical, social, political, and cultural-artistic shift that leads from the Renaissance to the present. In the broad sense, contemporaneity continues modern principles and would be, in a way, part of modernity. In the strict sense, contemporaneity represents a break from modern assumptions. The less explored path asserts that, in the 17th and 18th centuries, there were approaches and thinkers outside the main modern tradition. In other words, there are several modernities.
This conference, the result of the R&D project “Political Utopia, Gender and Science in Modernity through Margaret Cavendish” (PID2022-137107NB-I00), aims to reflect on the possibility of another modernity—one written from a utopian perspective and through the lens of the woman writer, scientist, and political agent. Reconsidering three deeply interconnected themes—woman, nature, and science—in the 17th and 18th centuries will open a debate on the prevailing interpretation of modernity and bring to light the modernity dreamed, narrated, conceived, lived, and scientifically explored by some of its great protagonists.
Program
Monday, June 29, 2026 · Aula Siemens Gamesa, ICS
9:45
Opening of the conference and presentation of the Selected Works of Margaret Cavendish collection.
10:00
Lisa Walters (University of Queensland), “Cavendish: Utopia and Violence”.
11:30
Break
12:00
Luis Castellví Laukamp (University of Manchester), “Primero sueño: Sor Juana before the Mirror of the World”.
13:30
Break
15:00
Parallel round tables:
• Round table “A Cavendish Discovery of Witchcraft”: chaired by James Fitzamaurice - Aula M02 (Edificio Amigos)
1. James Fitzmaurice (Northern Arizona University, USA, and the University of Sheffield, UK).
2. Sara Jayne Steen, (Plymouth State University, USA).
3. Susan Frye (The University of Wyoming, USA).
4. Susan Fitzmaurice (The University of Sheffied, USA).
5. Lisa Walters (The University of Queensland, Australia).
6. Rob LeBlanc (St Thomas University, Canada).
• Round table “The Life of Nature: Rethinking Modernity from Ecocriticism”: chaired by Maria Antònia Martí - Aula M03 (Edificio Amigos)
1. Leonie Webb (University of Western Ontario, Canada), “Margaret Cavendish’s Ecosophy: Nature as An Interdependent Ecological Community”.
2. Enrico Antonini (University of Pavia, Italy), “The Ecological Observations of Margaret Cavendish: ontology, epistemology and ethics”.
3. Laura Benítez Valero (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), “ENG Title: Reimagining Modernity through Human–Non-Human Relationality”.
4. Maria Antònia Martí (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), “Ecofemimismo y modernidad”.
• Round table “Las utopías escritas por mujeres: del sueño de un espacio propio a la apropiación del espacio público”: chaired by Julia Urabayen - Aula M04 (Edificio Amigos)
1. Claudia Aguilar (Conicet-Universidad de La Plata, Argentina), “Una congregación de mujeres en El Mundo Resplandeciente de Margaret Cavendish”.
2. Anna Bugajska (Ignatianum University, Cracovia, Polonia), “Las mujeres frente al antiutopismo de la modernidad”.
3. Julia Urabayen (Universidad de Navarra), “Ganando el espacio público para las mujeres: de Bell in campo a Margaret Dunmore y Gloriana”.
4. Macarena Iribarne (University of Wollongong, Australia), “Ecos de la modernidad: La vigencia de la utopía científica femenina en Sultana’s Dream”.
16:30
Break
16:45–18:15
Paper sessions
• SESSION 1 PRESENTATIONS chaired by Ruth Breeze - Aula M02 (Edificio Amigos)
1. Pilar Botías Domínguez (University of Córdoba), “The country house as the space for reflection and writing in Margaret Cavendish’s Sociable Letters”.
2. Ruth Breeze (University of Navarra), “Empathy or experiment? Cavendish as an evolving scientific writer”.
3. Sergio Marín Conejo (University of Sevilla), “Margaret Cavendish: from Renaissance convention to Romantic trailblazer”.
4. Guillem Sales Vilalta (IFS, CSIC), “Critique of (Unmoral) Reason: Education, Virtue, and Scientific Rationality in Shelley’s Frankenstein”.
• SESSION 2 PRESENTATIONS chaired by Paloma Pérez-Ilzarbe - Aula M03 (Edificio Amigos)
1. Héctor Quintela González (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), “La modernidad de Isabel de Bohemia: naturaleza, antropología, política”.
2. Pablo Verde Ortega (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) y Lucía Ortiz de Zárate (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), “La modernidad de los salones y el desarrollo de una racionalidad coqueta”.
3. Xenia A. Rueda Romero (UNAM/México), Juan Carlos García Cruz (IIxM, SECIHTI/UAM-Xochimilco, México), “Soñar el mundo: La visión de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz”.
4. Paloma Pérez-Ilzarbe (Universidad de Navarra), “Dinamismo y figura en la idea de naturaleza de Margaret Cavendish”.
• SESSION 3 PRESENTATIONS chaired byThomas Heyd - Aula M04 (Edificio Amigos)
1. Thomas Heyd (University of Victoria, Canada), “La revalorización del sexo femenino en Platón y Descartes”.
2. Henar Lanza González (investigadora independiente), “El método fantasmático y la historia encantada de la ciencia”.
3. Blanca Melina Baños (UNAM, México), “Reimaginando el futuro: Ciencia Ficción y Ecofeminismo como crítica de los imaginarios tecnocientíficos modernos”.
4. Verónica Mota Galindo (FU/TU Berlin), “Del “cuerpo híbrido” de Margaret Cavendish al “cyborg” de Donna Haraway: antecedentes históricos de la figura del cyborg en la modernidad temprana”.
Tuesday, June 30, 2026 · Aula Siemens Gamesa, ICS
9:00
Line Cottegnies (Sorbonne Université), “Nature is a Woman: Margaret Cavendish’s Ecofeminist Fables”.
10:30
Break
11:00
Miriam Focaccia (Università di Bologna), “Bologna 1732: A Chair for Laura Bassi”.
12:30
Paper sessions
• SESSION 4 PRESENTATIONS chaired byRodrigo Carmen-Cerdán - Aula M02 (Edificio Amigos)
1. Lauren Beck (Mount Allison University, Canada), “Navegación transatlántica con la Virgen de Guadalupe en el siglo XVIII”.
2. María José Gómez Perales (Universitat Politècnica de València), “El viaje como deseo emancipador en Ida Pfeiffer”.
3. José Luis Egío (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), “Una ucronía española inédita en la Francia de la Ilustración: María Pacheco de Françoise Raucourt”.
4. Rodrigo Carmen-Cerdán (Universitat de València), “El viaje de Sibylla Merian a Surinam entre 1699 y 1701”.
• SESSION 5 PRESENTATIONS chaired byAnne Thell - Aula M03 (Edificio Amigos)
1. Anne M. Thell (National University of Singapore, Singapore), “Lady Nature Pleases Herself: Cavendish’s Ecofeminist Vision of the Universe”.
2. Miloš Vuletić (University of Belgrade, Serbia), “The State of Nature and the Order of Nature: Cavendish against Atoms and Void”.
3. Valtteri Viljanen (University of Turku, Finland), “Gradualist hylomorphism in Anne Conway’s Panpsychism”.
4. Enrico Piergiacomi (Pegaso University of Naples, Italy), “Cavendish and Hutchinson on the Legitimacy of Scientific Poetry: Theory, Organicism, Beauty”.
14:00
Closing of the conference.
Call for papers
The Life of Nature: Rethinking Modernity through Ecocriticism
Contributions are invited to rethink modernity from ecological and critical perspectives, fostering dialogue between seventeenth-century thought and contemporary frameworks such as ecocriticism, ecofeminism, and decolonial theory. Proposals (150–175 words) to MariaAntonia.Marti@uab.cat before March 15, 2026.
Utopias Written by Women
We welcome contributions on the 17th–19th centuries to discuss the role of space in shaping women’s emancipatory desire. Proposals (150–175 words) to jurabayen@unav.es before March 15, 2026.
Round tables
- A Cavendish Discovery of Witchcraft, coordinated by James Fitzmaurice (The University of Sheffield). Aula M2, Amigos.
- The Life of Nature: Rethinking Modernity through Ecocriticism, coordinated by Maria Antònia Martí Escayol (UAB). Aula M3, Amigos.
- Utopias Written by Women, coordinated by Julia Urabayen. Aula M4, Amigos.
Registration
Free of charge.
Project
This activity is part of the R&D&I project “Political Utopia, Gender, and Science in Modernity through Margaret Cavendish” (PID2022-137107NB-I00), funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by FEDER, EU.
Fecha
29 de junio de 2026
Hora
09:45