September is the beginning of a new season for AURA and it will take off with the first AURA Slow Seminar on September 4 that we hope you will join us for. Anna Tsing is back in Aarhus as well as are new AURA team members that we look forward to welcoming.

Thursday may not be our regular day, but it will be our first meeting.  We will take the first 40 minutes to introduce ourselves and update everyone on new projects and plans. Then we will discuss the following two readings. Please read them in advance of the seminar.

(a)    Thom van Dooren, 2014. Flight Ways.  Columbia University Press.  This short book about the social life of birds is beautifully written and insightful.  It should be easy to read, even if you are on vacation.  However, if you are pressed for time but want to get a flavor of the argument, read the Introduction plus Chapters 3 and 5.  Van Dooren will be a guest of AURA in the spring, so it will be great to have read his recent book. Copies of the book have been ordered and will be available at Stakbogladen shortly.

(b)    Bruno Latour, “Facing Gaia: six lectures on the political theology of nature,” Gifford Lectures.  Available as a pdf at http://progressivegeographies.com/2013/11/08/latours-gifford-lectures-text-now-available-as-pdf/  Also available as video lectures at http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/humanities-soc-sci/news-events/lectures/gifford-lectures/archive/series-2012-2013/bruno-latour  These are rather difficult lectures in philosophy, but they should be worth our while to study.  If you are pressed for time, be sure to read (or listen to) lectures 5 and 6. 

We hope to see as many of you as possible.

Would you please write to Mia, if you would like to join the seminar and are interested in having dinner afterwards.