1st International Conference on Planetary Habitability and Critical Humanities: Reimagining Ethics, Narratives, and Coexistence (ICPHCH-25)

FROM 07 Oct 2025 TO 08 Oct 2025

Venue : Manipal University Jaipur @

At the heart of literature lies the power to imagine alternative worlds and critically examine our relationship with the planet, making it an essential tool for confronting the pressing issues of our time. This international conference is organized by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies at Manipal University Jaipur, and is designed to spark new conversations at the intersection of environmental crisis and social justice. Being held in hybrid mode, the conference convenes academicians, literary scholars, researchers, and the practitioners to investigate how critical humanities can offer fresh perspectives on planetary survival, ethics, and the possibilities of coexistence. The International Conference on “Planetary Habitability and Critical Humanities: Reimagining Ethics, Narratives, and Coexistence” represents a groundbreaking academic gathering that confronts the stark reality of our current geological epoch. The conference addresses a critical imbalance where high-income nations, comprising only 12% of the global population, are responsible for 50% of cumulative greenhouse gas emissions since 1850, while communities in the Global South face escalating ecological vulnerability. This phenomenon, termed "climate apartheid," illustrates how racialized economic hierarchies perpetuate environmental exploitation, creating what the conference identifies as "slow violence" - a form of incremental ecological harm that unfolds across generations while evading immediate political recognition. The conference aims to provide an in-depth understanding of postcolonial theory and its applications in literary criticism while exploring the cultural, political, and social impacts of colonialism as reflected in literature. Participants will analyze key postcolonial texts and their contribution to decolonization narratives, examining how postcolonial discourse critiques colonial narratives and addresses themes of identity, power, and resistance in literature. The conference will explore how these frameworks can be applied to contemporary environmental and planetary challenges.