Co-create with us in the weekend of 12-13 December 2026 and share your paper drafts, prayers, poems, practice experimentations with us by September 15th for feedback from an international community of practitioners, poets and scholars (un)learning with the more than human world
Hosted by the Nordic Summer University Study Circle: Ecology of Transformative Learning Practices with/in the More-than-Human World
In the northern hemisphere, midwinter marks a threshold in the yearly cycle, a time of stillness, dying back, honoring (the land as and belonging to ) the ancestors as well as quiet reckonings.
As the nights lengthen toward midwinter, traditions across the continent turn our attention toward the dead:
- in the Netherlands, farmers sound long wooden horns over wells to ward off dark spirits;
- in Sweden and the wider Nordic world, the fearsome Lussi rides through the longest night with the restless dead in her wake,
- while in Norway the Oskoreia, the Wild Hunt , carries the same host of wandering souls across the sky;
- in Iceland, the mountain-dwelling Grýla and her sons descend on December 12th to close out the year’s account of what has been left undone;
- in Finland, Kekri once opened an extra place at the table for ancestors crossing back from the other side;
- and in Lithuania, Poland, and Portugal, that same empty chair reappears at Kūčios, Wigilia, and Consoada, a plate left out, food untouched overnight, hospitality offered to whomever, living or dead, might still be finding their way home.
Across such different lands and languages, the gesture repeats itself: an opening left for the dead to enter, a reminder that the boundary between the living and the departed was never as solid as we like to think.
As Anna Tsing once reminded us, we experience those patchy landscapes not only through and with the living, but also with the ones who have died.
It is in this same spirit that we gather to sit with what myths and imaginations have to teach us about loss, decay, and – what we call -endings and rebirths (or should we write transformations?).
Painting: The Painter with Camellia Branch (Self-Portrait by Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1907, source: Wiki-art )
The timing of this gathering is no coincidence: it is a moment to listen for other stories of dying, decomposing, and returning in a different shape that might guide us into futures of mutual learning, becoming and belonging.
In that spirit, we invite participants to try out and try on transformational learning practices fit to these December days:
- dining with the (more-than-human) dead;
- writing mortuaries accompanied by chrysanthemums;
- annual practices of tending graveyards, held consciously alongside feminist political ecology considerations;
- composing a multispecies death portrait;
- paddling with ghosts of the past on mythical rivers descending into underworlds;
- mourning with horses;
- studying death with rats (e.g. Nelson, 2020),
- gathering in a more-than-human fishbowl to deliberate how to bury a newly extinct being.
- … (surprise us with your proposal of a transformational learning practice).
This online symposium asks:
- What needs to die? And why?
- What can non-human fauna, flora, fungi… teach us about letting go, releasing, mourning and grief?
- How might we resist shoring up colonial and other universalizing narratives when death emerges through everyday encounter? (Nelson, 2020)
- What stories help us matter differently as we continue to world with others in this time of rapid change? (Nelson, 2020)
- Why do we need new or renewed rituals and stories of death or renewed ones for dying well with the more-than-human world (rather than merely among it)?
- Which new death-practices or renewed death-practices can we renew?
- How can eco-thanatology inform our practices of mourning, burial, and letting go?
- Which ethical charters and protocols can serve palliative care and grief for and with(in) the more than human world?
- Which (eco)myths involving the more-than-human world can teach us more about coping with death?
- How can we make our deaths and palliative care practices more sustainable?
- Which learnings and practices contribute to the co-creation of an eco-thanatology?
Not a CONVENTIONAL online academic symposium
This symposium will be online. As we are aware that not all people can attend live events, especially in winter, we decided to do again an online symposium, in the darkest time, when we need connection via the world wide web (and the wood wide web).
The symposium invites scholars, artists, educators, and practitioners to join in co-creating an eco-thanatology for your place. Through papers, performances, poetry, and dialogue, we will explore how to co-create moments and places for grief and (un)learning about ideas like wounds, scars, disease, death… at the same time.
Sessions are designed like tapas, small, varied and nourishing offerings. Presenters will later be re-invited into a collective conversation (the cauldron sessions).
In this way, we plant seeds for later collaborative autoethographic explorations in the winter/spring symposium 2027 in Lithuania and the week-long summer session 2027 in Sweden.
We also respect the vampiric drain of Zoom. Between sessions, we take long breaks and encourage participants to step outside and move.
Painting: “Death and the Maiden” (by Marianne Stokes, 1900)
Some pauses will come with invitations, such as using photovoice, to capture images in or around your home (or the place where you videocall in on December 12th and/or 13th) that remind you to the big keyword Eco-thanatology or other thoughts and words that emerged during this symposium.
A shared MiroBoard will remain active throughout the sumposium, serving as a collective canvas for myth-making. We will take care that each session has a frame, which can be exported later and shared with the presenter and all participants.
Tentative programme 12-13 December 2026
Timezone: Brussels time (CET, UTC+1); for reference, that’s 1 hour behind in Lisbon, Dublin and Reykjavík, 1 hour ahead in Helsinki and Vilnius, 4.5 hours ahead in Delhi, 6 hours behind in Wisconsin, and 8 hours behind in San Francisco. Sessions with a double ** will be audio and video recorded and shared with the people who miss the mornings.
Some parts of the programme are already planned. The call is for the bold slots.
| Timeslot | Saturday 12 December | Sunday 13 December |
| 09.00-11.00 | 09.00-10.00: Welcome, soft landing and intro topic of Eco+thanatology, symposium’s and circle’s objectives, intro of the cauldron and photo voice invitation- by Wendy Wuyts ** 10.00-11.00: Writing(with)plants about eco+thanatology and expectations by Heide Maria Baden | 10.00: We open zoom and the cauldron, soft welcome 10.30-11.00: Learning about and with the Rainwater storage and filtering solution for our next symposium in Lithuania – by Wendy Wuyts and Vitalija Petri-Povilaityte ** |
| 11.00-13.00 | Invitation to go outdoors, bring a camera and do photovoice of the keyword: Eco+thanatology + lunch | Invitation to go outdoors, bring a camera and do photovoice of the keyword: Eco+thanatology + lunch |
| 13.00-14.00 | CALL FOR 1 workshop | CALL FOR 1 workshop |
| 14.30-16.00 | CALL for 3 presentations of (future) academic papers (30 minutes each) Moderator: Wendy Wuyts | CALL for 3 presentations of (future) academic papers (30 minutes each) Moderator: Wendy Wuyts |
| 16.30-17.30 | CALL FOR 1 workshop | Closing the cauldron – eco+thanatology for your place – by Wendy Wuyts Announcing the next symposium and keyword – in Lithuania – by Vitalija Petri-Povilaityte |
| 17.30-19.30 | Long dinner break | |
| 19.30-21.00 | CALL for contributions to our Oral storytelling session (poems, short stories, prayers, grief rituals, short video watch parties…) Facilitator: Lisa Sattell |
This means that we look for 9-15 additional contributors. We aim for 50 additional attendees for listening, commenting, joining discussions and adding post-its and photographs to the MiroBoard in these two days. In our last online symposium, we had 37 registered participants.
Key dates:
- Call for proposals: 15 September.
- News about acceptance and first programme: Friday 02 October
- Registration for participants, via the NSU webshop: 01 December
- Online symposium: Saturday 12- Sunday 13 December
About the study circle and ephemeral ponds
In this study circle (2025-2027), we nurture a diversity of practices for mutual learning and knowledge creation through conversation and play with the “more than human”.
We build a community of practice, where we create ‘playgrounds’, ‘ephemeral ponds’ or spaces of not knowing, which are focused around prompts and themes for especially young scholars to experience and test methods, and examine afterwards through their own frameworks/theories. These spaces aim to instill opportunities to grow epistemological humility and inner pathways toward responsibility.
Our community of practice is co-producing a shared vocabulary. Eco+thanatology is the keyword that we explore in this symposium.
About the Nordic Summer University (NSU)
Our mothering plant, Nordic Summer University (NSU), is a Swedish non-profit organisation.
Since 1950, NSU has been an independent academic institution, which organises winter and summer symposia that draw international participants across disciplines in the Nordic and Baltic regions.
Particular attention has been paid to cross-disciplinary areas not yet targeted by larger research institutions.
Painting: Still Life with Fruit, a Bird’s Nest and Insects (by Rachel Ruysch, 1710 or 1716, source: wiki)
Pricing
We work with 2 prices.
- 20 euros for NSU 2026 members (= you participated in our winter and/or summer symposium 2026)
- 70 euros for non-NSU 2026 members
Both presenters as people who will not present and want to participate and learn together can register and pay in November. A ticket needs to be purchased via the NSU webshop in the month of November.
This covers…
- Miroboard, Zoom and website costs
- Access to a platform, network and collective wisdom for mutual learning
- Communication through structured emails (before, during and after the symposium)
- If there is a need: 1:1 follow-up video call with Wendy (Wood wide web stories) to pitch an idea for a blogpost (or an academic article or funding application), receive feedback, explore a collaboration in 2027
- 10 euros per person will be used to buy, install and maintain a rainwater storage and filter solution at the location of our winter/spring symposium in Lithuania: we want to give back to a place where we gather and (un)learn.
Small commission in 2027 for contributors
Unfortunately, we do not have scholarships. Although we value the labour and knowledge behind each offer, we cannot give a commission for the event itself.
However, you can write a blogpost in 2027, after the symposium, about the experience and the theme of eco+thanatology, preferably connected with a place where you do your caring work with(in) the more-than-human.
You have to invoice Wood wide web stories (registered in Belgium), so it is important that you belong to a legal entity which can invoice. The commission is 200 euros (including VAT) per blogpost.
How to Apply
Send your proposal (max 1000 words / 2 pages, including visuals) to: wendywwuyts@gmail.com and heidenjoy@gmail.com and complete the questionnaire by 15 September .
Please include:
- Title of your presentation / performance / contribution / poem / paper draft / prayer / …
- Short bio (max 200 words, including minimum 3 relations you have with the more-than-human world
- What does eco-thanatology mean to you? Add an example of how it shows itself to you or how/when/where you notice it.
- What will you share during the Autumn Symposium?
- Practical details → How much time do you need? (30–90 min, teams of 2–3 welcome)
- Inspiration → Key artistic and/or academic references
- Let me know if you would like to write a blogposts in 2027 for this website. Please share a possible title and how the blogpost is connected with the theme of eco-thanatology.
Creativity is welcome! Text, drawings, photo images, and poetic formats can all be part of your proposal!
List of blogposts exploring eco+thanatology
- Heide Maria Baden (2024) Coming home
- Heide Maria Baden (2025) Remaining open for bittersweet deaths
- Katriina Kilpi (2026) Forest thresholds for the dead
- Heide Maria Baden (2026) Un-clogging the Pores of Perception: Membrane Permeability, Hygiene and Knowing When to Stop
To read more blogposts and about the interests, values, and explorations of our 3-year long study circle, visit the NSU circle: Learning with the More-than-human page.
Late autumn symposium is in the weekend of 12-13 December and can be seen as a Sequel to our online Eco+mythology symposium (17-18 January 2026) – read the synthesis blog of the previous online symposium here.
Selected readings
- Black, S. (2018). All that remains: A life in death. Random House.
- Nelson, N. (2020). Rats, death, and Anthropocene relations in urban Canadian childhoods. In Research handbook on childhoodnature: Assemblages of childhood and nature research (pp. 637-659). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-319-67286-1_45
- Radomska, M., Mehrabi, T., & Lykke, N. (2020). Queer death studies: Death, dying and mourning from a queerfeminist perspective. Australian Feminist Studies, 35(104), 81-100. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08164649.2020.1811952
- Shelvock, M., Kinsella, E. A., & Harris, D. (2022). Beyond the corporatization of death systems: Towards green death practices. Illness, Crisis & Loss, 30(4), 640-658. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10541373211006882
- Tsing, A. L., Mathews, A. S., & Bubandt, N. (2019). Patchy Anthropocene: Landscape structure, multispecies history, and the retooling of anthropology: An introduction to supplement 20. Current Anthropology, 60(S20), S186-S197. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/703391
- van der Voet, R. (2026). Island river breath I. Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, 17(1), 341-358. https://doi.org/10.37536/ECOZONA.2026.17.1.6045
Let me know – in the comments- if you recommend more relevant essays, poems or academic articles.
Discover more from Stories from the Wood Wide Web
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.