Calling for expressions of interest: Masterclass with Professor Karen River Barad on the aliens of Arrival
The masterclass details:
When: 1 September 2026
Where: Deakin Burwood Campus
As spaces at the masterclass are limited, we ask you to
apply using this form, and to tell us why you would like to attend. Priority will be given to early career researchers and graduate students.
Applications close on 5pm, Monday 17 August.We are delighted to announce an EOI process to attend a masterclass at Deakin University’s Burwood campus with Distinguished Research Professor Karen River Barad, who is currently a visiting fellow at Deakin Law School’s Centre for Law as Protection.
Barad is Distinguished Research Professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Barad’s Ph.D. is in theoretical particle physics and quantum field theory. Barad held a tenured appointment in a physics department before moving into more interdisciplinary spaces. Barad is the author of Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (Duke University Press, 2007) and numerous articles in the fields of physics, philosophy, science studies, and nuclear studies. Barad’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Hughes Foundation, the Irvine Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Barad is a founding member of the Science & Justice Research Center and served as the Director of the Science & Justice Graduate Training Program at UCSC. Barad is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Gothenburg University and Aarhus University, a Fulbright fellowship, a Yale University Dwight H. Terry Lectureship, and the Kresge College Teaching Award, among other honors. Barad’s new book, Energetics of the Otherwise: A Laboratory of the Possible, is forthcoming with Yale University Press in early 2027.
The masterclass will be held on 1 September 2026 (details TBA) at Burwood and will involve an in-depth discussion with Professor Barad about the award-winning sci-fi film
Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve. In order to prepare for the masterclass, attendees will be invited to attend a screening of the film, also held at Deakin’s Burwood campus, one day earlier, on 31 August 2026 (details TBA) and asked to read Ted Chiang’s
short story which inspired the film. As spaces at the masterclass are limited, we ask you to
apply using this form, and to tell us why you would like to attend. Priority will be given to early career researchers and graduate students.
Applications close on 5pm, Monday 17 August. Participants will be notified of the outcome shortly thereafter, and provided with further details about the masterclass. We will shortly announce another event with Prof Barad, to be held at Deakin Downtown’s Melbourne CBD location, on Monday 24 August, so please keep an eye out for those details as well.
Prof Barad’s visit and this event is supported by the Centre for Law as Protection at Deakin University, the Deakin Law School, Deakin’s Faculty of Arts and Education, and Deakin’s Science and Society Network.
