Literature in Transition: On Reading, Research, and Method

TRANSITION Data Lab with Jane Bennett, John Hopkins University.

This Data Lab turns to literature and poetry as a way of imagining new forms of being and relating to the world. We invite participants to reflect on questions such as:

• What kind of (historical) source material is a literary text?
• How might literature function as an “interlocutor” in research and thinking?
• In what ways has literature and fiction played a role in research?

To frame this discussion, we welcome Jane Bennett, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. Bennett is internationally known for her influential work in political theory, philosophy, and the environmental humanities, including her writings on materiality, affect, and the vibrancy of nonhuman life. Her scholarship has shaped debates across disciplines, inspiring new approaches to the role of art, literature, and imagination in critical thought.

Transition Data Labs are hands-on sessions where researchers come together to explore data and material from current projects on rural–urban transitions. They are also spaces for debating methodological questions, opening research material for shared exploration, collective interpretation, and critical reflection.