Please join us for the next session of the BioCriticism webinar, “Imagining the Holobiont“, with guest speakers Kristien Hens (ethics and philosophy) and Joana Formosinho (art-science).
The 2026 BioCriticism webinar series offers interdisciplinary approaches to “Health across Scales”. Guest speakers discuss how scientists, writers, and artists imagine the networks and dynamics that shape health across scales, from the microbial to the planetary. Each session consists of two talks followed by discussion.
“Imagining the Holobiont “
a BioCriticism webinar with Kristien Hens and Joana Formosinho
17th of April 2026, 2.00-3.30 pm CEST
(1.00-2.30 pm British Summer Time)
Join zoom meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87173872318?pwd=IXphZJv44sdc6DQEnnLyyPAl7bV9qi.1
Meeting ID: 871 7387 2318
Password: 985508
Prof. Kristien Hens, “Which Microbiomes Matter? Rethinking the Gut-Centric View of Life”
What is a microbiome? Do some microbiomes matter more than others? How does the concept relate to philosophical debates on the holobiont? In this talk, I examine how microbiomes are defined in biology and medicine and explore the current hype surrounding the microbiome–gut–brain axis. I ask what is obscured when attention narrows to the gut microbiome in particular, and whether this focus echoes earlier gene-centric models of life that claimed explanatory primacy for a single biological level.
Kristien Hens is professor of Ethics at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Antwerp. She teaches bioethics, media ethics and Japanese environmental philosophy. She is specifically interested in microbes and what philosophers can learn from them.
Dr Joana Formosinho, “How—and where—to imagine the biosocial holobiont“
In the 21st century sciences, the holobiont has risen to the fore as a concept which re-construes the organism—including the human—as a multigenomic (dis)unity; thus re-framing the biological individual as also a collective. The holobiont has been proving good to think with across biology and culture— yet it remains remarkably difficult to imagine within cultures where human vs. non-human; body vs. environment are habitual modes of thinking. In this talk, I consider how art-science can contribute to the construction of public imaginaries of the holobiont as biosocial figure; and simultaneously act as a platform for collaboration between social and biological scientists and artists. Drawing on two case studies of collaboration with artists Baum & Leahy, I will argue that art-science can act as a temporary “contact zone” (Pratt, 1991) whereby biological, artistic and social knowledges meet (and mutually infect) without merging; whilst simultaneously offering a space for public sense-making with scientific knowledges. I will describe the art-science collaborations, and offer reflections from makers and participants. I conclude with some considerations on art-science and its emerging role in addressing the challenge of making visible non-human agencies within the body and social worlds.
Joana Formosinho is a Research Fellow in STS (Science and Technology Studies) at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Sciences. She works on social dimensions of microbiomes and plant synthetic genomics; with a focus on collaborative methods. Her work sits at the intersection of biological and social knowledges, aiming to contribute to multispecies approaches to the social.
BioCriticism is organised by Liliane Campos with the support of PRISMES EA4398 and the Institut Universitaire de France. For information and links, please contact liliane.campos@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr or check the BioCriticism website
