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About
The Posthuman Studies Association is a non-profit association dedicated to exploring the ongoing posthuman paradigm shift in relation to the Anthropocene, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the post-Darwinian turn in evolutionary thinking. It engages critically with the complex entanglements between science, technology, ethics, aesthetics, art, culture, society, and the human condition in contemporary contexts.
The Association aims to foster, advance, and enhance interdisciplinary dialogue and research in the field of posthuman studies across both national and international academic and cultural communities, promoting a nuanced and context-sensitive understanding of posthuman transformations.
Its mission is to examine how emerging technologies, cultural transformations, and global challenges are reshaping present conditions and opening possible futures. In doing so, it promotes critical and hermeneutical reflection on the philosophical, cultural, ethical, social, political, and aesthetic dimensions of the posthuman paradigm shift. Technological developments are understood as part of a contingent and relational process of continual becoming involving humans, technologies, cultures, and environments, rather than as pathways toward predetermined or utopian futures.
One of the main objectives of the Association is to promote dialogue and collaboration among academic communities and researchers, both within Romania and across the globe, who are involved in the rich field of posthuman studies. This encompasses a wide range of schools of thought, i.e., cultural, existential, European, philosophical, radical, and speculative posthumanism, as well as original, classic, and Euro-transhumanism, metahumanism, and humanism.
The Association aims to develop a platform for interdisciplinary academic collaboration, promoting open discussions, innovative theories, and practices that deepen our understanding with respect to the posthuman paradigm shift, the world, and the impact of our actions within it.
The Association supports and promotes academic engagement with posthuman theories, ideas, practices, and concepts. By organizing a variety of events—including international and national conferences, workshops, meetings, symposiums, roundtable discussions, seminars, debates, etc.—the Association aims to engage researchers and experts from Romania and abroad to bring their support to the field of posthuman studies.
The Association aims to foster a diverse and inclusive academic community. By actively promoting diversity and inclusion in its projects and activities, the Association aims to create a welcoming and supportive environment for researchers, artists, philosophers, transhumanists, posthumanists, metahumanists, and humanists from all backgrounds. By encouraging open and creative dialogue, the Association aims to make significant contributions to our understanding of the complex relationships between humans and technology in the 21st century.
Members
Aura-Elena Schussler: Founding Member
Aura-Elena Schussler: Founding Member
Dr. Aura-Elena Schussler is a university lecturer in philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She is the Founder and Director of the Posthuman Studies Association in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She is also the founder of the Posthuman Studies Research Group and the Transhumanism, Posthumanism, and Metahumanism student circle at Babeș-Bolyai University. She leads and organizes the international Posthuman Studies Conference (PSC) series and the national Human Nature, Culture, Technology (NUCT) conference series. Her research focuses on posthuman studies, transhumanism, Euro-Transhumanism, critical posthumanism, and posthuman art and aesthetics. Furthermore, she is a Member of the Humanity+ Advisory Board.
Schussler is the Series Editor of the Posthuman Studies book series published by Trivent Publishing. In addition, she is the lead editor of Metahumanism, Euro-Transhumanism, and Sorgner’s Philosophy—Technology, Ethics, Art (Trivent Publishing, 2024), and editor of Nietzsche, Critical Posthumanism, and Transhumanism (Posthuman Studies, Vol. 1; Trivent Publishing, 2025). She serves on the editorial boards of ETHIKA+ (Universidad de Chile), Entanglements: Journal of Posthumanities, Deliberatio: Studies in Contemporary Philosophical Challenges (West University of Timișoara), and is a former member of the editorial board of the Journal of Posthumanism (Transnational Press, London). Furthermore, she is the author of two monographs in Romanian and has published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Posthuman Studies, Nanoethics, and the Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, among others.
Schussler, A. E. (Ed.). 2025. Nietzsche, Critical Posthumanism, and Transhumanism. Trivent Publishing https://trivent-publishing.eu/home/211-397-nietzsche-critical-posthumanism-and-transhumanism.html#/27-cover-paperback
Schussler, A. E. & Balistreri, M. (Ed.). 2024. Metahumanism, Euro-Transhumanism, and Sorgner’s Philosophy—Technology, Ethics, Art. Trivent Publishing https://trivent-publishing.eu/home/170-318-metahumanism-sorgner.html#/27-cover-paperback
Honorary Members
Stefan Lorenz Sorgner
Stefan Lorenz Sorgner is Full Professor of Philosophy at John Cabot University in Rome and the Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Posthuman Studies (Penn State UP, since 2017). His publications include edited collections such as Music in German Philosophy (University of Chicago Press 2010) alongside numerous monographs, including On Transhumanism (Penn State UP 2020), We have always been cyborgs (Bristol UP 2022), Philosophy of Posthuman Art (Schwabe 2022), and Euro-Transhumanism (Bristol UP 2026). His work has also been the subject of dedicated volumes, such as Metahumanism, Euro-Transhumanism and Sorgner’s Philosophy (Trivent 2024, ed. Aura Elena Schussler and Maurizio Balistreri). A sought-after international keynote speaker and invited special guest who has presented at the World Humanities Forum, Biennale Arte Venezia, and TEDx, he frequently contributes to major media outlets such as Die Zeit, Philosophy Now, and Il Sole 24 Ore.
Stelarc
Stelarc
Stelarc’s projects explore alternative anatomical architectures. He has performed with a Third Hand, a Stomach Sculpture and a 6-legged walking robot. In 1995 for Fractal Flesh his body was remotely choreographed using muscle stimulation. In 2006 an ear was surgically constructed on his arm. The intent, not yet realised is to electronically augment the ear to internet enable it as a remote listening device. Attached to an industrial robot arm in 2015 the trajectory, velocity and position and orientation of the body was precisely programmed. In 2016, with Re-Wired/Re-Mixed, for 6 hours every day for 5 days, he could only see with the eyes of someone on London, could only hear with the ears of someone in NY, but anyone, anywhere could access his right arm and remotely actuate it. Commissioned for the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Reclining StickMan is a 9m long, 4m high robot that is algorithmically actuated and can be remotely controlled with online interactivity. In 1996 he was made an Honorary Professor of Art and Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University and in 2002 was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by Monash University. In 2010 he was awarded the Ars Electronica Golden Nica Hybrid Arts Prize. In 2015 he received the Australia Council’s Emerging and Experimental Arts Award. In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Ionian University, Corfu. In 2023 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow. In 2024 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Articulated Head, Stelarc —Photographer Damith Herath
Articulated Head, Stelarc —Photographer Damith Herath
The Articulated Head is an embodied conversational agent that speaks to the person who interrogates it. This sculptural installation, a further iteration of the Prosthetic Head has an awareness function with sound location and body tracking capabilities, augmenting the virtual behaviour of the head with the physical motion of the robot arm.
Eduardo Kac
Eduardo Kac
Eduardo Kac is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in contemporary art and poetry. In the early 1980s, Kac created digital, holographic and online works that anticipated the global culture we live in today, composed of ever-changing information in constant flux. In 1997 the legendary artist coined the term "Bio Art," igniting the development of this new art form with works such as his transgenic rabbit GFP Bunny (2000) and Natural History of the Enigma (2009), which earned him the Golden Nica, the most prestigious award in the field of media art. GFP Bunny has become a global phenomenon, having been appropriated by major popular culture franchises such as Sherlock, Big Bang Theory and Simpsons, and by writers such as Margaret Atwood and Michael Crichton. In 2017, Kac created Inner Telescope, a work conceived for and realized in outer space with the cooperation of French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. In 2024, Kac's Ágora flew to deep space aboard the Centaur rocket and is now in a perpetual heliocentric orbit. Kac's Adsum is scheduled to fly to the Moon in 2024. Kac’s singular and highly influential career spans poetry, performance, drawing, printmaking, photography, artist's books, early digital and online works, holography, telepresence, bio art, and space art. Kac has also authored or edited several books, including Telepresence and Bio Art -- Networking Humans, Rabbits and Robots (University of Michigan Press, 2005). Kac’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as New Museum, New York; Pompidou Center, Paris; MAXXI-Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; Power Station of Art, Shanghai; and Seoul Museum of Art, Korea. Kac's work has been showcased in biennials such as Venice Biennale, Italy; Yokohama Triennial, Japan; Gwangju Biennale, Korea; Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil; and Bienal de Habana, Cuba. His works are in major collections such as Museum of Modern Art-MoMA, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Museum Les Abattoirs—Frac Occitanie Toulouse, France; Valencian Institute of Modern Art-IVAM, Spain; Museum ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; and Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo, among others.
Sven Helbig
Sven Helbig
As a composer and musician, Sven Helbig combines classical composition techniques with experimental electronics. Sven grew up in the East German planned town of Eisenhüttenstadt. The self-taught composer's debut album, Pocket Symphonies, was released by the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2013. Sven Helbig's work is interdisciplinary. His visualizations have won international awards.
In 2023, his still life Skills was shown in a collective exhibition together with Gerhard Richter, William Kentridge, Tony Cragg, and Katharina Sieverding.
Svens Helbig's works are performed worldwide by many renowned artists, including the BBC Singers, the London Contemporary Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Fauré Quartet, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the cellist Jan Vogler, and the conductor Kristjan Järvi.
In 2025, he will be on the programme of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Dresden Staatskapelle with his current work, Requiem A.
Since 2017, Sven Helbig hosts his weekly music special, Schöne Töne, on Radio Eins in Berlin, in which he shares his extensive music-historical knowledge and introduces new music.
Sven Helbig is the winner of the Dresden Art Prize and Maestro of the National University of San Marin in Buenos Aires.
Corresponding Members
Dr. Márk Horváth
Dr. Márk Horváth
Adjunct Instructor at Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, Institute of Fine Arts, Eger, is a writer and theorist researching posthumanism, post-anthropocentric aesthetics, the Anthropocene, and contemporary ecological thought. He is author/co-author of numerous books and articles on these subjects. Horváth is recognized for helping introduce key concepts and theoretical frameworks of the posthuman turn to Hungarian audiences. Horváth's most notable works to date include the following: Az antropocén (2021); A poszthumanizmus változatai (2019, with Ádám Lovász and Márió Z. Nemes); Darkening Places (2017); The Isle of Lazaretto (2016, with Ádám Lovász). Horváth is a respected art critic in the Hungarian art world.
Dr. Ádám Lovász
Dr. Ádám Lovász
Independent philosopher based in Budapest. Lovász's research interests center on post-anthropocentrism, process philosophy, object-oriented philosophy, complexity theory and 21st century approaches to politics. Among Lovász's most notable works to date are the following monographs: H. P. Lovecraft and Posthumanism (2026, with Márk Horváth and Márió Z. Nemes); Updating Bergson (2021); A valóság visszatérése (2019; with Márk Horváth and Márk Losoncz); Az érzet deterritorializációja (2018). Lovász has also authored and co-authored articles in numerous respected journals, such as Anthropocene Review, Cosmos & History, Environmental Values, Foundations of Science, Political Theology, The European Legacy, Zygon, and more.
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