Schedule: Friday 27th September 2024

Please note, all times are German-time, CEST (UTC+2). All online sessions will run using Microsoft Teams. Links for each panel can be found in the tables below.

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9.45–10.15am – Welcome [recording coming soon]

10.15–11.45am – Panels (x3)

Panel 1	Panel 2	Panel 3 (Online)
Projecting Technological Development Over 38,000 Years: Lessons from History	The medieval roots of Warhammer 40,000’s endless crusade	In the grim, dark future there is only war(tm): An analysis on engagement and enforcement of Games Workshop’s intellectual property law policy
Martin Heidegger’s Critique of Technology exemplified by the Cult Mechanicus	Dominican Nuns, but with Guns: The Adepta Sororitas and Medieval Spirituality	In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only Warhammer
POV: You’re a Tech-Priest – Using Warhammer 40k’s sociotechnical ontology as a tool for diffraction	Damnation and Salvation through technology in the Imperium of Man	The Assemblage of Rules of 40k

11.45–12pm – Break

12–1pm – Keynote: In Conversation with… John Blanche [Watch online*]
* Due to unforeseen circumstances, John is unable to speak ‘live’ at this time. As such, this session will be pre-recorded and shared via the website on the day of the conference.

1–2pm – Lunch

2–3.30pm –  Panels (x3)

Panel 4	Panel 5 (Online)	Panel 6 (Online)
Messengers of Chaos: Variances in representations of chaos demons in Warhammer 40,000	Excommunicate Traitoris – On Defining Canon, Communities, and the Building of Narrative Worlds	The Return of Reckoning: Warhammer Online and Successful Fan-Directed Preservation of Videogames
The Concept of Warp Space from a Physical Perspective	Respect the Canon: 40K and Evangelical Fundamentalism’s Loyalty to Fluff and Tradition	Miniature Meaning-Making for the 41st Millennium
A healthy obsession with death? Finding the joy in a grimdark world	Asymmetric warfare in the 41st Millenium: the cultist as insurgent and Mao’s legacy.	Miniature Mindfulness: Finding Spiritual Flow with Warhammer 40,000 Figurines

3.30–3.45pm – Break

3.45–5.15pm – Panels (x3)

Panel 7	Panel 8 (Online)	Panel 9 (Online)
Resistance is Futile – The Procedural Rhetoric of Rebellion (or the lack thereof) in the face of Fascist Caricature in Warhammer 40.000	Warhammer 40k as safe place for neurodiverse community	Intertextuality as a double-edged chainsword – is writing for Warhammer a barrier to narrative invention?
War, Power, and Survival in Theory and Fiction: Realist Theories of International Relations and Fundamental Tropes in the Lore of Warhammer 40k	The Emperor’s man-children? Warhammer 40,000 as adult men’s toy play	The Power of Ensembles: How Warhammer Novels Introduce Worldbuilding and Create Tension through Multiperspective Storytelling
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only politics? Warhammer 40k for a school-based look at Carl Schmitt’s unfolding concept of the political	Occult Infrastructures: Venerate the Machine	The Emperor’s Great Crusade, ‘instrumental reason’ and the ‘Dialectic of Enlightenment’: The Horus Heresy series from the perspective of philosophy of history

5.15pm – Closing remarks

Those attending in person are welcome to join us for food after the conference. We have reserved a table for a large group of us at a local restaurant. However, there is no pressure on anyone to attend, and you can stay for as long / as little as you would like.