Although critiques of humanism are not new, the currency of posthumanist discourse on the nonhuman – the animal, the environment, or the object – suggests rising concerns about humanity’s place in the ecological order. This article interrogates Cary Wolfe's posthumanist framework as he approaches the questions of activism and agency in the context of animal ethics and disability politics. By drawing attention to the contradictions in his own commitments to rethinking human exceptionalism, I examine how Wolfe's appeal for a more compassionate account of ethics vis-à-vis the notion of ‘trans-species empathy’ can be more gainfully addressed through the work of feminist and quantum physicist Karen Barad. This essay contends that by preserving the difference between the human and the nonhuman (or animal) as something that is given rather than interrogated, the assumption of ‘the human’ as a self-contained identity is left unchanged and unchallenged.

Florence Chiew interviews Maurizio Meloni on his new book, Impressionable Biologies: From the Archaeology of Plasticity to the Sociology of Epigenetics. The conversation reflects on a number of key themes and arguments in Meloni’s work, such as the use of the term ‘impressionability’ to explore longstanding ideas of the permeable body in constant flux in response to cosmological changes. This notion of the body-porous is one whose history Meloni traces back to ancient traditions and systems of medicine, such as humoralism. In this important book, Meloni makes a compelling argument for questioning the current emphasis on the novelty of biological plasticity as an exclusively contemporary phenomenon, and urges us to take a longer genealogical perspective to appreciate how histories of corporeal plasticity have always been part of deeply gendered, racialized and classed discourses in which social hierarchies have been made through physiological distinctions.

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In mythology twins represent both dualism and entanglement. Saturated with archetypal meaning, the figure of the twins unsettles divisions between nature and culture and – in its various incarnations as the double, doppelganger, shadow, or fetch – it troubles the notion of a unique, bounded self. This article draws on the indivisible intimacy of twins to examine the anxieties of influence and competition that disrupt claims within the ontological turn about theoretical and methodological innovation. The curious phenomenon of ‘twinning’, we argue, captures a sense of the dangerous intimacy that is operative not only at the level of empirical research on twins but also at the level of intellectual work itself where novelty is often cast in terms of breaking away from imitation to forge an identity that is original and singular. To unpack the burden of competition and originality that underpins concerns about methodological intimacy, we trace a path from ancient mythologies to foundational research in twinship. In exploring the tension between hardwired dis/similarity and entanglement through the potent figure of the twins, this article considers how we might address methodological questions about self-identity and intimacy within the ontological turn.

Palliative care volunteers play a crucial role in supporting people who are terminally ill. Previous studies have indicated that a personal experience of grief and bereavement is a motivating factor for wanting to be a palliative care volunteer. Using reflexive thematic analysis as a methodological approach, the aim of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experience of grief and bereavement in a group of 11 Australian volunteers in adult palliative care settings. Three themes were identified from the dataset: witnessing and finding community; approaching death and dying with curiosity and openness; living well through death awareness. Importantly, death awareness was felt by volunteers to be an essential part of sense making around their past grief and a source of guidance for appreciating life. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of volunteering motivations, end-of-life care, and the changing nature of grief as a lived experience.