Posthumanities: Getting Weary of Yet Another ‘Post-’ Fad?

Posthumanities: Getting Weary of Yet Another 'Post-' Fad?A few years ago, when we established the Centre for Research in Posthumanities at Bankura University in 2022, we faced serious criticism from many of our colleagues across academia regarding the raison d'être for establishing such a centre.The same criticism was hurled against me in a post conference adda recently.I should mention that both moments had collegial ambience.Since 2022, I have been diving deeper into the books, articles, and talks of many renowned scholars working in this area.Whatever I say and write, I try to substantiate my views with logic and reason.I have learnt this lesson of ethical scholarship and accountability from my teachers, colleagues and fellow researchers.I feel it imperative to respond to such criticism in this editor's note.The first question that I need to respond here is: "What, if anything, is new about posthumanism?"A simple bottom line answer would be that posthumanism is a new way of thinking about certain strands of humanism."[T]he posthuman" as Hayles says "does not really mean the end of humanity" (286).Western Enlightenment modernity's projections of the human, its inherent dualistic mode of thinking, its rationalization of human exceptionalism, and an unwritten 'modern constitution' i (Latour 1993) face serious disruptions in the wake of contemporary climate catastrophe, ecological degradation, mass species extinction, socio-political and geo-political transformations, Entanglements: