Against Distance: Quantum Thinking in Humanities Research

Against Distance: Quantum Thinking in Humanities Research. A talk by Amélie Douche.

The two-slit experiment teaches us that, if the physicist measures the behaviour of light using a particle detector, they will find a particle. However, if the physicist measures the behaviour of light using a screen, they will find a wave pattern (also known as ‘diffraction’ or ‘interference pattern’). In other words, to observe is to intervene. I discuss the epistemological, ontological, and ethical implications of the two-slit experiment and, in so doing, answer Carlo Rovelli, Karen Barad, and Danah Zohar’s call to ground our philosophies in science (and not the other way around). This argument might seem questionable if the science we have in mind is one that separates us from Nature, Ideas, and Others. In a quantum paradigm, however, everything is connected to everything else. Using Rovelli’s Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM) and Barad’s Agential Realism, I show that quantum-informed enquiries hold the potential not only to bring us closer to our humanness, but also to bring us closer to ‘truth’ and ‘objectivity’.

The two-slit experiment teaches us that, if the physicist measures the behaviour of light using a particle detector, they will find a particle. However, if the physicist measures the behaviour of light using a screen, they will find a wave pattern (also known as ‘diffraction’ or ‘interference pattern’). In other words, to observe is to intervene. I discuss the epistemological, ontological, and ethical implications of the two-slit experiment and, in so doing, answer Carlo Rovelli, Karen Barad, and Danah Zohar’s call to ground our philosophies in science (and not the other way around). This argument might seem questionable if the science we have in mind is one that separates us from Nature, Ideas, and Others. In a quantum paradigm, however, everything is connected to everything else. Using Rovelli’s Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM) and Barad’s Agential Realism, I show that quantum-informed enquiries hold the potential not only to bring us closer to our humanness, but also to bring us closer to ‘truth’ and ‘objectivity’.

Amélie Doche is an AHRC-funded doctoral researcher in English language and literature at Birmingham City University. Her PhD – carried out in collaboration with the literature development organisation Writing West Midlands – explores discourses of value in contemporary literary culture. Amélie’s latest publication (co-written with Dr. Kim Pager-McClymont and Dr. Suzanne McClure) Colour Concepts from a Linguistic and Literary Perspective was published by Cambridge University Press in 2026.