For several decades now, and most recently since 2016 when experts at the International Geological Congress announced that the Earth had officially entered the epoch of the Anthropocene, humanities scholars and academics have been tasked with thinking about the ethical and political underpinnings of environmentalism. The new era, defined as a period during which human activity is seen as a dominant influence on climate and on the planet, requires a deployment of new technologies and a revision of scientific priorities. But it also demands new conceptual apparatuses, ones that critically interrogate policy decisions arising from the global economy and the environmental sciences.
Anthropocene Now! Ecology, Ethics, Politics brings the humanities—from literary studies to political theory to philosophy and art history—to the forefront of this rethinking. We gather on the weekend of International Earth Day to comment on the ways in which the humanities can offer possible models for intervening in, rather than merely reacting to, current ecological and political crises. Our symposium wishes to contribute to diverse efforts across the discipline that strive to generate a framework for a better understanding of the New World Disorder induced by climate change.
Anthropocene Now! Ecology, Ethics, Politics brings the humanities—from literary studies to political theory to philosophy and art history—to the forefront of this rethinking. We gather on the weekend of International Earth Day to comment on the ways in which the humanities can offer possible models for intervening in, rather than merely reacting to, current ecological and political crises. Our symposium wishes to contribute to diverse efforts across the discipline that strive to generate a framework for a better understanding of the New World Disorder induced by climate change.
