31704
Advanced Seminar
WiSe 19/20: Historicizing the Athropocene: Perspectives on the Human Earth System
Giulia Rispoli
Comments
What is the Anthropocene we live in? How does it differ from the previous geological epochs? How dangerous has our environment, including the air we breathe, become? And to what extent have humans shaped life, development and the extinction of non-human organisms? This seminar provides an introduction to the notion of the Anthropocene—the idea that humankind is the main agent of planetary transformation—from a perspective that intertwines the sciences and the humanities. It reconstructs the context in which the Anthropocene emerged as both a scientific and cultural theory and the (still open) debate on its origins in the mid-twentieth century. Concepts and ideas such as the “noosphere”, “geosphere”, “tipping points”, “planetary boundaries”, “technosphere”, and “geoanthropology”, will be discussed to provide genealogies of the earth system along with models and practices that have addressed changes in humanity/nature interactions in the 20th century. These range from accounts of the Earth as a self-regulating system to less deliberate reflections on the exploitation of natural resources, and biodiversity loss, to the emergence of transnational research on the effects of the nuclear war on the global environment during the Cold War.
In our weekly class, we will read and comment on several texts that exemplify the heterogeneity of approaches and discourses related to the Anthropocene as a concrete, interdisciplinary topic at the intersection of the sciences and humanities. We will also discuss some artistic representations and objects to further stimulate in-class discussion.
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16 Class schedule
Regular appointments
Fri, 2019-10-18 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2019-10-25 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2019-11-01 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2019-11-08 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2019-11-15 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2019-11-22 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2019-11-29 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2019-12-06 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2019-12-13 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2019-12-20 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2020-01-10 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2020-01-17 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2020-01-24 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2020-01-31 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2020-02-07 10:00 - 12:00
Fri, 2020-02-14 10:00 - 12:00