The Anthropocene is a widely used term that designates the most recent epoch in Earth's history: an epoch in which humans have radically altered (and disrupted) the climate and ecosystems of the planet.
The annual Welcome to the Anthropocene lecture series invites scholars and researchers across the humanities, social and natural sciences to explore how their disciplines are responding—both to the concept of the Anthropocene, and to the planetary crisis that it designates.
For the 2023 Anthropocene Lecture Series we've invited leading international scholars.
2023 Convenors and organizers: Pierre du Plessis and Anna-Katharina Laboissiere
How to attend
The 2023 lecture series are free and open to the public. You can either attend in person at the University of Oslo or on Zoom. Register in advance to join. You will find the registration links in the event pages below.
Recordings:
We are (of) the Earth: Place-based Knowing and Be(com)ing Circular
March 30, 2023 16:15-17:00 CET, Auditorium 3 Sophus Bugges Hus or Zoom
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a story from the moving space of this bodymindspirit
this earthling
this life
in between the wor(l)ds of academia and meahcci, sciences and arts, Indigenous and non-Indigenous,
something which could be called decolonial lifestorying, mystories, autoethnographies
or just a sharing in between on be(com)ing circular
and on how we come to know-feel-think-imagine-
there where we are
Matthew Chrulew (@negentropist) is a writer and researcher from Boorloo/Perth. His fiction has appeared in Westerly, Cosmos and Ecopunk! and his essays in Angelaki, New Literary History and Biosemiotics. He recently edited the anthologies Phase Change: Imagining Energy Futures and (with Thom van Dooren) Kin: Thinking with Deborah Bird Rose. He was a founding associate editor of Environmental Humanities journal, and edits the book series Animalities at Edinburgh University Press. He works as a research fellow at Curtin University.
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One aspect of the Anthropocene in need of better concepts and methods of analysis is the behavioural and cultural change among animals exposed to human activity. While environmental discourse is full of generalisations about the reach of human disruption and the inescapability of entanglement, the anthropocentric notions subtending the ‘two cultures’ divide still inhibit better understandings of just how wildlife are changed by various forms of encounter. Drawing on research in the history and philosophy of ethology, zoo biology and conservation biology that explores the value of habituation in behavioural studies, the traumas of captivity and the vicissitudes of domestication and rewilding, this lecture seeks to disentangle some varieties of anthropogenic transformation so as better to navigate the murky ethopolitical terrain of the Anthropocene.
Kinship and cultivation: On the intersection of land, temporality, and ecological justice
April 20, 16:15-17:00 CET, Auditorium 3 Sophus Bugges Hus or Zoom
Jason Allen-Paisant is Senior Lecturer in Critical Theory and Creative Writing in the Department of English, American Studies, and Creative Writing. He is the author of Théâtre dialectique postcolonial (Classiques Garnier), and of Engagements with Aimé Césaire (Oxford University Press, 2023), which is a philosophical study of poetry from the perspective of African metaphysics. He is also the author of two volumes of poetry — Thinking with Trees (winner of the Poetry category of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature) and Self-Portrait as Othello (a 2023 Poetry Book Society Choice). His creative nonfiction book Scanning the Bush will be published by Hutchinson Heinemann in 2024. He has twice been guest editor of special issues of scholarly journals: Performing Black Futures and Face à l’histoire coloniale (the latter co-edited with Clare Finburgh Delijani), for parallax and Théâtre/Public respectively. His work has also resulted in numerous peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals and in creative/critical writings for various magazines, including Granta.
Among other matters, Allen-Paisant’s work explores embodied experience in the context of Afro-diasporic politics and worldbuilding, often reflecting on the complex meanings of nature in Black life.
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Beaconing marginalized positions with respect to land and nature from my intertwined subjectivities as storyteller/poet and academic, this talk, based on my forthcoming book Scanning the Bush (Hutchinson Heinemann), focuses on the particular idea of cultivation. The word ‘cultivate’ circles around ideas of tilling, raising or growing, and caring for. As the art historian Nathaniel Stein notes, these meanings apply to developments one might nurture in society as well as those one might generate in the soil. To cultivate is to improve by care, to care something into existence. Highlighting the significance of the idea of cultivation to my book’s auto-ethnographic project, this talk will address the challenge of a just ecological transition by exploring how these ideas and praxes of ‘cultivation’ might foster an awareness of deep time in mainstream political consciousness, while expanding public discussions around land access for the practising of inter-species kinship and food independence.
Climate Change Research in the Anthropocene: IPCC findings from the last decade
May 4, 16:15-17:00 CET, Zoom
Dr. Stephanie Roe is WWF’s Global Climate & Energy Lead Scientist, working to advance the science, leadership and progress on climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and nature-based solutions. She is an expert on land-based climate mitigation and biosphere-atmosphere dynamics, is a Lead Author of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report and is a member of the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) Advisory Group. Prior to WWF, Dr. Roe led research on climate and land science and implemented climate mitigation, forest conservation, and food system interventions with various governments and NGOs across 20+ countries. She also worked with the United Nations to implement a program on reducing deforestation in Indonesia, negotiated international climate policy as a Delegate of the Philippines to the UNFCCC, advised the Public Ministry in Brazil on climate change legislation, and collaborated with Fortune 500 companies on sustainability initiatives and climate strategies. Throughout her career, Dr. Roe has worked on addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and economic development, striving to catalyze the transition to sustainable land-use, food, and energy systems.
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) produces an assessment every 5-7 years, authored by hundreds of scientists in over fifty countries. It represents the most robust and authoritative source of climate science, and is used to inform international and national policy makers. The assessment includes a series of reports on why the earth’s climate is changing, the consequences of those changes, and solutions to address it. This presentation will go over the latest IPCC assessment’s findings (Synthesis report release, March 20 2023), and discuss the technical, economic, political, and social approaches for mitigating climate change and other key challenges of the Anthropocene.