“Anthropocene” refers to the the geological epoch in which anthropos, or “the human,” emerges as a central mediating force of the global environment. The Anthropocene has emerged as a site of interdisciplinary tension and collaboration, as scholars across academic disciplines work to elaborate what exactly this newfound planetary agency means for the future of the human, alongside the rest of the planetary system. With this problematic in mind, the Critical Anthropocene Research Group (CARG) interrogates the challenges that emerge in representing the Anthropocene.
How do we meaningfully portray a phenomenon as broad and amorphous as climate change?
How does our understanding of “the human” have to change to account for our unevenly-distributed geological agency?
How can the Anthropocene be represented in such a way that not only catalyzes recognition but also mobilizes some kind of meaningful and organized response?
This project engages with variety of critical work by interdisciplinary scholars working at the intersection of the environmental humanities and Anthropocene studies in an effort to better define the role of the humanities in combating anthropogenic climate change.
EVENTS
As part of the Representing the Anthropocene project, the CARG meets monthly to host events and discuss works that emerge out of interdisciplinary criticism in the environmental humanities and Anthropocene studies.
2022/2023
November 2022: Jean-Thomas Tremblay and Alice Jarry, “Breathing Aesthetics”
January 2023: Anne Pasek, “Biocharmed:(Affective) Value Forms in Emerging Carbon Removal Markets”
February 2023: Philip Aghoghovwia, “Postcolonial Nature”
March 2023: Sophie Chao, “More-Than-Human Entanglements in the Plantation Nexus”
2021/2022
October 2021: Andil Gosine, “Nature’s Wild: Love, Sex, and Law in the Caribbean”
December 2021: Radhika Govindrajan, “Spectral Justice: Multispecies Haunting and Accountability in Himalayan India”
February 2022: Rafico Ruiz, “Slow Disturbance: Infrastructure & Ice”
2020/ 2021
November 2020: Reading Kathryn Yusoff (Queen Mary) Geologic Realism & “The Inhumanities”
January 2021: Reading Elizabeth DeLoughrey’s (UCLA) Allegories of the Anthropocene (Introduction)
February 2021: Kathryn Yusoff and Deborah Thomas, “Plantationocene in discussion—moderated by Kregg Hetherington and Jill Didur”
March 2021: Reading Kyle Powys Whyte’s (U of Michigan) “Our Ancestors’ Dystopia Now”
April 2021: Reading selections from Thom van Dooren and Matthew Chrulew’s “KIN: Thinking with Deborah Bird Rose” and Anna Tsing et al.’s Feral Atlas
Jill Didur is the Principle Investigator on this project and Priscilla Jolly is the Project Coordinator.