Special meeting History of Knowledge Seminar Series with keynotes by Jürgen Renn and Deborah Coen

Rethinking History in the Anthropocene

Since the year 2000, the Anthropocene concept has affected debates in almost every academic discipline, both within the humanities and social sciences, and has rapidly developed into an inter- and transdisciplinary object of research. At the same time, it has also undermined some of the distinctions that have long been the basis for these disciplines, especially for history - such as that between "nature" and "culture" and "geological" and human". Furthermore, while earlier conceptions of human agency, temporality and historical experience - all key to historical research - are being decentered, historians are called upon to create new big narratives linking the past to the future to make sense of our present.

This symposium takes up the Anthropocene as a key challenge for all branches of history and historiography. It is concerned with exploring how the discipline of history should be re-thought in and for the Anthropocene - and, vice versa, whether and if so, how new notions of historical thinking might be invoked to make sense of the Anthropocene.

Two keynotes and several short exploratory talks - both including Q&A - will engage with and address central questions such as 'Why and how to write history at a time of epochal rupture?', 'What does it mean to learn from history on a finite planet?' and 'Whose pasts and historical experiences tend to be (de-)emphasized in the Anthropocene concept?'.

Programme

9:00-9:05  Welcome by Lukas Verburgt (Utrecht University) and Elske de Waal (Utrecht University)

9:05-9:30  Zoltán Boldizsár Simon (Leiden University) - Is There Such a Thing as Anthropocenic Historical Knowledge?

9:30-9:55  Boris van Meurs (Radboud University) - The 'Now' and the 'Instant' in Earth History

9:55-10:20 Kungzhan Guo (Université de Technologie de Troyes) - Chinese Trace Fossils in the Anthropocene: The Grand Canal of 2,500 Years

10:20-10:45 Short Break

10:45-12:15 Keynote #1: Jürgen Renn(MPIWG, Berlin) - The Anthropocene and the History of Science

12:15-13:15 Lunch Break

13:15-13:40 Thomas Moynihan (Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford) - Are We Situated Near History's End or Its Beginning?: How Discovering the Deep Past Unveiled Humanity's Deep Future

13:40-14:05 Rachel Hill (Goldsmiths, University of London) - But Which Earth? The History of Earth-Images as Iconography of the Anthropocene

14:05-14:30 Iva Pesa (University of Groningen) - Beyond Resistance and Resignation: Understanding Environmentalism in Sub-Saharan Africa

14:30-14:45 Short Break

14:45-15:10 Raf de Bont (Maastricht University) - Living With Animals: Heini Hediger, History and the Anthropocene

15:10-15:35 Adham Hafez (New York University) - Of Songs and Fish

15:35-16:00 Short Break

16:00-17:30 Keynote #2: Deborah Coen (Yale University) - Scientists and Science Studies in the Anthropocene

Please visit our website for more information, including abstracts of the keynotes and all talks.