The Anthropocene: from boundaries to bonds. Interdisciplinary crossovers in knowledge development#

Conference Date: 19-20 October 2023
Conference venue: University of Science and Technology, H-14 building, Wrocław, Poland
Conference program: Anthropocene conference program


Our conference aims at investigating the potential of inter/trans/multidisciplinary alliances in research on the Anthropocene and the importance of such disciplinary border-crossings for producing knowledge that can not only meet the challenges of the scientific kind, but also be transferrable to the social sphere. The Anthropocene defies the cognitive, imaginative, affective and ethical systems underlying our perception and understanding of reality. We propose to see the knowledge on/of the Anthropocene as a borderland where many turning points (crises) meet and coalesce. Such a perspective exposes the necessity to think beyond the dualisms of science/humanities. The project seeks spaces for mutual inspirations and new bonds between systems, methods and classes governing science and knowledge.

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In particular, we invite crossing disciplinary boundaries. While expert knowledge remains at the core of examining the Anthropocene, its resultant commitment to devise guidance for policy makers and to develop social awareness based on verified knowledge requires involvement from other fields of expertise. Scholarship tackling the Anthropocene spans, apart from earth sciences, social science, the humanities, human geography, and other disciplines. By bringing together scholars from many areas of research inquiry, the seminar aims at exploring the possibility of inter- and multidisciplinary scholarly work on developing accountable knowledge that needs to be subsequently translated into social and cultural narratives. How do we cooperate across the boundaries within academia, in politics and social organizations as we strive to address the Anthropocene?

That the Anthropocene poses an unprecedented challenge urging political action at global and local levels has been already evidenced by activists, NGOs, political groups and researchers across the world. Governance models so far have been involved in the crucial conflict between the harshness of data forecasting catastrophic scenarios and the fear to decrease consumption and extraction of resources. How do we create new ways of relating (intra- and interspecies) and turn the shattering experience of boundary-crossing into active bond-making through science, politics and various forms of activism?

We want to explore what narratives are being developed to provide viable solutions at the level of politics and governance, including institutions for educating society and expanding the civic sense of responsibility and new planetary awareness. What new lexicons are being developed to accommodate the cognitive, ethical and ontological challenges of the planet in crisis? What new forms of thinking, doing and telling do we need to create a new semiotics of crisis, catastrophe, accountability, agency, and hope that cannot be contained within the known paradigm of human mastery of the earth? How do we confront the limits of our understanding and devise new ways of sense-making in light of (rather than despite) the Anthropocene? How to promote knowledge based on the idea of reciprocity?

ORGANIZERS: #

• Olga Tokarczuk Ex-Centre. Academic Research Centre, Faculty of Letters, University of Wrocław
• Academia Europaea Wrocław Knowledge Hub

PARTNERS:#

• Academy of Young Scientists and Scholars
• Academia Europaea Hubert Curien Fund
• Saxon State Ministry of Justice, Democracy, European Affairs and Equality
• University of Wrocław
• Wrocław University of Science and Technology
• Erasmus Mundus International Master: Children's Literature, Media & Culture

Program of the conference: download