How should we reckon with humanity's transformation of the natural world?
Engineered Worlds III: Terraformations is the concluding chapter in a multiyear project on assessing anthropogenic environments and planetary conditions. Engineered Worlds interrogates the implications of a world where ecologies everywhere have been effected by human industry, and where new problems of insecurity, the terms and temporality of knowledge production, and the scale of endangerment challenge established categories of thought and analysis. The goal of this collaborative project is three-fold: 1) to create new concepts and methodologies for researching planetary scale environmental problems that are complexity distributed in time as well as space; 2) to connect the individual to the global environment via industrial exposures and to theorize in a new way the relationship between specific kinds of pollution and changing environmental conditions; and 3) to build a network of interdisciplinary scholars working collaboratively to understand these complex problems. Building on past events in 2015 and 2017, this year’s theme "Terraformations" explores "terra" as a formation involving both territory and terror. Its goal is to mobilize insights into human capacities to affect life on a planetary scale and shift them into a discussion of how communities are working to live in and move through such violent conditions - that is, to both assess and engage alternative terraformations.
Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies; Associate Professor of Anthropology
University of California, Davis
Tim Choy is Associate Professor in the Science and Technology Studies Program and the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis. His research interests include ecological discourses and practices; atmospheres; human-nonhuman relations; scale, specificity, exemplarity;...
Associate Professor of Human Geography
University of California, Berkeley
Jake Kosek’s research focuses on nature, politics, and difference, using conceptual insights from geography, anthropology, science studies, and theories of history to develop new approaches to natural history as both an object of critical inquiry and a conceptual tool. Through fine-grained,...
Professor of Anthropology and of the Social Sciences in the College
University of Chicago
Working at the intersection of science studies, environmental studies, media studies, and critical theory, Joseph P. Masco's scholarship examines the material, affective, and conceptual force of technological revolution and its aftermaths.
He is the author of three books, including...
Professor of History and Women and Gender Studies
University of Toronto
Michelle Murphy is a technoscience studies scholar and historian of the recent past whose research concerns decolonial approaches to environmental justice; reproductive justice; Indigenous science and technology studies; infrastructures and data studies; race and science; and finance and...
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Members of the Engineered Worlds research team gathered to complete a draft of a co-written book on the concept of "Terraformations."
This event featured a screening of Jumana Manna's film Wild Relatives and a discussion with the director.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Members of the Engineered Worlds research team gathered to complete a draft of a co-written book on the concept of "Terraformations."
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
This event featured a screening of Jumana Manna's film Wild Relatives and a discussion with the director.
