| This project explored the history of planetary change through close analysis of the biophysical dimension of economic development and the history of earth system science. |
One of the most striking and often remarked upon effects of climate change is its power to unsettle our basic understanding of the modern world. Our planet is changing into a strange and unstable new environment, in a process seemingly outside technological control. The fossil fuels that once promised mastery over nature have turned out to be tools of destruction, disturbing the earth system. Even the recent past is no longer what we thought it was. Geologists are telling us that the whole territory of modern history, from the end of World War II to the present, forms the threshold to a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. This dramatic discovery has aroused a great deal of interest far beyond the earth sciences. At the University of Chicago, a group of scholars are at the forefront of exploring the implications of the Anthropocene framework for historical research and the ways in which it encourages us to rethink our pedagogical aims. We are concerned with the history of planetary change in a double sense: the biophysical dimension of economic development in the context of the Anthropocene, and the history of earth system science, which produced this object of knowledge in the first place.
Associate Professor of British History, Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science, and the College
University of Chicago
His current research deals with a set of closely related themes in environmental history, history of science, and political economy. The British Industrial Revolution saw the birth of the first fossil fuel economy. At the same time, geologists transformed the public understanding of the earth's...
Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the College
University of Chicago
Dipesh Chakrabarty’s research interests are in modern South Asian history and historiography, in postcolonial theory and its impact on history-writing, and in comparative studies of questions and politics of modernity.
He is a founding member of the editorial collective of...
Associate Professor of African History, African Studies, and the College; Affiliated Faculty, Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies; Faculty Affiliate, Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture
University of Chicago
Osborn is a historian of Africa, with a particular interest in precolonial and colonial West Africa. She is currently the Faculty Director of the Senegal study abroad program, and she has also served as co-director of the Committee on African Studies, chair of the College’s British fellowships...
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.
“The idea of anthropogenic and planetary climate change does not face much academic challenge these days, but the idea of the Anthropocene has been much debated by both scientists and humanist...
Lecture by Minal Pathak
Senior Scientist, IPCC, WGIII Technical Support Unit, Ahmedabad University
Never in nearly four decades has interest in climate change been at...
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.
“The idea of anthropogenic and planetary climate change does not face much academic challenge these days, but the idea of the Anthropocene has been much debated by both scientists and humanist...
Lecture by Minal Pathak
Senior Scientist, IPCC, WGIII Technical Support Unit, Ahmedabad University
Never in nearly four decades has interest in climate change been at...
