Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society

Climate change is a great existential crisis for humanity, yet the apocalyptic prospect of global warming and other consequences of this great disruption hardly make themselves felt in the mainstream of cultural production. Whether we consider art, film, literature, or music, the specter of climate change has yet to produce the Anthropocene’s defining masterpieces. One could make the case that it is the very enormity of the challenge of imagining the unimaginable that causes this creative paralysis. The Chicago Cli-Fi Library is a modest attempt to make sense of this paralysis, suggesting that art’s response to the complexity and enormity of the issue at hand can only ever be piecemeal, ad hoc, and hyperlocalized – all of which must be understood as virtuous. Named after the emerging literary genre of “climate fiction,” or “cli-fi,” and accordingly bookish in both conception and outlook, this exhibition will feature the work of Chicago-based artists Geissler & Sann, Jenny Kendler in collaboration with Andrew Bearnot, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, and Dan Peterman.

Curated by Dieter Roelstraete.

Human beings are making a profound and irreversible impact on the natural world. This happens largely through industrial activity. And while we have sophisticated abilities to track such changes—for example, we can map the effects of carbon pollution—we lack a deep understanding of the social impact of these “engineered ecologies.” What new political, economic, and legal practices would help states and multinational organizations grapple more effectively with toxic exposure and the unequal distribution of ecological risk? The goal of the Engineered Worlds initiative—comprising three related projects (2014–2016, 2016–2017, and 2019–2021)—was to create new theoretical frameworks and social science methodologies to address these urgent questions.

Because any rigorous attempt to reconsider the terms of environmental justice requires a range of perspectives, the Engineered Worlds project adopted an interdisciplinary approach. The research team brought together anthropologists, historians, geographers, and environmentalists to work in a collaborative setting on the ways industry is irrevocably altering ecologies and social relations. In a series of seminars, workshops, and conferences, they considered what social policies might adequately address problems of toxicity introduced into the environment. More generally, they wanted to take on the challenge: How should humans deal with their own transformation of the natural world? But, of course, to take on the large issues one needs to study specific problems. The research group studied in detail cultural applications of changing agricultural processes, community organizing in the shadow of Washington State’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and metal production at Peru’s national seaport. Researchers considered various forms of personal identification and collective action in light of the mounting effects of toxicity, financial insecurity, and militarism.

The project included the arts. In the spring of 2015, the research team welcomed two artists for talks co-sponsored by the University’s Arts, Science, and Culture initiative. The internationally renowned landscape photographer Michael Light discussed his work documenting the impacts of mining operations, nuclear weapons tests, and large-scale housing developments in and around Las Vegas, and Columbia University professor of architecture Laura Kurgan explored the use of data visualization as a tool for public education and mobilization on environmental issues.

From the outset, the project self-consciously enlisted the next generation as part of the larger network of scholars working on planetary-scale environmental change. Two collaborative seminars focused on problems of temporality and scale in the earth sciences. Of particular concern was how to visualize the massive data that establishes environmental harm. With better visualization techniques we will be able to think better about how to address the ensuing social harms. Twelve graduate students have decided to do their research and write their dissertations addressing these issues. Several have been awarded external funding; some have presented their Engineered Worlds research to professional association meetings. These seem to be the beginnings of a new field of research.

Although the impact of this generational investment will come into focus over years, the project has already yielded concrete results. The research team is assembling case studies and co-authoring a series of papers to articulate a new methodology for studying planetary-scale industrial effects. They are also honing a new theory of “toxic violence” that reckons with the unintended consequences of industrial activity in the present and on geological time scale.

The group has also made a course on the Anthropocene widely available by circulating a syllabus, crucial texts, and topics for discussion. The challenges that this research team took up—environmental justice and the political challenges of climate change—are being studied by other concerned groups around the world, and a significant number of them are drawing on the work of the Engineered Worlds team.

Human beings are making a profound and irreversible impact on the natural world. This happens largely through industrial activity. And while we have sophisticated abilities to track such changes—for example, we can map the effects of carbon pollution—we lack a deep understanding of the social impact of these “engineered ecologies.” What new political, economic, and legal practices would help states and multinational organizations grapple more effectively with toxic exposure and the unequal distribution of ecological risk? The goal of the Engineered Worlds initiative—comprising three related projects (2014–2016, 2016–2017, and 2019–2021)—was to create new theoretical frameworks and social science methodologies to address these urgent questions.

Because any rigorous attempt to reconsider the terms of environmental justice requires a range of perspectives, the Engineered Worlds project adopted an interdisciplinary approach. The research team brought together anthropologists, historians, geographers, and environmentalists to work in a collaborative setting on the ways industry is irrevocably altering ecologies and social relations. In a series of seminars, workshops, and conferences, they considered what social policies might adequately address problems of toxicity introduced into the environment. More generally, they wanted to take on the challenge: How should humans deal with their own transformation of the natural world? But, of course, to take on the large issues one needs to study specific problems. The research group studied in detail cultural applications of changing agricultural processes, community organizing in the shadow of Washington State’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and metal production at Peru’s national seaport. Researchers considered various forms of personal identification and collective action in light of the mounting effects of toxicity, financial insecurity, and militarism.

The project included the arts. In the spring of 2015, the research team welcomed two artists for talks co-sponsored by the University’s Arts, Science, and Culture initiative. The internationally renowned landscape photographer Michael Light discussed his work documenting the impacts of mining operations, nuclear weapons tests, and large-scale housing developments in and around Las Vegas, and Columbia University professor of architecture Laura Kurgan explored the use of data visualization as a tool for public education and mobilization on environmental issues.

From the outset, the project self-consciously enlisted the next generation as part of the larger network of scholars working on planetary-scale environmental change. Two collaborative seminars focused on problems of temporality and scale in the earth sciences. Of particular concern was how to visualize the massive data that establishes environmental harm. With better visualization techniques we will be able to think better about how to address the ensuing social harms. Twelve graduate students have decided to do their research and write their dissertations addressing these issues. Several have been awarded external funding; some have presented their Engineered Worlds research to professional association meetings. These seem to be the beginnings of a new field of research.

Although the impact of this generational investment will come into focus over years, the project has already yielded concrete results. The research team is assembling case studies and co-authoring a series of papers to articulate a new methodology for studying planetary-scale industrial effects. They are also honing a new theory of “toxic violence” that reckons with the unintended consequences of industrial activity in the present and on geological time scale.

The group has also made a course on the Anthropocene widely available by circulating a syllabus, crucial texts, and topics for discussion. The challenges that this research team took up—environmental justice and the political challenges of climate change—are being studied by other concerned groups around the world, and a significant number of them are drawing on the work of the Engineered Worlds team.

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.

What is the relationship between capitalism and fossil fuels? So far the leading answers to this hotly debated question have claimed as universal the experiences of rich former imperial powers. This project instead centers the economic trajectories and energy systems of postcolonial societies in the Global South. The research team and visiting speakers will range across the planet – from the Americas to India, the Middle East to East Asia – to explore fossil capitalism on different scales, from the operations of national oil companies and multinational energy corporations to the racial violence that fractures labor mobilizations on and under the ground. Such cases promise to clarify the relations between carbon energy and socioeconomic power. Here, they detail the long histories of (neo)colonial extractivism that shape contemporary geopolitical relations and antagonisms. At the same time, they foreground the challenges and dilemmas posed by the twin revolutions of decolonization and democratization. This reframing of fossil capitalism raises new questions about the relationship between state sovereignty, popular expectations, and the hierarchical structures that underpin the international energy order. In the Global South, the dilemma of balancing economic development against ecological harm is posed with existential sharpness in a moment of accelerated climate catastrophe. Drawing together insights from history, anthropology, energy humanities, and political ecology, this project will trace new accounts of the forces holding the fossil economy in place. Moreover, it will reveal alternative paths and nodes of resistance to offer innovative visions of post-fossil futures.

This interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists and geneticists will enhance ancient DNA research at the University of Chicago and spur the development of a curriculum in archaeogenetics to bridge the gap between these two disciplines. An “ancient DNA revolution” is occurring in archaeology and ancient history because of new laboratory and statistical methods for extracting and analyzing DNA from ancient skeletal remains. These new methods have enabled the reconstruction of thousands of complete genomes from ancient specimens found in a wide range of geographical and chronological contexts. These genomes provide striking evidence of ancient population migrations, often challenging archaeologists’ long-held ideas about cultural change. The project will analyze DNA from ancient human remains excavated in the Middle East in order to reconstruct population movements and assess the prevailing explanations for cultural change in the Bronze Age civilizations of this region. This requires close collaboration and frequent discussions between geneticists and archaeologists of the kind the research team intends to demonstrate in this project. A series of workshops and an international conference will foster discussions of how ancient DNA results can best contribute to the construction of historical narratives. In light of concerns about biological reductionism and what some see as the implied racism of genetic studies, the project will seek viable ways of conceptualizing the relationship between genetic variation, cultural and linguistic similarities and differences, and the social construction of ethnicity and group solidarity.

The profound and intensifying effects of climate change will likely bring significant harm to those vulnerable to the harsher environment to come, human or otherwise. Yet climate debates have so far been dominated by scientists and policymakers, with limited effectiveness in terms of either public communication or political action. Where and how should the humanities and social sciences intervene in order to place the science-policy nexus on more ethically, epistemically, and politically responsible foundations? This project brought together internationally renowned scholars of the philosophy of science and environmental politics with their counterparts at the University of Chicago in order to open up the science-policy relationship. Through a series of workshops, reading groups, roundtable discussions, and public symposia, the project bridged divides and foster interdisciplinary dialogue on a range of issues, from climate modeling to ethical decision-making and democratic participation.

The archaeological landscape of Mesopotamia (much of modern Iraq and parts of Iran and Syria) is unique because it is a record of thousands of years of human-environment interactions involving large, complex societies. But trying to reconstruct environmental conditions and geographic distribution of features from only ancient texts and archaeological evidence leads to broad generalizations. We can now combine texts with archaeological evidence, natural science findings, information on environmental processes, and satellite imagery to delve deeper into the physical changes that occurred in Mesopotamian history.

The project used this information to assess the role of environment on the development of culture in Mesopotamia from prehistory to early modern times. It supplied and integrated data on the environmental and human interactions that were factors in the development of early urbanism, state formation, the first empires, and the subsequent fragmentation and coalescence of polities that has characterized ancient Mesopotamia and modern Iraq. The project brought together an interdisciplinary team of international scholars, including epigraphers, archaeologists, and natural scientists, to collaborate closely, through field work, data analysis and a conference, on new and better organized information on the development of the Mesopotamian landscape and the interaction of humans and nature there. This contributed to development of an overview of changing environmental conditions through time and their relationship to the cultural history of Mesopotamia. The resulting data and analyses will be made available through a variety of sources and serve as the basis for further specialized studies.

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.