STS.432 – Narrating the Anthropocene: Understanding a Multi-Species Universe

Jill Pelto. (2020). Bog Core. [pencil]. https://www.jillpelto.com/bog-core.

 

STS.432 – Fall 2023

Narrating the Anthropocene: Understanding a Multi-Species Universe

Wednesdays 9-12pm

Prof. Megan Black + Prof. Kate Brown

Examines human concern about the planet and how that fixation shapes concepts of time & space, knowledge-production, understandings of what it means to be human and non-human, as well as trends in scholarship, art, culture & politics. Indexes the way numerous actors and institutions came to understand, debate & narrate the Anthropocene, a geological epoch defined by human-induced climate change. Explores how it as a concept has opened up new ways of understanding relations within the planet, including care, accountability & multi-species mutualism. Considers narrative registers as well, how scholars, writers, artists & working people narrate the Anthropocene. Students undertake an original project in research &/or experimental narrative forms inspired by the reading.