Objects and Environments Seminar - "Unsettling Weather"

 

From: Wednesday, February 19, 2014, 01:10pm

To: Wednesday, February 19, 2014, 05:30pm

WED, FEB 19 | 1:10-5:30 PM | ALEXANDER LIBRARY

 

Forecasters sometimes refer to the weather as unsettled, and in an era of climate change, predicting future weather seems simultaneously more urgent and more difficult than ever. On the one hand, all human beings are subject to the vagaries of the weather; it provides a shared experience and point of reference for all of us. On the other hand, that experience is unevenly distributed among rich and poor, north and south, coastal and interior, rural and urban. Today’s weather is unsettled, then, but it is also unsettling: it forces some to leave homelands and families, it uproots longstanding cultural and emotional ties, and it affects our moods and intensities, making us feel discontented, guilty, anxious and helpless.  The aim of this conference is to explore environmental change, human agency, and the affective moods that attend them. So far, climate scientists, social scientists, and humanists have largely spoken of the weather within their respective disciplinary boundaries. This conference hopes to begin the process of a truly interdisciplinary dialogue. The event is sponsored by the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University in connection with the 2013-2014 seminar on “Objects and Environments.”

Session One: 1:10-2:30
 
Tony Broccoli (Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University)
“The Unsettling Implications of Hurricane Sandy”
Karen Thornber (Comp. Literature and East Asian Languages, Harvard University)
“Weathering Asia and the World in Chinese Literature”
 
Session Two: 2:50-4:10
 
Anahid Nersessian (English, Columbia University)
“Fact and Forecast, Fair and Foul”
Ben Orlove (Earth Institute, Columbia University)
“Death and Life in an Era of Climate Change: Measuring Mortality and Redefining Habitability with Changing Storms and Rising Seas”
 
Roundtable with all participants: 4:10-4:30
 
Reception: 4:30-5:30

Location

Alexander Library | Teleconference Lecture Hall
169 College Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ, 08901

Contact 

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Events sponsored by the Center for Cultural Analysis are free and open to the public, unless specifically noted