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Hist07


African Anthropocenes? Lived experiences 
Convenors:
Iva Pesa (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
Sara de Wit (Leiden University, Institute for History)
Ismay Milford
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Discussant:
Joseph Mujere (University of York)
Format:
Panel
Streams:
History (x) Climate Change (y)
Location:
Neues Seminargebäude, Seminarraum 25
Sessions:
Saturday 3 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin

Short Abstract:

How can environmental humanities approaches better bring the plural lived experiences of the Anthropocene in Africa into view? What can we learn from studying past environmental injustices? What role do gender, class, and locality play in adapting to the Anthropocene and shaping its futures?

Long Abstract:

Extreme weather events - droughts, floods, and storms - and the 'new scramble for Africa's resources ' raise questions about Anthropocene futures. Debates about 'climate coloniality' (Sultana, 2022); 'black ecologies' (Hosbey, Lloréns, and Roane, 2022); and historical insights into trajectories of waste (Hecht, 2009, 2018; Peša 2022) have effectively problematised the framing of a single, planetary Anthropocene. Indeed, historical examples show that responses to climate-induced disasters might be very different in rural Mozambique than they are in urban Mali. This panel asks how interdisciplinary environmental humanities approaches can better bring the plural lived experiences of the Anthropocene in Africa into view. We seek contributions that show the importance of gender, class, and locality in adapting to the Anthropocene and shaping its futures. How have notions of the future shaped interactions with the environment across time? Do historical and contemporary studies of the science-technology-environment nexus hold the potential to contribute to more equitable futures? What can we learn from studying past environmental injustices, e.g. resource extraction, waste, and toxicity?

We seek empirical contributions that are interested in engaging with questions of inequality, intersectionality, and agency. Some of the topics that might be explored include weather forecasting, forms of foreknowledge and speculation, disaster adaptation, mining, agricultural and pastoral change, and the role of (tacit) knowledge and expertise. Different regional and disciplinary approaches are most welcome. The panel's premise is that by studying past and current lived experiences of the Anthropocene we can gain insights into, and therefore better address, Anthropocene injustices.

Accepted papers:

Session 1 Saturday 3 June, 2023, -
Session 2 Saturday 3 June, 2023, -