The Anthropocene and the Humanities

This lecture will examine the ways Climate Change and the idea of the Anthropocene - a name proposed for the present geological epoch to indicate the extent of human impact on the planet - have led to new debates in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. This lecture will present some of these debates and discuss the difficulties of conversation across the two cultures of science and the humanities.

About the Speaker:
Professor Dipesh Chakrabarty is currently the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the College, University of Chicago. He is the faculty director, University of Chicago Center in Delhi, a faculty fellow of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory, an associate of the Department of English, and by courtesy, a faculty member in the Law School. He holds a BSc (physics honors) degree from Presidency College, University of Calcutta, a postgraduate Diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a PhD (history) from the Australian National University.

Professor Chakrabarty is the recipient of the 2014 Toynbee Foundation Prize for his contributions to global history. He was awarded a DLitt honoris causa by the University of London (conferred at Goldsmiths) in 2010 and an honorary doctorate by the University of Antwerp in 2011. He was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He was elected an honorary fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2006 and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. His most recent books are The Crises of Civilization: Exploring Global and Planetary Histories and, with Ranajit Dasgupta, Some Aspects of Labour History of Bengal in the Nineteenth Century: Two Views.