What Does the Anthropocene Mean for Historians? Elemental and Integrative Approaches to Future Intellectual History

Organizer: Department of Philosophy and History of Ideas

Friday, 30. Oktober 2026 kl. 13.30–15.00

Location: Building 1441, Room 012 (Auditorium 1), Tåsingegade, Aarhus Universitet

Lecture open to all!

Sörlin is a Swedish historian of ideas, award-winning author, and Professor of Environmental History at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. His research explores how our conceptions of climate and the environment have been shaped historically, and how they influence the ways we understand the ecological crises of the present.

Drawing on intellectual history, Sörlin demonstrates through both his research and his extensive public engagement how the humanities can open up new perspectives on the greatest challenges of our time.

The lecture is arranged by the Sløk committee composed of Christian Olaf Christiansen, Rithma K.E. Larsen og Rikke Louise Peters.

Abstract:
In the Anthropocene, we are increasingly aware of the impacts humans make on all scales, including the planetary. New nature-cultural archives emerge and grow, in maritime sediments, vast ice sheets, and in other stratigraphic data. We are gradually realizing that the implications are profound. Science and technology play key parts, not least as "environing technologies", and need to be reinterpreted in relation to the ongoing reformation of the human-Earth relationship. What roles may the humanities at large, and the environmental humanities in particular, play? How can the writing of history, and the craft of historians, speak to our current predicament in a world of deep geopolitical conflict over the earth's resources and our common future.

The lecture will be held in English.