Human preferences, practices and actions are the main drivers of global environmental change in t... more Human preferences, practices and actions are the main drivers of global environmental change in the 21st century. It is crucial, therefore, to promote pro-environmental behavior. In order to accomplish this, we need to move beyond rational choice and behavioral decision theories, which do not capture the full range of commitments, assumptions, imaginaries, and belief systems that drive those preferences and actions. Humanities disciplines, such as philosophy, history, religious studies, gender studies, language and literary studies, psychology, and pedagogics do offer deep insights into human motivations, values, and choices. We believe that the expertise of such fields for transforming human preferences, practices and actions is ignored at society?s peril. We propose an agenda that focuses global humanities research on stepping up to the challenges of planetary environmental change. We have established Environmental Humanities Observatories through which to observe, explore and ena...
as the new year dawned — violent, smoky — there were bushfires to contend with, then air quality ... more as the new year dawned — violent, smoky — there were bushfires to contend with, then air quality so dangerous my ... loved ones were trapped in their house. Soon enough there were hailstorms smashing into their workplaces. More fires, floods, then the plague. On it went. We understood that summer fires followed by late summer floods were considered to be part of the cascading effect of climate change. We understood that deforestation led to an increased likelihood of pandemics, but frankly, people can’t look every which way all at once and anyway it seemed that the genie was out of the bottle, the cat was out of the bag, the tipping point had tipped and now we were in the territory of the unprecedented, the territory of pivoting, the territory of grief and loss.
As part of the donation, curator Sally Fletcher wrote to Mrs Kinne asking for information about t... more As part of the donation, curator Sally Fletcher wrote to Mrs Kinne asking for information about the object and its owner.2 Mrs Kinne replied with a letter detailing how she had begun making the dress as a teenager in Riga in the late 1930s, had taken it as her ‘most important possession’ when she fled the Soviet invasion of Latvia, completed it while a Displaced Person in Germany and wore it at protests for Latvian independence in Australia.3
Human preferences, practices and actions are the main drivers of global environmental change in t... more Human preferences, practices and actions are the main drivers of global environmental change in the 21st century. It is crucial, therefore, to promote pro-environmental behavior. In order to accomplish this, we need to move beyond rational choice and behavioral decision theories, which do not capture the full range of commitments, assumptions, imaginaries, and belief systems that drive those preferences and actions. Humanities disciplines, such as philosophy, history, religious studies, gender studies, language and literary studies, psychology, and pedagogics do offer deep insights into human motivations, values, and choices. We believe that the expertise of such fields for transforming human preferences, practices and actions is ignored at society’s peril. We propose an agenda that focuses global humanities research on stepping up to the challenges of planetary environmental change. We have established Environmental Humanities Observatories through which to observe, explore and enact the crucial ways humanistic disciplines may help us understand and engage with global ecological problems by providing insight into human action, perceptions, and motivation. We present this Manifesto as an invitation for others to join the “Humanities for the Environment” open global consortium of humanities observatories as we continue to develop a shared research agenda.
Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 3rd CI, DP160102648
The project aims to undertake... more Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 3rd CI, DP160102648
The project aims to undertake a comprehensive investigation of Australia as a distinctive locality within the global idea of the new epoch of humanity known as the Anthropocene. It aims to analyse and narrate how human interventions have come to transform Australian environments in fundamental and enduring ways, showing the history, impact and implications of human-influenced biophysical planetary change within our distinctive and vulnerable continental and ocean environments. It also plans to use both print and museum environments to develop new understandings of the cultural dimensions of the ‘Age of Humans’.
Collaboration between University of Sydney; Australian National University; University of New South Wales; University of Leicester, UK; University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, National Museum Of Australia and American Museum of Natural History.
Imagining the Anthropocene, the geological
epoch where traces of human activity are
present throu... more Imagining the Anthropocene, the geological epoch where traces of human activity are present throughout Earth’s systems, is a challenge. It is usually portrayed in mathematical models and hockey stick curves. Time is measured in eons, in millennia, in centuries and sometimes decades, all of which capture changes in Earth systems, but not necessarily how it feels to inhabit the Anthropocene. Human experiential time can stretch and shrink, and rarely works in consistent units, even single years. The environmental humanities endeavour to restore the human to the Anthropocene, to imagine fully what living in a changed world entails for our humanity. Rosanne Kennedy writes of the ‘Anthropocene Imaginary’ in literature, others use the same expression sociologically, drawing on the social imaginary of Charles Taylor. This panel will take the Anthropocene imaginary into the realm of objects. What are the objects that might speak to us of the changes of our era? How do they make us feel?
Human preferences, practices and actions are the main drivers of global environmental change in t... more Human preferences, practices and actions are the main drivers of global environmental change in the 21st century. It is crucial, therefore, to promote pro-environmental behavior. In order to accomplish this, we need to move beyond rational choice and behavioral decision theories, which do not capture the full range of commitments, assumptions, imaginaries, and belief systems that drive those preferences and actions. Humanities disciplines, such as philosophy, history, religious studies, gender studies, language and literary studies, psychology, and pedagogics do offer deep insights into human motivations, values, and choices. We believe that the expertise of such fields for transforming human preferences, practices and actions is ignored at society?s peril. We propose an agenda that focuses global humanities research on stepping up to the challenges of planetary environmental change. We have established Environmental Humanities Observatories through which to observe, explore and ena...
as the new year dawned — violent, smoky — there were bushfires to contend with, then air quality ... more as the new year dawned — violent, smoky — there were bushfires to contend with, then air quality so dangerous my ... loved ones were trapped in their house. Soon enough there were hailstorms smashing into their workplaces. More fires, floods, then the plague. On it went. We understood that summer fires followed by late summer floods were considered to be part of the cascading effect of climate change. We understood that deforestation led to an increased likelihood of pandemics, but frankly, people can’t look every which way all at once and anyway it seemed that the genie was out of the bottle, the cat was out of the bag, the tipping point had tipped and now we were in the territory of the unprecedented, the territory of pivoting, the territory of grief and loss.
As part of the donation, curator Sally Fletcher wrote to Mrs Kinne asking for information about t... more As part of the donation, curator Sally Fletcher wrote to Mrs Kinne asking for information about the object and its owner.2 Mrs Kinne replied with a letter detailing how she had begun making the dress as a teenager in Riga in the late 1930s, had taken it as her ‘most important possession’ when she fled the Soviet invasion of Latvia, completed it while a Displaced Person in Germany and wore it at protests for Latvian independence in Australia.3
Human preferences, practices and actions are the main drivers of global environmental change in t... more Human preferences, practices and actions are the main drivers of global environmental change in the 21st century. It is crucial, therefore, to promote pro-environmental behavior. In order to accomplish this, we need to move beyond rational choice and behavioral decision theories, which do not capture the full range of commitments, assumptions, imaginaries, and belief systems that drive those preferences and actions. Humanities disciplines, such as philosophy, history, religious studies, gender studies, language and literary studies, psychology, and pedagogics do offer deep insights into human motivations, values, and choices. We believe that the expertise of such fields for transforming human preferences, practices and actions is ignored at society’s peril. We propose an agenda that focuses global humanities research on stepping up to the challenges of planetary environmental change. We have established Environmental Humanities Observatories through which to observe, explore and enact the crucial ways humanistic disciplines may help us understand and engage with global ecological problems by providing insight into human action, perceptions, and motivation. We present this Manifesto as an invitation for others to join the “Humanities for the Environment” open global consortium of humanities observatories as we continue to develop a shared research agenda.
Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 3rd CI, DP160102648
The project aims to undertake... more Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 3rd CI, DP160102648
The project aims to undertake a comprehensive investigation of Australia as a distinctive locality within the global idea of the new epoch of humanity known as the Anthropocene. It aims to analyse and narrate how human interventions have come to transform Australian environments in fundamental and enduring ways, showing the history, impact and implications of human-influenced biophysical planetary change within our distinctive and vulnerable continental and ocean environments. It also plans to use both print and museum environments to develop new understandings of the cultural dimensions of the ‘Age of Humans’.
Collaboration between University of Sydney; Australian National University; University of New South Wales; University of Leicester, UK; University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, National Museum Of Australia and American Museum of Natural History.
Imagining the Anthropocene, the geological
epoch where traces of human activity are
present throu... more Imagining the Anthropocene, the geological epoch where traces of human activity are present throughout Earth’s systems, is a challenge. It is usually portrayed in mathematical models and hockey stick curves. Time is measured in eons, in millennia, in centuries and sometimes decades, all of which capture changes in Earth systems, but not necessarily how it feels to inhabit the Anthropocene. Human experiential time can stretch and shrink, and rarely works in consistent units, even single years. The environmental humanities endeavour to restore the human to the Anthropocene, to imagine fully what living in a changed world entails for our humanity. Rosanne Kennedy writes of the ‘Anthropocene Imaginary’ in literature, others use the same expression sociologically, drawing on the social imaginary of Charles Taylor. This panel will take the Anthropocene imaginary into the realm of objects. What are the objects that might speak to us of the changes of our era? How do they make us feel?
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Papers by Kirsten Wehner
disciplines may help us understand and engage with global ecological problems by providing insight into human action, perceptions, and motivation. We present this Manifesto
as an invitation for others to join the “Humanities for the Environment” open global consortium of humanities observatories as we continue to develop a shared research agenda.
Research Projects by Kirsten Wehner
The project aims to undertake a comprehensive investigation of Australia as a distinctive locality within the global idea of the new epoch of humanity known as the Anthropocene. It aims to analyse and narrate how human interventions have come to transform Australian environments in fundamental and enduring ways, showing the history, impact and implications of human-influenced biophysical planetary change within our distinctive and vulnerable continental and ocean environments. It also plans to use both print and museum environments to develop new understandings of the cultural dimensions of the ‘Age of Humans’.
Collaboration between University of Sydney; Australian National University; University of New South Wales; University of Leicester, UK; University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, National Museum Of Australia and American Museum of Natural History.
Talks by Kirsten Wehner
epoch where traces of human activity are
present throughout Earth’s systems, is a
challenge. It is usually portrayed in
mathematical models and hockey stick
curves. Time is measured in eons, in
millennia, in centuries and sometimes
decades, all of which capture changes in
Earth systems, but not necessarily how it
feels to inhabit the Anthropocene. Human
experiential time can stretch and shrink, and
rarely works in consistent units, even single
years. The environmental humanities
endeavour to restore the human to the
Anthropocene, to imagine fully what living in
a changed world entails for our humanity.
Rosanne Kennedy writes of the
‘Anthropocene Imaginary’ in literature,
others use the same expression
sociologically, drawing on the social
imaginary of Charles Taylor. This panel will
take the Anthropocene imaginary into the
realm of objects. What are the objects that
might speak to us of the changes of our era?
How do they make us feel?
Books by Kirsten Wehner
disciplines may help us understand and engage with global ecological problems by providing insight into human action, perceptions, and motivation. We present this Manifesto
as an invitation for others to join the “Humanities for the Environment” open global consortium of humanities observatories as we continue to develop a shared research agenda.
The project aims to undertake a comprehensive investigation of Australia as a distinctive locality within the global idea of the new epoch of humanity known as the Anthropocene. It aims to analyse and narrate how human interventions have come to transform Australian environments in fundamental and enduring ways, showing the history, impact and implications of human-influenced biophysical planetary change within our distinctive and vulnerable continental and ocean environments. It also plans to use both print and museum environments to develop new understandings of the cultural dimensions of the ‘Age of Humans’.
Collaboration between University of Sydney; Australian National University; University of New South Wales; University of Leicester, UK; University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, National Museum Of Australia and American Museum of Natural History.
epoch where traces of human activity are
present throughout Earth’s systems, is a
challenge. It is usually portrayed in
mathematical models and hockey stick
curves. Time is measured in eons, in
millennia, in centuries and sometimes
decades, all of which capture changes in
Earth systems, but not necessarily how it
feels to inhabit the Anthropocene. Human
experiential time can stretch and shrink, and
rarely works in consistent units, even single
years. The environmental humanities
endeavour to restore the human to the
Anthropocene, to imagine fully what living in
a changed world entails for our humanity.
Rosanne Kennedy writes of the
‘Anthropocene Imaginary’ in literature,
others use the same expression
sociologically, drawing on the social
imaginary of Charles Taylor. This panel will
take the Anthropocene imaginary into the
realm of objects. What are the objects that
might speak to us of the changes of our era?
How do they make us feel?