Fazl Ali College will host an international conference on Environmental Humanities in the Anthropocene Era: Ecojustice and Sustainability on October 4 and 5, 2023. The conference is organized by the Department of English and the Department of Geography in collaboration with the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE India) and Lemsachenlok, Longleng.
The conference will focus on multidisciplinary methodologies and approaches toward understanding ecojustice and sustainability in terms of human interferences, both positive and negative. It will feature keynote speeches by distinguished scholars and experts from India and abroad.
Environmental Humanities is a growing field of study that explores the relationship between humans and the environment from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, history, literature, geography, anthropology, and political ecology. The Anthropocene Era is a geological term used to describe the current epoch, which is characterized by significant human impacts on the planet.
The conference organizers believe that Environmental Humanities is essential to understanding and addressing the environmental challenges we face today. “In recent years, the importance of Environmental Humanities has gained forefront as the impact of anthropogenic processes on the planet require a more multidisciplinary approach to mitigate and find solutions to the rapidly deteriorating ecosystems, resources, and climate change at a global scale,” an update from the college said.
The conference is open to all interested participants. Onsite registration will be available on October 4 from 9 AM onwards.
Shedding more light on the conference, the update said: “The advent of the Industrial Revolution heralds the beginning of the Anthropocene Era as human activities significantly altered Earth’s ecosystems and geology. This has necessitated inquiries into the relationship between humans and the world they inhabit as anthropogenic activities threaten to not only alter but also deplete, pollute and exploit resources. The socio-cultural, political, economic and historical nexus of human activities have to be studied in the context of the shared relationships with “other than humans” entities, a new approach that would require us to move away from the singular focus on human lives and adopt a more inclusive, holistic methodology while considering long-term goals towards ecojustice and sustainability. Environmental Humanities, therefore, aspires to bring within its ambit, aspects of existing conversations and debates on environmental philosophy, environmental history, Ecocriticism, cultural geography and anthropology, and political ecology as shaped by various disciplinary contexts.”