To give lecture "The Anthropocene: Alpha and omega?" at AMEU–ISH in Ljubljana May 14th

My Erasmus exchange to Italy and Slovenia is approaching. On Tuesday May 14th, I will give a lecture at Instititum Studiorum Humanitatis, Alma mater Europaea (AMEU–ISH), in Ljubljana, titled “The Anthropocene: Alpha and omega?”. Abstract and bionote below.

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Title: The Anthropocene: Alpha and omega? 

Abstract: For about a generation, the perspective of the Anthropocene has been much discussed as a framing of our current socioecological predicament. Recently, the Anthropocene reportedly failed to become an official designation for the time we live in, after a majority of the members of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), sorting under the International Commission on Stratigraphy´s Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, voted against it. But this is not the end of the Anthropocene, given how fruitful the concept and perspective has proven to be over the last several years. Key questions remain to be satisfactorily answered: What does the perspective of the Anthropocene say about humans´ place in nature, generally and currently? When did human impact start overwhelming ecosystems? When did humans start having a global impact? For how long is it likely – or desirable – that we humans, and the Earth, will remain in a predicament in which humans predominate environments globally? And how can the Anthropocene perspective be informative with regard to understanding how we should solve environmental problems, including the climate crisis?   

Bionote: Morten Tønnessen (born 1976) is a professor of philosophy at University of Stavanger, Norway. Tønnessen has been an Editor-in-Chief of Biosemiotics and is currently a member of its editorial board. He is a past president and the current secretary of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS), and a member of Norway´s Council for animal ethics. His writings on the Anthropocene include “The Global Species” (New formations: a journal of culture/theory/politics, 2010), Hvem er villest i landet her? Råskap mot dyr og natur i antropocen, menneskets tidsalder (co-editor, Scandinavian Academic Press 2013) and Thinking about animals in the age of the Anthropocene (co-editor, Lexington Books 2016). Academic (b)log: https://utopianrealism.blogspot.com. For an overview of publications see Tønnessen´s Google Scholar profile.