ENHANCE-ITN Final Event "(Um)Weltschmerz. An Exercise in Humility and Melancholia"
Conference
17.10.2018 – 20.10.2018
Date: 17–20 October 2018
Venue: Deutsches Museum; LMU Munich; Rachel Carson Center; Rio film theater (Munich, Germany)—specific venues indicated for each session
Conveners: ENHANCE Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network
Cosponsored by the Rachel Carson Center and the Deutsches Museum
-- You can now read a report of the conference of this event on the RCC blog Seeing the Woods --
(Um)Weltschmerz is an invitation to reflect on the deep ties that connect human beings' cultural and emotional lives to their changing environment(s). On this occasion, participants from media, policy, museum practice, and across the environmental humanities and connected fields will explore issues of ecological change, conflict, and ethics, as well as the scientific and technological worlds they are entangled with. Rather than seeking fixed answers, (Um)Weltschmerz aims to raise the following questions: How can we repoliticize debates about science and environment in a constructive way? What changes when we frame environmental issues in terms of justice? Are there secular ethical imaginaries that can connect the past and future in nuanced ways, beyond techno-optimism, collapsology, and calls to turn our backs on science and industry? What does climate change mean for communities on different ends of power assymetries, and how are we to deal with it collectively in a post-truth world? What role do historiographies, museums, and political economies of media and technology play in public narratives of possible futures? Several of these sessions are fully open to the public to encourage broad participation.
Please find the program here.