Integrating Environmental Humanities into the Natural History Museum: Toward an Anthropocene Center at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History

The Anthropocene is a new major theme for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. It complements two other key foci of the museum: ecology and evolution. The Anthropocene is an ideal complement because it situates humanity within the planet’s evolutionary past, present and future. At the same time, it is a complex and nuanced concept; it is under active debate by scholars across the natural and social sciences, humanities and arts. If we are to be effective in tapping into the richness of this concept and its generative potential for increasing sustainability action and equity, our engagement requires new expertise. In particular, we must pay greater attention to social critique and environmental humanities— two areas of inquiry that have traditionally not been a part of the natural history museum. In this talk, I will introduce our plans to develop a new museum-based center intended to nurture transdisciplinary research, museum exhibition and programming. We hypothesize that investment in the humanities alongside investment in ecology is a particularly exciting way to transform the museum to better support community dialogue about global change and spur socially-just sustainability research and action. In this talk, I will introduce our ideas for the center and then host an open conversation to share ideas and receive feedback.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Nicole Heller is a museum fellow and curator of the Anthropocene at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. She joined the museum in late 2017. Heller’s primary research is concerned with sustaining biodiversity in the face of global changes associated with the Anthropocene. For 15 years, she has worked at the research-practice interface to pioneer climate change adaptation in urban ecosystems and wildlands. Heller’s secondary research and practice is about environmental science communication. She has collaborated with journalists, anthropologists, and artists in numerous creative communications about climate change and biodiversity loss. Heller received a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Biological Sciences, and a B.A. from Princeton University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She conducted postdoctoral research at University of California, Santa Cruz.