Amitav Ghosh in Munich

To kick off “One Book - Many Worlds,” we are happy to welcome author and anthropologist Amitav Gosh in Munich from Sunday to Wednesday, 17–20 November 2024.

The week will offer several opportunities to explore the role that art and humanistic perspectives can play in tackling the challenges of climate change in conversation with Ghosh—one of the leading theorists of climate change imaginaries today.

In his recent fictional and nonfictional work, Ghosh not only addresses the climate crisis, but also diagnoses a fundamental crisis of imagination. He consistently demonstrates the importance of engaging with challenges like global warming, climate migration, and mass extinction from a cultural and humanistic perspective.

Students, faculty, and the wider public will be able to attend a variety of events, including a public lecture entitled “Hiding From the Apocalypse: How the World's Wealthiest View the Future” at LMU’s Große Aula.

Events with Amitav Ghosh

• Sunday, 17 November 2024, 11:00: Matinée at Literaturhaus (book ticket)
• Tueday, 19 November 2024, 17:30: Workshop at ÖBZ
• Wednesday, 20 November 2024. 18:30: Lecture at LMU’s Große Aula (free admission)

Please visit our Event Website for more information and admission. 

About the Author

Indian author and anthropologist Amitav Ghosh has addressed the human cost of the major ecological challenges of our time in his works as almost no other contemporary public intellectual.

His 2016 book The Great Derangement aptly diagnosed the contemporary crisis of imagination in the face of climate change as a heritage not only of capitalism but also colonialism. His fictional work, from the awarded Ibis Trilogy (2008–2015) through Gun Island’s precursor The Hungry Tide (2004) to Gun Island (2019), has engaged ecological and (post)colonial concerns through a variety of genres. He has been ranked as one of the most important global thinkers of our time by Foreign Policy Magazine.

Ghosh obtained his BA and MA from University of Delhi while also working as a newspaper reporter and editor. He then attended University of Oxford, where he received his PhD in social anthropology in 1982. From 2004, the author turned to writing full-time while dividing his time between the United States and India.

His works have been awarded various prizes including, among others, the Prix Médicis étranger, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Grand Prize for Fiction of the Frankfurt eBook Awards, the Grinzane Cavour Prize, and the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary award in India. He has been the recipient of four honorary doctorates and two Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Photo Credit Amitav Ghosh: Mathieu Génon.