This online roundtable brought together leading scholars from political science, anthropology, history, and environmental humanities to reflect on how the concept of the Anthropocene is shaping debates and methodologies across the humanities and social sciences.
The Anthropocene, as both a scientific diagnosis and cultural concept, challenges traditional understandings of history, politics, and human agency. This event provided space for critical reflection on how the term is used across disciplines, its implications for global inequalities and democracy, and the new research questions and directions it might open up.
Participants discussed how the Anthropocene intersects with ideas of justice, planetary governance, and human-nature relationships. The conversation also considered the value—and limitations—of the Anthropocene as a framework for understanding the socio-political dimensions of climate change and ecological crisis.
Participants:
Julia Adeney Thomas is Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. She is an intellectual and environmental historian whose work explores political thought, historiography, and the concept of nature in modern Japan. She is the author of Altered Earth: Getting the Anthropocene Right and co-author of The Anthropocene: A Multidisciplinary Approach.
Gregers Andersen is an environmental humanities scholar and external lecturer at the Department of Communication and Psychology at Aalborg University, whose research explores cultural imaginaries of sustainability, cinematic fictions, and climate futures. He has amongst other publications authored the monograph Climate Fiction and Cultural Analysis. A New Perspective on Life in the Anthropocene (Routledge, 2020).
Stefan Gaarsmand Jacobsen is Director of the Center for Applied Ecological Thinking at the University of Copenhagen. He researches climate justice, ecocultural transformation, and the history of environmental movements. His work bridges academic and civil society perspectives on sustainability, with a focus on rapid transformation in affluent societies.
Sabine Höhler is Professor of Science and Technology Studies at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. She researches the global history of environmental sciences, from oceanography to space ecology. Her work examines metaphors like “Spaceship Earth” and the role of science in shaping planetary futures and sustainability discourses.
Zev Trachtenberg is a philosopher and Professor at the University of Oklahoma. He is the founder of the interdisciplinary blog Inhabiting the Anthropocene. His work in environmental political theory focuses on developing a political conceptualization of human environmental transformation, drawing on the biological notion of niche construction.
Moderator:
Alexandra Medzibrodszky is the Editor for the “History of Ideas” section at the Review of Democracy. She received her PhD in Comparative History from the Central European University in 2020.
