Climate change has become a pervasive topic in the collective social and scientific imagination. There is no question that climate is now a part of our daily lives, from media images depicting the destruction caused by extreme weather conditions to news stories detailing the rapid depletion of natural resources to op-eds warning of the dangers of pollution on human health. While the impact of climate change has generated numerous scientific studies and advancements, it has also influenced work across the arts and humanities, inspiring new questions, analytics, and approaches for considering the relationship between humans and the natural world.
Inspired by its 2022 exhibition Becoming Weatherwise: A History of Climate Science in America, the American Philosophical Society’s Library & Museum will host an international conference that brings together scholars from all disciplines and policy makers to explore the effects of climate change on all aspects of life. The conference will be held in-person at the Society in Philadelphia and begin with an opening keynote conversation on Thursday, September 29, 2022. The conference will continue on Friday, September 30, 2022, with a full day of presentations and discussion.
The program committee invites innovative paper proposals from scholars in all fields whose work explores the topic of climate change from a humanities perspective.
Potential topics include (but are not limited to):
- The social, cultural, political, religious, and economic impacts of climate change;
- The impact of climate change on law, governance, and policy;
- The differential impact of climate change across regions, populations, and communities;
- The emergence of new modes of scholarship in relation to climate change (i.e. ecocriticism, plant and animal studies, disaster studies, environmental humanities, medical humanities, etc.);
- Literary, media, and artistic responses to climate change over time;
- The opportunities and challenges faced by cultural heritage institutions, libraries, and archives in addressing climate change;
- The impact of climate change on public history and pedagogy;
- The role of climate change in promoting social justice.
Applicants should submit a title and a 250-word proposal along with a C.V. by May 1, 2022 via Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/102600
All presenters will receive travel subsidies and hotel accommodations. Accepted papers will be due a month before the conference and pre-circulated to registered attendees. Papers should be no longer than 15-double spaced pages. Presenters may also have the opportunity to publish[PS1] revised papers in the APS’s Transactions, one of the longest running scholarly journals in America.
For more information, visit https://www.amphilsoc.org/, or contact Adrianna Link, Head of Scholarly Programs, at alink@amphilsoc.org.