In Norway, a forest has been planted which will supply paper for an anthology of books that will be published in 100 years’ time. In Texas, engineers are attempting to build a clock that will keep time for the next 10 millennia. In Svalbard, biologists are storing seeds for a future where many plant species are extinct. And in Finland, a new disposal site aims to shield all-comers from radioactive waste for as long as it takes to cool. Humans, it seems, are beginning to consider their existence and their activities from a deep time perspective. For many in the environmental movement, such thinking is urgently needed if we are to comprehend the scale of the planetary damage that we are currently causing.
But what does such long-term thinking mean for the humanities? Given that human life seems to fade into relative insignificance when considered on geological timescales, how are disciplines that focus on the time-bound arts, histories, cultures, and religions of humanity to respond? On the flip side, given the immense ecological devastation that humanity is currently causing, what role can the humanities play in encouraging a more humble, deep time perspective?
This conference explores the impact of deep time thinking in the environmental humanities by bringing together leading scholars, thinkers, and visionaries, and asking how the recent interest in deep time has been received in various disciplines. What role can literature play in grappling with such extended temporalities? How have historians and anthropologists coped with the need to mesh their timescales with those of the geologists? What place do religions have in shaping our understandings of both time and eternity? And how might we envisage the task of ethics from the perspective of deep time?
9.30-10.30 am – History and Anthropology in Deep Time Amanda Power (History, Oxford) and Richard Irvine (Anthropology, St. Andrews)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/fEbq00HKJxs
10.45-11.45 am – Theologies and Religions in Deep Time I Angelika Malinar (Hinduism and Indian Philosophy, Zurich) and James Miller (Humanities and Daoist Studies, Duke Kunshan)
12.00-1.00 pm – Philosophy and Ethics in Deep Time Michelle Bastian (Philosophy and Environmental Humanities, Edinburgh) and Robin Attfield (Environmental Ethics, Cardiff)
2.15-3.15 pm – Deep Time Literature Kate Rigby (Literature and Environmental Humanities, Bath Spa) and David Farrier (Literature and Environmental Humanities, Edinburgh)
3.30-4.30 pm – Theologies and Religions in Deep Time II Simone Kotva (Religion and Philosophy, Oslo) and Jeremy Kidwell (Christian Theology and Ethics, Birmingham)
