Online Talk#10: "Transformative Research for Perilous Times: Perspectives from the Environmental Humanities"

Speaker: Professor Kate Rigby

This lecture provides a brief introduction to the environmental humanities as a multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary research field as it has emerged and developed over the past two decades. It then focuses in on the question as to what might be considered to constitute ‘transformative research’ in this field: transformative, that is, with respect to both the conventional methods and questions of discrete disciplines in the humanities, and to potential research impacts beyond academia. Particular attention will be given to the three broad areas of enquiry that will lie at the centre of the work of the newly created research hub for Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities at the University of Cologne over the coming years: ‘decolonial cultural ecologies’; ‘multispecies conviviality’; and ‘disaster preparedness’.

Professor Dr. Kate Rigby (Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities) is Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Environmental Humanities at…