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EIHS Lecture: The Historian's Task in the Anthropocene: Theory and Practice

Julia Adeney Thomas, University of Notre Dame
Thursday, November 30, 2017
4:00-6:00 PM
1014 Tisch Hall Map
Climate denialism comes in many forms. Most historians understand that the planet faces severe environmental challenges, yet few incorporate this new reality into their work or consider its impact on history as a discipline. In this talk, Julia Adeney Thomas explains why some scientists find “the Anthropocene” a compelling concept and explores the challenges posed by earth systems science to the discipline, particularly history’s political function. Finally, using an example from Japan, she proposes a new form of critical history as we move from modernity’s promise of freedom and development to the more modest goal of sustainability with decency.

Julia Adeney Thomas has written extensively about concepts of nature in political ideology, the challenge posed by climate change to the discipline of history, and photography as a political practice in Japan and globally. She is the recipient of the AHA’s John K. Fairbank Prize for Reconfiguring Modernity: Concepts of Nature in Japanese Political Ideology and of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians' Best Article of the Year Award for “Photography, National Identity, and the 'Cataract of Times:' Wartime Images and the Case of Japan” from the American Historical Review. Two collaborative books: Japan at Nature’s Edge: The Environmental Context of a Global Power (with Ian J. Miller and Brett L. Walker) and Rethinking Historical Distance (with Mark Salber Phillips and Barbara Caine) have forwarded her interest in theory, history, and the environment. Currently, she is completing The Historian's Task in the Anthropocene as well as co-editing a collection on Visualizing Fascism: The Rise of the Global Right. Educated at Princeton, Oxford, and Chicago, she taught at the University of Illinois-Chicago and at the University of Wisconsin–Madison before joining Notre Dame’s history department.

Free and open to the public.

This event is part of the Thursday Series of the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.
Building: Tisch Hall
Event Type: Lecture / Discussion
Tags: Asia, History, Japanese Studies, Lecture
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, Department of History