Fourteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities
- 2016 Special Focus: Nature at the Crossroads—New Directions for the Humanities in the Age of the Anthropocene
- 8–10 June 2016
- University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA
Days of paper presentations, workshops/interactive sessions, posters, and colloquia.
Delegates from all over the world who attended the Fourteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities.
Countries represented.
The purpose of the various fields of the humanities is to reflect on the human condition. One of the fundamental questions of our times, and one that is increasingly central to the question of our human condition, is the condition of nature. In this regard, there is a growing concern that our very species’ existence is now under threat as a consequence of human activity. The age of ‘the Anthropocene’ is characterized by the blow-back of a ‘great acceleration’ in human impacts upon nature: modern industry, population growth, and increasing per capita consumption. These have resulted in human-induced changes to global temperatures, sea levels, CO2 in the atmosphere, to name just a few consequential eco-systemic changes.
How does this reconceptualization of natural history demand new approaches to the work of the humanities? How, in this frame of reference, is self positioned in relation to community and nature? What is the ontological basis of knowledge, autonomy, and freedom as interpretative perspectives on human action in the natural world? How do we read the symbolic and its distinction from or imbrication with the material? What is the unique character of human history and its contra- distinction with natural history, of geological time compared to human time? How should the humanities and the natural sciences relate to each other as we address the challenges of the Anthropocene?
The Fourteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities featured plenary sessions by some of the world’s leading thinkers and innovators in the field.
English Department and the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA
"The Humanities: A Two-Three-Four-Five-Part Invention"
State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, New York, USA
"The Anthropocene and the Humanities: Towards a Spatiotemporal Taxonomy for Investigation and Integration"
For each conference, a small number of Graduate Scholar Awards are given to outstanding graduate students who have an active academic interest in the conference area. The Award with its accompanying responsibilities provides a strong professional development opportunity for graduate students at this stage in their academic careers. The 2016 Graduate Scholar Awardees are listed below.
University of Illinois, Illinois, USA
Indiana University, Indiana, USA
University of Iowa, Iowa, USA
The City College of New York, CUNY, New York, USA
Central Michigan University, Michigan, USA
Marshall University, West Virginia, USA
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Virtual Posters present preliminary results of work or projects that lend themselves to visual representations. Download the posters below.
Lightning talks are 5-minute "flash" video presentations. Visit our YouTube channel through the button below to view the lightning talks.