CALL. 14.02.2019: [SESSION 1] Roman Nature and the Beginning of the Anthropocene (EAA 25th) - Bern (
FECHA LÍMITE/DEADLINE/SCADENZA: 14/02/2019
FECHA CONGRESO/CONGRESS DATE/DATA CONGRESSO: 04-05-06-07/09/2019
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Main Building, University of Bern - UniS, University of Bern (Berns, Switzerland)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Matthew Mandich (ISAR); Giacomo Savani (Independent Scholar); Kyle Harper (University of Oklahoma).
CALL:
In the last two decades the current, unprecedented environmental crisis has led many scholars to radically rethink the anthropocentric model of empires, centred on the control of ideology, politics, economics and the military (e.g. Mann 1986), and instead acknowledge the central role played by nature in shaping social power (e.g. Elvin & Ts'ui-jung 1998; Mikhail 2013). At the same time, the scientific validation of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene, dramatically confirmed the overwhelming and irreversible influence that human activities have on our planet. When this new epoch began is highly debatable, but huge environmental impacts from human activity certainly occurred in the Roman period due to the increased scale of urbanisation, production, and consumption. Given the growing awareness of the indelible mark we make on the planet, this panel will look back at one of the largest power networks of the past, the Roman Empire, to re-examine Roman perceptions of nature, power, and power over nature to help us better understand our present situation. By offering a lively and challenging setting for discussion from renowned nature writers to established Roman scholars, the panel will foster new approaches to explain the relationship between human societies and their natural environments, providing a novel interpretative framework for current and past environmental crises.
Classicists as well as archaeobotanists, archaeozoologists, biologists, ecologists, and creative writers are invited to send an abstract via the EAA 2019 website (registration needed): https://www.e-a-a.org/EAA2019
Deadline for paper proposals February 14th 2019.