My Talk to the Rice Faculty in mid-Feb
Posted: 08 Feb 2014 10:20 AM PST
The Humanities in the Age of Ecological Emergency
Timothy Morton
Humans created the Anthropocene, with its global warming. Not jellyfish. Not fungi. Not coral reefs.
The Humanities know a thing or two about humans.
It is imperative therefore that the Humanities be in the mix of thinking that addresses the Anthropocene. Not as a decorative adjunct to science, but alongside it, fueling it, thinking it, analyzing and critiquing it.
This talk is about that.
And, I would add, the Humanities need to be ante-capital, as in before, so we can get a clear fix on what we are actually doing.
Tim Morton is professor of English at Rice University, author of Hyperobjects (2013), Realistic Magic (2013) and The Ecological Thought (2010) and more. A wiki bio here. My favorite quote (thus far) is, "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear." (Hyperobjects)
EJT