Founded in 2014, the group provides a forum in which to engage with pluralistic understandings of nature. As an interdisciplinary cohort of graduate students from across the humanities and social sciences, we draw upon the felt urgency of the Anthropocene within contemporary theory to explore the complex forms of relationality that animate our more-than-human worlds.

This semester’s monthly meetings will be held at noon on Thursdays in Williams Hall 616 (the Humanities Touchdown Space). All readings are circulated in advance via the Anthropocene listserv and our fall reading calendar includes works by Deborah Coen, Peter Singer, and others. Our first session will be held on Thursday, September 19th and features selections from Tom Cohen, Claire Colebrook and J. Hillis Miller's 2016 co-authored book, Twilight of the Anthropocene Idols. You’ll find a pdf of the open-access book attached to this email—our discussion will focus on Colebrook’s chapter, “What is the Anthropo-Political?” (pp. 81-125). Claire Colebrook will be speaking on campus on September 25th (event details here), so this is a nice chance to read some of her writing in advance.

If you have any questions or are interested in joining the Anthropocene Group, please contact us at pennthropocene@sas.upenn.edu or go to the PPEH webpage