Scientists have declared that we are in living in the Anthropocene, an age in which human behavior and actions are massively altering the ecosystems of the earth. Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen claims that whereas humans once saw themselves as “rebels against a superpower we call ‘Nature,’” now “we are taking control of Nature’s realm, from climate to DNA. We humans are becoming the dominant force for change on Earth.”
We invite papers that explore how literature, the visual arts, and other cultural and ideological constructs represent the altered relationship between humans and the natural world and we also welcome contributions that examine ethical, political, psychological and philosophical responses to the human domination of nature. Submissions from all areas of the humanities, arts and humanistic social sciences are encouraged.

This two-day conference will feature a keynote address by Timothy Morton, the Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University. Morton’s publications include Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minnesota, 2013), The Ecological Thought (Harvard UP, 2010), and Ecology without Nature (Harvard, 2007). Morton blogs regularly at http://www.ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com.

To participate, please send a 250-word abstract and a brief CV for consideration to ihcucsb@gmail.com by Monday, March 3, 2015. If you have questions about the conference, please contact IHC Associate Director Emily Zinn: ezinn@ihc.ucsb.edu.