Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities | Public Humanities for a Drowning World

Description

Event sponsored by the Scottish Graduate School, Environmental Humanities Strand, in collaboration with the Department of European languages and Cultures.

The aim of this Seminar-Workshop is to explore the role of Public Humanities in response to rising sea levels. According to National Geographic, average sea levels have swelled over 8 inches (about 23 cm) since 1880, with about three of those inches gained in the last 25 years. Every year, the sea rises another .13 inches (3.2 mm). New research shows that sea level rise is accelerating and projected to rise by a foot (30.48 cm) by 2050. About 10 per cent of the world’s population, roughly 770 million people, live in coastal areas less than 5 meters above the high tide line. Rising seas could force as many as 100 million of them to migrate due to rising seas by the end of the 21st century (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).

As the threat to the human environment is unavoidable, scientists are offering three adaptation options – retreating, accommodation, and protection. This session will help explore the role of the Humanities with regard to these three options. The theoretical part will present some of the principles and methods behind Public Humanities with a special focus on environmental issues that have remained largely unaddressed. The Workshop will cover examples from the reservoir genre – texts with a featured element of intentional submerging, inundating, and flooding of human settlements – as a testing ground for the adaptation to a drowning world.

Period	25 Nov 2022
Event type	Seminar
Location	Edinburgh, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International