The Human and the Geological: On Anthropocene Time

This lecture discusses how distinctly geological and sociological ideas undergo mutual translation in current debates on climate change, climate justice, and the idea of the Anthropocene. The aim of the lecture is to investigate the relationship between our contemporary imaginations of world history and the history of the planet.

Professor Dipesh Chakrabarty is the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago and the Deans’ Distinguished Visitor at the College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU.

His numerous publications include The Calling of History: Sir Jadunath Sarkar and His Empire of Truth (Chicago, 2015), Rethinking Working-Class History: Bengal 1890–1940 (Princeton, 1989, 2000), Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton, 2000; second edition, 2008), Habitations of Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies (Chicago, 2002). He is currently working on two books, provisionally entitled The Climate of History and History and the Time of the Present.