Elements of the Anthropocene

Invisible and ubiquitous, material and animate, natural and artificial, elements can enable life in certain combinations and terminate life in others. What are our everyday encounters with elements and how have they changed over time? How can art and scholarship re-imagine the Anthropocene beyond scientific rationalities while expanding the limits of our historical understanding? How do elements become forces of energy and agency to address issues of environmental justice and more-than-human rights? 

With a focus on considering the relationships between the living and the nonliving, the organic and the inorganic, this symposium seeks to overcome the human/nature binary formulation that lingers in our efforts to make sense of the Anthropocene. Presentations explore the concept of elements as both a frame and a method to explore the Anthropocene from a geological, biological, and planetary perspective with the critical tools of art and culture.  

In collaboratoin with the "Anthropocene: Urbanism, the Environment, and Sustainability Research Kitchen."  

Convened by

• Dale Hudson, Associate Professor of Film and New Media, NYUAD
• Katia Arfara, Assistant Professor of Theater & Performance Studies, NYUAD
• George Jose, Visiting Associate Professor of Anthropology, NYUAD
• Sheetal Majithia, Asst. Prof. Literature, NYUAD

Hosted by

• NYU Abu Dhabi Institute