UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

Nsah Mala is an award-winning poet, writer, children’s author, communicator-journalist, and futurist. At the Uoc, he is Coordinator of the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Global Coalition hub for Planetary Wellbeing. As guest on 90 Minutes in Africa he discusses the topic: Congo Basin – A Choice between Life & Extinction.

Nsah is Coordinator of the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Global Coalition hub for Planetary Wellbeing at UoC. On CRTV, Cameroon’s state broadcaster, he discusses the Cameroon Pre-Summit Consultation, UN Summit of the Future, futures of the Congo Basin, and sustainable development and wellbeing for current & future generations.

Nsah explains why we need to be even more serious about the implementations of the outcomes of the UN Summit of the Future. Adopted at the Summit, the Pact for the Future and its annexes address collaborative ways to reform multilateralism & create powerful alliances that empower future generations.

MESH Co-Director Roman Bartosch was interviewed for the ARD documentary series KlimaZeit. Watch the episode about climate change, poetry slam, perceptions and emotions online @tagesschau24.

The Cologne University Magazine published the article “Cultural diversity creates biodiversity” (by Robert Hahn), covering some of the recent research on human-biodiversity interactions in the the deep past of MESH researcher Shumon T. Hussain.

The Cologne University Magazine printed the article “Because facts are not enough” (by Robert Hahn) concerning the earth’s ecosystem, humanity’s environmentally damaging behaviour, and several MESH projects. Read more about the projects and the interview with Roman Bartosch and Kate Rigby.

New MESH study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B argues that human cultural practices shaped heterogeneous landscapes at least since the Late Pleistocene (120-11.8k before present), suggesting that cultural diversity and biodiversity are intricately linked. (read press release)

In the ASLE Spolight 2023-24’s 3rd episode, Kate Rigby discusses her latest book, Meditations on Creation in an Era of Extinction, which revives the Christian tradition of meditations on the 6 days of creation, reflecting upon biodiversity loss, climate disruption and environmental injustice.

Report on Shumon’s Env. Archaeology Research: Humans relied on beavers for food and their furs, but the animal may have played a larger role in our ancient past. Learn more about this human-animal relationship and how beavers inspired human behavior and culture. By Paige Madison, DISCOVER Magazine.

In this episode of Spotlights, Kate Rigby talks about her contributions to environmental humanities and ecocriticism. The topics include European Romanticism, decolonization, and the enduring legacy of the ecofeminist philosophy of Val Plumwood.

In the arte documentary “Das Phänomen Maja Lunde. Klimawandel als Bestseller” (German/French), Roman Bartosch, Eva Horn, Maja Lunde, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber and Pierre Schoentjes discuss functions and possibilities of literature in a changing world.

On the occasion of the launch of the TV series adaptation of German author Frank Schätzing's climate thriller Der Schwarm, Roman Bartosch was interviewed by WDR 5 about the potentials of fiction for communicating climate change (March 6, 2023). Listen to the full report here.

On January 30, 2023, the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger published an article on the narration of climate change, prompted by the publication of the science thriller Der Riss by T. Winter. Roman commented on recent trends & narrative strategies in climate change literature.

The Cologne University Magazine printed an article about the project Climate Change Literacy and its interesting findings in the magazine supplement SCHULE in the third issue of 2022: Klimawandel im Roman: Was Climate Fiction leisten kann (by A. Becker).

Kate Rigby was interviewed by ZEIT Wissen for the section “3 ½ Fragen” (3 ½ Questions) on November 24, 2022. Read the interview in DIE ZEIT print edition (48/2022) or in DIE ZEIT Wissen3 Newsletter.

On November 2, 2022, MESH postdoc Carolin Schwegler (Environmental Linguistics) has participated in a panel discussion on “Communicative Strategies and Framing in the Climate Discourse” at the Dahlem Humanities Center (Berlin Science Week 2022).

On April 18, 2022, Kate Rigby has participated in a roundtable discussion on Environmental Humanities by the University College London, hosted by Roxana Toloza Chacon. Listen to the whole discussion here.