A Graduate School on Multispecies Conviviality (MESHWell)
Cologne | October 14–19, 2024
NEW: Report on the UoC Autumn Academy for Planetary Wellbeing now online here.
At a time of global biodiversity loss, climate disruption, and environmental degradation, wellbeing cannot be restricted to humans but needs to be seen as well through a planetary perspective and as a matter of multispecies conviviality. Grave concerns about multiple ecological ruptures are the source of widespread anxiety as well as anger, especially among young people. The aim of the MESH Well project and our Autumn Academy is to address these entanglements through an exploration of multispecies conviviality in urban more-than-human environments, with a view to enhancing planetary wellbeing.
The Autumn Academy for Planetary Wellbeing builds on the success of the two prior graduate summer schools organised by the Environmental Humanities initiative within EUniWell (EHWell) at Linnaeus University (2022) and the University of Florence (2023). We will continue this successful series with a Graduate School linked to our annual MESH Symposium on Multispecies Conviviality in October 2024 and the launch of the UoC BRIDGES Thematic Hub for Planetary Wellbeing. Our goal is to create a European community of researchers dedicated to enhancing Planetary (More-than-human) Wellbeing.
The multifaceted character of current socio-ecological crises requires a multidisciplinary approach, which lies at the core of research done at the hosting institution of MESH. Through the Autumn Academy for Planetary Wellbeing, which encompasses the MESH Symposium on Multispecies Conviviality, we bring together researchers from the disciplines of anthropology, ecology, education, geography, literary and cultural studies, and philosophy, as well as forging links between universities, and several national and international research organizations, including the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (Bonn) and the BRIDGES UNESCO-MOST coalition for humanities-led sustainability sciences, as well as with local communities, artists and activists from Cologne.
In addition, Cologne-based researchers and visiting international scholars (ecologist Sandra Diaz and sociologist Laurel Kearns) will give introductory lectures on the project’s relevant themes.
The academic programme of the Autumn Academy encompasses excursions exploring local forms of multispecies conviviality and biodiversity conservation projects, for example the Forschungsmuseum Koenig (part of the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change) and the Forschungszentrum Jülich (Bioeconomy Science Center).
We are also delighted to host two public events as part of the Academy:
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 (7:00 – 10:00 pm) Multispecies Storytelling: Live Performance and Exhibition at noplace gallery.
Saturday, October 19, 2024 (11:00 – 2:00 pm) Pop-Up Exhibition on Multispecies Storytelling feat. MESH Autumn Academy projects at the University of Cologne, International House. The event is supported by the CIF (Cologne International Forum).
The entrance to both events is free – just come along and enjoy!
Please find the programme of the Academy here.