Advancing the Environmental Humanities: From Australia to Germany: Kate Rigby wrote a blogpost on MESH and the Environmental Humanities in Germany for the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Kate explains in the article that the creation of MESH has been the culmination of a journey that she embarked on some twenty-five years ago as a founding member of Australia’s National Working Group in the Ecological Humanities.
We are happy to share four excellent student research project posters from the field of Discourse- and Ecolinguistics, developed and supervised within the MESH research environment at the University of Cologne. The posters focus on language, discourse, and societal challenges in climate change contexts. They were presented at the 19th Winter Meeting, a hybrid international conference bringing together research on environment, health and education.
From Fortress to Earth-Web: Reimagining Mobility and Migration Governance for a Multispecies Future – Christoph Lange and Nsah Mala give some insights from their panel on Inclusion & Exclusion in the Perspective of Environmental (In)justice during the DiaMiGo II Summer Research Academy 2025.
Christoph Lange showcases Horse Fables as part of the AHRC project “Rethinking Fables in the Age of Global Environmental Crisis” (2023-2025) on a new blog and online exhibition that has been published by PI Kaori Nagai (University of Kent, UK).
Carrie Dohe will deliver a multi-religious, international talk (in German) on “Was hat Religion mit Naturschutz zu tun?“ at the Volkshochschule Köln on Oct. 27, 2025 at 6 pm.
GreenFaith e.V. is the German branch of GreenFaith International, which was founded in 1992 to mobilize religious communities across the globe to fight for climate justice. Carrie Dohe will present on Bees for Peace (in German) at the GreenFaith Open Meeting on June 24, 7-8:30 pm. Other topics: Faiths 4 Climate Justice, Solar-Erntedank, and Kunst(circle). If interested, please write caroline@greenfaith.org.
In this episode of ASLE’s EcoCast Podcast series, MESH Director Kate Rigby is interviewed about her latest book, Meditations on Creation in an Era of Extinction, which is also featured in the Rachel Carson Center’s book series.
Kate Rigby in conversation with Jacques Boulet, founding director of Borderlands Cooperative in Melbourne, Australia, on Melbourne’s 3CR Radical Radio station, about her academic journey in the ecological humanities.
The Festival of Religions ‘Faith in Tune’ celebrates religious and cultural diversity through music, art, and dialogue. At its Market of Diversity , Carrie Dohe will present Bees for Peace, engaging religious communities to connect houses of worship through Paths of Peace (pollinator habitat corridors).
InterSpaces is the science podcast of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) Bielefeld. In this episode, Carolin Schwegler talks with ZiF podcaster Rebecca Moltmann about (chronic) pain and the crucial factor of language in the context of well-being, pain expressions and diagnostics as well as the history of pain descriptions.
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.
