UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN

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 UoC’s 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, we talk with Kate Rigby about her many contributions to environmental humanities and ecocriticism. Some of the topics we cover include her work with 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 German author Thilo Winter. Roman Bartosch commented on recent trends and 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 (written by A. Becker, Kölner Universitätsmagazin 3/22).

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.