HOW DO WE THINK ABOUT POPULATION IN THE ANTHROPOCENE?
Jesus College, Cambridge, UK, 2-4 July 2024
Conference Convenors
Alison Bashford (UNSW)
Duncan Kelly (University of Cambridge)
David Nally (University of Cambridge)
Synopsis
The interdisciplinary research group who first described a “Great Acceleration,” c. 1950, produced a suite of now-famous graphs depicting large-scale socio-economic changes. Significantly, the first displays world net population growth. In subsequent analysis of the Anthropocene, however, stark late modern changes in human fertility, mortality, ageing, and consumption have probably been the least discussed of all the variables. This is one measure of the highly successful critique of the problematisation of population. This small meeting brings key scholars of the Anthropocene, of population, of reproductive justice and of political ecology and economy together. How do we think about population in the Anthropocene?
Program
| 3 July 2024 | |
| 10:00 – 12:00 | Where is population in Anthropocene scholarship? Speakers: Naomi Oreskes (Harvard University) Julia Adeney Thomas (University of Notre Dame) Jan Zalasiewicz (University of Leicester) Chair: Jude Browne |
| 13:00 – 15:00 | Population and the Great Acceleration Speakers: John McNeill (Georgetown University) Alison Bashford (University of New South Wales) Matthew Connelly (University of Cambridge) Chair: Sujit Sivasundaram (University of Cambridge) |
| 15:30 – 17:30 | Political Ecologies: growth, degrowth, limits, scarcity Speakers: Duncan Kelly (University of Cambridge) Shailaja Fennell (University of Cambridge) Matthias Schmelzer (Friedrich-Schiller University Jena) Chair: Pedro Ramos Pinto (University of Cambridge) |
| 4 July 2024 | |
| 10:00 – 12:00 | Reproductive Justice in the Anthropocene Speakers: Meehan Crist (Columbia University) Diana Coole (Birbeck, University of London) R. Sánchez-Rivera (University of Cambridge) Chair: Véronique Mottier (University of Cambridge) |
| 13:00 – 15:00 | Fertility Decline and Demographic Change Speakers: Simon Szreter (University of Cambridge) Kavita Sivaramakrishnan (Columbia University) Aya Homei (University of Manchester) Chair: Romola Davenport (University of Cambridge) |
| 15:30 – 17:00 | Food and Agriculture Speakers: David Nally (University of Cambridge) Maan Barua (University of Cambridge) Chair: Melissa Leach (University of Cambridge) |
| 17:00 – 17:30 | Discussion |