Cornell Conference on the Thermal Future

We live in a world where climate extremes are becoming more drastic and more frequent. The effect of permanent, unprecedented temperature change on key ecosystems, from the built environments of cities and farms to oceans and forests, is provoking new economic and social arrangements. In the context of irreversible global warming, this one-day conference invites papers that highlight the creative acts of experimentation and improvisation within vulnerable communities that may lead to new working relationships and forms of non-capitalist value.

While the uneven effects of global warming on populations across the world are well known, to date, there has been limited interdisciplinary engagement with the question of how the thermal future is actually conceived of, responded to, and given meaning.

We invite graduate students from across Cornell to propose papers that explore the challenges that attend the creation and maintenance of livable homes, communities, and workplaces in a time of climate crisis. These challenges are deepened by systemic and intersectional inequalities, in which histories of racial, gender, and ethnic discrimination manifest in vulnerability to climate extremes.

Cornell graduate students and postdoctoral scholars will give 15-minute oral presentations. The conference will culminate in a keynote lecture by Professor Amita Baviskar of Ashoka University.

Co-Sponsored by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies; Department of Anthropology; Graduate Field of Development Studies; and South Asia Program