A Collaborative Research and Public Outreach Project (2018-19)

Panel Discussions beginning at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

How can the Anthropocene become a concept that activates the way we engage with global change? How can local narratives of the Anthropocene become graspable along the Mississippi River?

The project Mississippi. An Anthropocene River  explores the vast but patchy areas of the Mississippi River in their changing spatio-temporal formations, making them legible as a critical zone of habitation and long-term interaction between humans and the environment. From October 2018 to November 2019, interdisciplinary groups of researchers, artists and stakeholders from civil society will investigate the river basin in order to develop local approaches to issues of planetary change, forging new methods of transdisciplinary research and education.  At this kickoff symposium, Jeremy Bolen, Bruce Braun, Nicholas Brown, Matthew Fluharty, Brian Holmes, John Kim, Sarah Lewison, Joseph Underhill and Andrew Yang will discuss their perspectives, initiatives, and practices linked to the project.

5:00 p.m. | Welcome

5:30 p.m. | Session 1: How can the Anthropocene become a concept that activates the way we engage with planetary change?

With Bruce Braun, Nicholas Brown, Matthew Fluharty, Brian Holmes, Roopali Phadke, and Andrew Yang

7:00 p.m. | Session 2: How can local narratives of the Anthropocene become graspable along the Mississippi River?

With Jeremy Bolen, Ryan Griffis, Sarah Lewison, and Joseph Underhill

8:30 p.m. | Reception

The symposium is a joint collaboration between Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (HKW), the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin (MPIWG), and the Weisman Art Museum (WAM).

Mississippi. An Anthropocene River is developed and organized by HKW and MPIWG in collaboration with numerous international partners. It is a part of the Anthropocene Curriculum (since 2013), an international long-term project for experimental forms of Anthropocene research and education.

The project Mississippi. An Anthropocene River is a part of the "Year of German-American Friendship” initiative in 2018/19. The "Year of German-American Friendship" is a comprehensive and collaborative initiative of the Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institute, and with support ‎of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), highlighting the decades long relationship grounded in common values, interests, and goals.