Sharing Spaces: Earth Science and Evironmental Humanities
02 06 2025
Kategoria: Konferencje
Polish-Japanese Interdisciplinary Conference by RIHN, Nichibunken and University of Warsaw
Date: 6th July 2025, 10.00-17.00 (JST)
Venue: International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Kyoto
Co-organizers: International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), University of Warsaw (UW)
Support Institution: Consortium for Global Japanese Studies
Language: English
SHARING SPACES: EARTH SCIENCE and ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES
空間共有 ～地球科学と環境人文学～
OVERVIEW
The acceleration of global change demands that we enhance and erich collaboration between researchers in the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences across the world in order to tackle today’s urgent ecological, economic, political and ethical challenges. This conference, organized jointly by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) and the University of Warsaw (UW), will contribute to broad, multifaceted and swiftly evolving fields like environmental humanities, geo- and biosciences, as well as transculturality and interdisciplinarity.
Although the various strands of research at the intersection of environmental sciences and humanities provides different, and often divergent, answers regarding desirable values, ethical and social orders or economic paradigms in the context of the ecological-climate crisis, they are united in overcoming the view of ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ as oppositional categories. Collaborations of historians, literary and cultural studies scholars with climatologists, biologists or geologists helps to highlight the anthropogenic impact on the environment over the centuries. These attempts, and recent advances in ethology, foster reconceptualizations of humanities place in the world through theories such as eco-posthumanism.
The number of interdisciplinary research projects carried out by UW academics aimed at enhancing innovation and achieving tangible results in areas such as sustainable development has increased significantly in recent years. Examples include projects carried out under the “‘Initiative of Excellence’ – Research University”, the activities of the Centre for System Risk Analysis, Techno-Humanities Laboratory or urban ecology studies conducted at the Faculty of Biology and the Botanic Garden. The Interdisciplinary Conference launched within the “Polish-Japanese Partnership for Security and Sustainable Development” project and implemented under the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange Program serves to share knowledge and experience in tackling specific environmental challenges (such as conservation of urban biodiversity or water scarcity in large cities and flood risks), as well as to discuss possible areas for effective multidisciplinary cooperation at the interface of nature and culture research.