20. November
17:45 Uhr - 19.15 Uhr
Veranstalter/Organization:
MESH
OrtVenue:
GSSC, room 3.03 (3rd floor)
Classen-Kappelmann-Str. 24
50931 Cologne
Information:
Since the start of the 21st century, natural disasters have seen a dramatic increase worldwide, particularly due to climate change. In the USA the number of billion-dollar catastrophes has risen drastically over the last few years. In fact, nowhere are the costs incurred by natural disasters higher than in North America. Are Americans less prepared today than they have been in the past? How are past catastrophes remembered? How can the US ideology of progress be reconciled with the vulnerability that becomes apparent through catastrophic destruction? Which theoretical concepts - besides adaptation and mitigation - help us understand the history of natural disasters? And which lessons can we learn on the way into the future when we read natural disasters against the backdrop of larger historical contexts?
The lecture analyses a series of disasters in US history and compares them with a couple of examples from Europe. If it is true that techno-solutions - in New Orleans as much as in Venice - determine how disasters are mainly being dealt with in the present, who are the social and economic winners of this development? What risks do current strategies pose for marginalized social groups, and what impact do they have on more-than-human ecologies? Overall, the lecture will provide insight into how environmental history can contribute to understanding and coping with disasters.
Christof Mauch is Director of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Professor in American Cultural History and Transatlantic Relations at LMU Munich and an Honorary Professor in Ecological History at Renmin University, Beijing, China. Christof Mauch studied History, Literature, Religion, Theology, Philosophy, Drama, and Languages at the University of Tübingen, King’s College London, and Universidad de Salamanca. He received a Dr. phil. in Modern German Literature (Tübingen) and a Dr.phil. habil. in Modern History (Cologne). Mauch has held Visiting Professorships around the world, including most recently at Venice International University and at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Mauch is a Past President of the European Society for Environmental History (2011-2013) and a former Director of the German Historical Institute Washington, D.C. (1999-2007). He has received multiple awards for his work including twice the Teaching Innovation Award from LMU Munich (2023 and 2019); the Distinguished Career in Public Environmental History Award from the American Society for Environmental History (2017); and the Planetary Award from the Institute for Future Compentences (2015). Mauch is a Principal Investigator of several international research projects on topics such as Human-Wildlife Conflict, Strengthening the Environmental Humanities; Ecological Justice, the Military and the Environment, and Planetary Health. Christof Mauch is author or editor of more than 40 books, including Paradise Blues: Travels Through America’s Environmental History, Winwick, UK: The White Horse Press 2024 ; Wie der Mensch die Erde verändert: (How Humans have changed the Earth), München: National Geographic Deutschland/ Frederking und Thaler 2024, Geschichte der USA (History of the USA), Tübingen/ Basel: UTB (Francke) 7th ed. 2020, and Slow Hope: Rethinking Ecologies of Crisis and Fear, München. Rachel Carson Center 2019.