Description

In his forthcoming book, When Time Is Short: Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene, scholar of religion Timothy Beal reckons with the ingrained patterns of denial associated with many contemporary responses to climate change. Initially inspired by Christian beliefs in human exceptionalism and dominion over the planet, Beal argues, our current approaches to ecological crisis do not grapple adequately with the uncertain future wrought by geological and ecological change. Instead, we all too often cling to a hubristic faith in never-ending growth, transformed for a secular age.
And yet, these aren’t the only models available to us. Forwarding humbler conceptions of humans as earth creatures, bound in ecological interdependence with the world, and subjected to its larger reality, Beal and his colleagues at Case Western Reserve University propose to explore how the academic study of religion can most meaningfully engage in shaping the public imagination in a sustained period of deepening ecological crisis.
The exploratory initiative they propose will revolve around the collaborative work of a core team of ten scholars, students, and other knowledge makers who will gather for a series of intensive workshops. Participants will come from multiple fields, including religious studies and theology, environmental science, technology and engineering, and psychology. Drawing on principles of emergent design thinking and fostering experimentation within communities of diverse experience and expertise, the workshops will take place in three very different campus venues: the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities; the University Farm; and Sears think[box], a large open-access innovation center and makerspace.
Alongside the workshops, the project will also involve the development of a new graduate seminar, co-taught by Beal and a colleague in another field, and including a range of invited guest speakers. Open to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and advanced undergraduates, the seminar—“Shaping Alternative Futures in the Anthropocene”—will be modeled on the format of NYU’s Colloquium in Legal, Political, and Social Philosophy, co-led by philosophers Ronald Dworkin and Thomas Nagel. In addition, the project will make a series of small seed grants, facilitating small groups (including students) to conduct discreet experiments and spin-off proposals for new lines of work; host a series of conversations with community leaders in the greater Cleveland area; organize a culminating public summit; and design and develop detailed plans for a larger and more ambitious initiative.
Recommendation: That the Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation approve a two-year grant of $250,000 to the Case Western Reserve University to support “Finite Futures: Imagining Alternative Ways Forward in the Anthropocene.” https://case.edu/