UAlbany Hosts "X Factors" Workshop on Climate Change and the Humanities

Contact(s):  Catherine Herman (518) 956-8150, ([email protected])

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 31, 2008) -- A diverse, international group of scholars will be on hand from April 4-6 as the University at Albany hosts a seminar on climate change and the humanities. "X Factors: A Workshop on Climate Change and the Archive" will feature more than 15 speakers exploring the era of climate change and its relation to writing systems, language, and cultural transmission. 

Distinguished speakers include Bernard Stiegler of the Pompidou Center in Paris, Claire Colebrook of the University at Edinburgh, Sam Weber of Northwestern University and Haun Saussy of Yale University, who will address what are known as the "x factors" of climate change: global warming, species extinction, and diminishing resources, and their impact on the humanities.

The Institute on Critical Climate Change (IC3) of the University's College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of English is producing the conference. Directed by Tom Cohen with Mary Valentis, creative director, the institute advances an interdisciplinary dialog on the critical and conceptual implications of the era of climate change. 

Through conferences and publications, IC3 promotes thought and analysis beyond 20th century ideas of the political, difference, and life.  A SUNY-based initiative headquartered at the University at Albany, IC3 is generating a series of intra regional and global symposia (China, South Korea, Trinidad, the United Kingdom, Turkey) in anticipation of new discursive networks.