In the face of unprecedented, anthropogenic chaos in the natural world and in a time that has been further complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are asking what matters on Earth and how Earth matters. What role can the humanities and social sciences play at a time of climate breakdown and a catastrophic decline in wildlife?
We want to open up a wide-ranging and imaginative conversation. Bearing in mind the influential writer Amitav Ghosh’s claim that the current environmental crisis is “also a crisis of culture, and thus of imagination,” we encourage you to play around with the theme and its words—What’s the matter? What matters? Mind over matter, matters of the heart, in a matter of hours, matter as material, or is that a completely different matter? Earthly matters versus divine matters? No matter what’s the matter in question it is often tied to our existence here on earth and that matters
