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Welcome to the Panel on Planetary Thinking

Panel on Planetary Thinking
Liebigstrasse 35
35392 Giessen
+49 641 99-16191

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The recently published Activity Report (2021-2024) provides an overview of the various past and upcoming activities of the Panel on Planetary Thinking. This includes an international scholarship program, a series of scientific outreach formats, workshops and exhibitions.

 

News

 

April 2, 2024 - A warm welcome to our new Fellow in the Planetary Scholars & Artists Program!

We are delighted to welcome our new fellow Connor Cook to the Planetary Hub! This year’s fellowship program focuses on the theme PLANETARY TIMES. Cook’s project for the summer residence focuses on the evolution and planet-building of information processes; with the aid of a raspberry pi enhanced bioreactor, he plans to take the audience of his workshop on an audiovisual exploration. The PLANETARY TIMES SUMMER WORKSHOP is in the making and will take place from May 28-29, 2024. You can find a more detailed introduction in the JLU’s press release here

With us this year is also Adenike Oladosu, our former fellow from PLANETARY SPACES. The Panel is officially hosting Oladosu from March 2024 – February 2025 during her Fellowship on Climate Protection with Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

We look forward to an exciting and eventful year ahead with our fellows!

 

 

 

 

April 16, 2024, 7:00 p.m. – City Walk with Dr. Markus Dietz from Institute for Animal Ecology and Nature Education (Das Parlament für die Zukunft) (German event)

 

Cities are growing worldwide, increasingly displacing natural landscapes and habitats of wildlife. At the same time, cities are also becoming more frequently inhabited by wild animals. The science of urban ecology closely examines the interactions between animals and plants, humans, and their shared habitats. Through a city walk through the Philosophenwald and the Wieseck-Aue, one can experience, through the example of bats and birds, the biodiversity that such green islands can harbor and how they enrich our living environment. How do bats orient themselves at night, where do they live, and what adaptations do birds show when living in urban habitats? What would cities be without urban nature, and how can cities be developed in the future to accommodate both humans and wildlife? 

The City Walk will take place on April 16, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. starting from the entrance to Philosophenwald, Tannenweg. The route of the walk through the city is shown on the right. Further information about the event can be found here. Tickets for upcoming events can be purchased at the ticket shop of Stadttheater Giessen.

The German-speaking event “Parliament for the Future” is a collaboration between the Panel on Planetary Thinking and the Stadttheater Gießen.

 

 

April 23 & 24, 2024 - Planetary CineScience: Movie Talk "2001: A Space Odyssey" (OmU, 1968, Stanley Kubrick) & Workshop "Cinema as a Planetary Medium" (German)

 

In cooperation with the Kinocenter Giessen, the Planetary CineScience series will host its final film screening in April. This time, on Tuesday, April 23rd at 7:00 pm, we will be showing the film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ in its original version with subtitles. For the expert discussion following the screening, we are pleased to have renowned film critic Bert Rebhandl as our guest.

Subsequently, on Wednesday, April 24th, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, there will be an accompanying workshop titled ‘Cinema as a Planetary Medium’. During this workshop, we will discuss the role of cinema as a medium for reflecting our relationship with Earth and as a mirror of our planetary reality. The workshop will be co-moderated by our expert, Bert Rebhandl, and the co-founder of the panel, Claus Leggewie. The workshop will take place in Room AUB 5 at Bismarckstrasse 37, 35390 Giessen. We welcome registrations until April 20th, preferably via email to panel@planet.uni-giessen.de.

Tickets for the film screening can be purchased at the Kinocenter Giessen ticket shop, as well as at the box office. For information about the workshop and registration details, please visit our event page.

Please note that while the film screening will be in original version with subtitles (OmU), the movie talk and workshop are in German.

 

 

 

February 12, 2024 – Thomas E. Hauck on "Animal-Aided Design: Für eine Architektur des Artenreichtums" (Das Parlament für die Zukunft) (German event)

 

The German-speaking event “Parliament for the Future” is a collaboration between the Panel on Planetary Thinking and the Stadttheater Gießen. The panel will explore what a happy climate protection looks like that ensures biodiversity and guarantees the future viability of our cities. It will also investigate whether humans and animals can coexist peacefully. The panel will design various scenarios for sustainable coexistence .

The lecture “Animal-Aided Design: Towards an Architecture of Biodiversity” by Thomas E. Hauck (Studio Animal-Aided Design, Technical University of Vienna) will focus on sustainable and responsible urban planning. Unlike heavily cultivated agricultural landscapes, cities offer habitats for rare wildlife species and can thus make a possible contribution to species conservation in the face of the climate crisis. Hauck will explore how the coexistence of humans and animals can be designed towards a more biodiverse and climate-resilient urban coexistence through considerations from architecture and urban planning .

The event will take place on February 12, 2024, at 8:00 PM in the Salon of Stadttheater Giessen. Further information about the event can be found here. Tickets for upcoming events can be purchased at the ticket shop of Stadttheater Giessen or at the box office.

 

Studio Sophie Jahnke

 

 

January 26, 2024 - Claus Leggewie as speaker at the network workshop "Neues Denken oder Neue Technologien"

 

From January 26th to January 27th, a network workshop organized by FB 04on the interdisciplinary challenges of socio-ecological transformations will take place at the Neues Schloss (Senckenbergstraße 21, Giessen). The workshop “New Thinking or New Technologies?” will provide deep insights into technological and social transformation processes through impulse lectures. The event deals with the three core areas of climate change, biodiversity, and the sustainability paradigm. Claus Leggewie, one of the co-founders of the Panels on Planetary Thinking, will speak at the opening of the event. Interested parties can register for parts or the entire workshop at the following link: Registration.

For the interested public, there will also be a digital evening lecture titled “Why don’t we do what we should do? A monologue between natural and human sciences” by science journalist and astrophysicist Prof. Dr. Harald Lesch tomorrow evening (Friday, January 26th) from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. via Zoom.

Please note that event will be held in German.

 

New publication by Clemens Finkelstein, Claudia Hartl & Mathias Kessler on Planetary Forest (2024, Distanz-Verlag)

 

One of the works conducted by our Fellows in the "Planetary Materials"-cohort was the “Planetary Forest” intervention: Forests have been dying right outside our doors for quite some time, as can be seen all over Germany, including in the city forest of Rosbach vor der Höhe, part of the High Taunus Nature Park near Frankfurt/Main. During an art intervention in June 2022, forest material was taken from there and transplanted as “Planetary Forest” into the Giessen Botanical Garden.

The recently published book "Planetary Forest" documents the research process and the project’s evolution while introducing the art-science collective’s sociocultural and ecopolitical objectives and includes contributions by the project participants Liza B. Bauer, Clemens Finkelstein, Frederic Hanusch, Claudia Hartl, Chiara Juriatti, Mathias Kessler, Holger Laake, Claus Leggewie, and Volker Wisseman. It can be accessed both in german and English.

 

 

 

Interview on Planetary Portal  - "Seeding Collaboration Toward Planetary Action" 

 

The digital forum for cross-cultural exchange C/Change recently interviewed our collaborative partners at Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles on the Planetary Portal. In an interview called “Seeding Collaboration Toward Planetary Action”, Jade Clemons and Jonathan Blake from the Planetary Program at Berggruen Institute talk about how the portal’s design instantiates ideals represented by planetary thinking, and what it looks like to think, build, and act in planetary terms. You can find the full interview here.

 

 

 

New publication – Frederic Hanusch on The Politics of Deep Time (2023, Cambridge University Press)

 

Human societies are increasingly interacting with geological and cosmic processes, but we still lack a profound understanding of how these interrelated dynamics affect politics.

In his recently published book The Politics of Deep Time, available Open Access on Cambridge Core, the Panel’s co-founder and current fellow at  THE NEW INSTITUTE, Frederic Hanusch, presents a novel lens on planetary politics that explores the essentiality of deep-time interactions, examines representative cases to then formulate a framework to open up possibilities for alliances that seek to better understand and realize the politics of deep time.

Frederic Hanusch will elaborate on this topic in his upcoming lecture titled “The Politics of Deep Time: Zur Bedeutung kosmischer Zeitskalen für die heutige Politik” as part of this winter term’s interdisciplinary colloquium “Von Zeit zu Zeiten” at the university of Bremen on December 21, 2023 at 6 pm in SFG Raum 1040. The colloquium will take place in German, and more information can be found here.

 

 

 

December 14, 2023 - Annette Voigt on "Von Wildschweinen und Stadttauben: Erfahrungen des Zusammenlebens von Mensch und Tier in der Stadt und innovative Ideen für die Zukunft." (Das Parlament für die Zukunft) (German event) 

 

How does climate protection look like that secures biodiversity and guarantees the future viability of our cities? Can humans and animals coexist peacefully? The Panel on Planetary Thinking in cooperation with the Stadttheater Gießen will explore these questions and develop various scenarios for sustainable coexistence in the ‘Parliament for the Future’.

In the lecture ‘Of Wild Boars and City Pigeons: Experiences of Living Together of Humans and Animals in the City and Innovative Ideas for the Future’, Annette Voigt (Department of Open Space Planning, University of Kassel) will playfully demonstrate how urban spaces - usually understood exclusively by and for humans - are also used by many species of wild animals and how we as humans react to this: While certain species are protected, many animals are ignored, displaced, and often deliberately killed. What challenges and starting points can be identified for a socio-ecological transformation? Could we share spaces and resources with free-living animals in a multi-species society where everyone has a right to a good life?

The German-speaking event will take place on December 14, 2023 at 8:00 pm at Salon of Stadttheater.

Further information can be found here. Tickets for upcoming events can be purchased at the  ticket shop of the Stadttheater or at the box office.

 

 

 

Liza Bauer receives special prize for research on sustainable development of  BUND

 

Copyright: BUND Bundesverband

 

Our scientific manager Liza Bauer was awarded the special prize of this year’s BUND research prize for research on sustainable development on November 25th for her dissertation “Livestock in the Laboratory of Literature”. The jury particularly highlighted her efforts to revise the prevailing narrative of legitimizing industrial animal use (not only for food, but also as organ storage and object of genetic engineering), as well as her methodology of analytically deconstructing everyday myths through literary analyses. We extend our warmest congratulations to her.

 

 

December 20, 2023 - GGN meets Planetary Thinking: "Historical method and paleoclimate research in the time of the Anthropocene: present and future perspectives" (Nicola Di Cosmo)

 

In collaboration with the Giessen Graduate Center for Natural Sciences and Psychology (GGN) and the working group “Climatology, Climate Dynamics and Climate Change,” the Panel cordially invite you to a hybrid event just before christmas:

Prof. Nicola Di Cosmo, Luce Foundation Professor in East Asian Studies at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, will give a lecture on "Historical method and paleoclimate research in the time of the Anthropocene: present and future perspectives". 

The event will take place Wednesday, December 20 at 4:15 pm at Multifunktionsraum 1, Alter Steinbacher Weg 38 and will be streamed online through BigBlueButton.

For more information on the lecture and participation options, please visit the GGN’s event page, as well as our own event page. Registrations and inquiries can also be sent to panel@planet.uni-giessen.de.

 

 

The Panel to host Adenike Oladosu during her 'International Climate Protection Fellowship' from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2024

 

The Panel is delighted to announce that we will once again host our ‘Planetary Spaces’ fellow and climate change activist Adenike Titilope Oladosu from 1 March 2024 to 28 February 2025, for the entirety of her fellowship awarded by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Berlin.

Oladosu’s research project will focus on the topic ‘Protection of Lake Chad as a peace and conflict resolution pathway: achieving protection through mapping and data generation to inform policymakers’. During this fellowship, Oladosu will expand on her research which she developed as a fellow at the Panel in summer 2023 documenting the diminishing size of Lake Chad due to climate change. The research will track how shrinking of Lake Chad has paved way for conflict in the region to double since 2009. The project involves setting up a data-based observation unit for conflicts in the Lake Chad region using Google Earth Engine (GEE). It emphasizes the need for a restoration agenda for Lake Chad, which could significantly contribute to the peace and security of the population.

We extend our best wishes to Oladosu for another successful scientific endeavor to raise awareness on the shrinking of Lake Chad. 

   

 

Exhibition "vibrating bodies of water" - November 10, 18:00 at Neuer Kunstverein Giessen (Juan Pablo Pacheco Bajerano)

 

 

The Panel warmly invites everyone to the upcoming exhibition vibrating bodies of water by Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano (Planetary Spaces winter fellow) on 10 November at 18:00 at Neuer Kunstverein Giessen.

The audiovisual installation  is an invitation to the visitors to experience water as a planetary space through deep listening, offering a melodic and imaginative path to heal our relationship with the deep sea. The exhibition is complementary to the three-day “wet workshop” conducted by Pacheco Bejarano on the theme “Environmental Identities at the Ocean Floor”. A detailed report of the event can be found here.

 

 

Course in the Winter Term: "Planetar Denken. Eine interdisziplinäre Einführung"

 

During the winter term, the course "Planetary Thinking. An interdisciplinary introduction" takes place: As part of the orientation year in the Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, this module provides students with in-depth insights into core areas of planetary thinking: the lecture series highlights perspectives from experts who are working on current and innovative research approaches in the field: from philosophical questions about our relationship to the Earth and its more-than-human inhabitants, to practical discussions of current planetary topics such as artificial intelligence, climate change or questions of astrophysics. In the accompanying seminar, these perspectives are then reworked and deepened in cooperation with the speakers on the basis of further texts. The aim of the module is to convey basic concepts of planetary thinking and their fields of application.

The course was opened on October 31 by the well-known physicist and science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar with a lecture on "Emil's World - A Planet in Transition", which focused on reflections on the future of his grandson, who was born in 2020. He showed how this world will be shaped by far-reaching planetary changes, such as technical innovations, climate change and shifts in social interaction, and emphasized the need to rethink the way we live.

 

Presidents Lecture Series: "Planetary Thinking. An interdisciplinary introduction"

 

The Panel on Planetary Thinking is organizing the President’s lecture series on the topic of ‘Planetary Thinking: An Interdisciplinary Introduction’ this winter semester 2023/2024. The lecture series will be held in german. It is open to all interested parties, will take place in the main auditorium of the university building and can be followed online via a livestream. It furthermore is part of the teaching course "Planetary Thinking. An interdisciplinary introduction" which is part of the orientation year in the Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences study program.

The opening event will take place on Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 7:00 p.m.: The renowned physicist and science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar will reflect on the world of the future as a result of current profound global changes in his lecture “Emil’s World - A Planet in Transition”.

Further information on the event series can be found in a press release from JLU.

 

 

Website launch - Planetary Portal 

On September 21, 2023, the Panel on Planetary Thinking in collaboration with the Planetary research program  at the Berggruen Institute, a think tank based in Los Angeles launched the ‘Planetary Portal’ on planetaryportal.org. The website shows the institutes, indigenous movements and prominent individuals that are working on or within a planetary framework. These include university research centers, independent research institutes, NGOs, and other organizations that approach policy, politics, and philosophy through a planetary lens. More information on the project can be found here.

   

November 2-4, 2023 – Planetary Spaces Winter Workshop: "Wet Workshop" (Juan Pablo Pacheco)

Together with this year’s fellow in the Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program, we cordially invite you to the Planetary Spaces: Wet Workshop.

Throughout the workshop, Pacheco will intra-act with a river, a lake, a pond, a pool, and an aquarium, through somatic reading and listening exercises and ask: how does water alter our conventional understanding of media, time, and space?

The workshop will take place from 02.-04.11.2023. Registration to the entire workshop is possible till 26th October, 2023 via panel 

A complementary exhibition to the workshop will be held at Neuer Kunstverein Giessen on 10 November. A detailed schedule of the workshop can be found here.

 

 

03.11.2023 – Planetary Lecture V: „Water as an Engineered Planetary Space" (Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner)

 

 

The Panel on Planetary Thinking presents the next hybrid instalment of our Planetary Lecture Series: On November 3 2023, Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner, Director General of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research, gave a lecture on the topic “Water as an Engineered Planetary Space”. 

Our Fellow Juan Pablo Pacheco initiated a discussion on the political and planetary dimensions of water surfaces as shaped and endangered places. We would like to thank our diverse audience of workshop participants, JLU students and non-university citizens of Giessen for their active participation and a stimulating reception after the event.

Further information is available here.

The event took place Friday, November 3 at 6 pm at Hermann-Levi-Saal at Kunsthalle Gießen and was streamed online.

 

 

 

November 2023: Third Call for Applications of our Planetary Futures Competition 

 

For the second time, the Panel on Planetary Thinking announces the Planetary Futures Competition Vol. III (2024). The aim is to provide financial support for transdisciplinary research projects that are in the initial stages of applying for external funding. Project ideas dedicated to researching planetary phenomena using innovative approaches and methods will be awarded funding of up to 5,000 euros. The main aim is to pave the way for explorative research projects that require a research practice beyond disciplinary boundaries and thus entail special risks, challenges and opportunities.

 

September 28, 2023 - Excursion to Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt

 

On September 28th, the Panel visited the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt to view the exhibition “PLASTIC WORLD” (22.6.-1.10.2023). The exhibition showed the history of plastics in the visual arts – from being celebrated as the eternal material, symbolizing progress and modernism to being the ultimate threat to the environment. The works of around 50 international artists were exhibited in the forms of installations, assemblages and documentaries.

Among others, the German artist Otto Piene’s installation; new edition of Anemones: An Air Aquarium (1976/2023) fascinated us with its huge inflatable sea anemones and other sea creatures. The artwork made it possible to experience the underwater worlds but at the same time was poignant to point to the pollution of the oceans by plastic. The installation in particular resonated heavily with our current Planetary Spaces fellow Juan Pablo Pacheco’s project on “Environmental Identities at the Ocean Floor”.

The excursion came to a delightful ending with an evening stroll by the Main River as our Director, Claus Leggewie gave the team an insightful guide to the city of Frankfurt and its history.

 

   
The Panel at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt

September 14 & 15, 2023 - Liza Bauer as speaker at the SWITCH conference at University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H)

 

Our scientific manager Liza Bauer was invited speaker at the SWITCH conference at University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H) on September 14th and 15th. In her lecture, she introduced about 200 students, pupils, scientists, and entrepreneurs to planetary thinking as a framework. The conference program combined impulses from artists and experts with various workshop formats on topics such as health and climate, understanding nature, or economy in planetary responsibility. For example, it was discussed how human-animal relationships can be rethought. You can find a more detailed report on the conference here, further information can be found on the conference website.

 

 

Recap: September 26, 2023 - Planetary CineScience “Vergiftete Wahrheit (Dark Waters)” (Original with German Subtitles) & Film Discussion with Claus Leggewie

 

Not only since the recently published General Update of Planetary Boundaries or the Forever Pollution Project, the chemical group of PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), so-called ‘forever chemicals’ and components of clothing, paint, cleaning agents, or packaging, has been controversial. In connection with these debates, we discussed the film ‘Dark Waters’ (2019, Haynes) at Kinocenter Gießen on Tuesday, September 26th.

The chemical company DuPont is world-famous for its brand name ‘Teflon’, among other things. In 1998, a hundred cows suddenly died near a Teflon production facility in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Lawyer Robert Bilott takes on the case and goes to court against DuPont. The cinematic staging of the case was put into context by political scientist and co-initiator of the panel Claus Leggewie during our expert discussion, which led to in-depth discussions surrounding chances and pitfalls of environmental regulations and how to impement them in a legal framework.

The event series "Planetary CineScience" is organized in cooperation with Kinocenter Gießen.  For further information, please visit our website. The next installment will take place November 28, 2023 at 7:00 pm, where we will be screening and discussing Mad Max: Fury Road.

 

 

September, 25 2023 - “Before practice comes theory, or: Who sits in the Parliament of Things?” Lecture and discussion by and with Claus Leggewie. Opening of the series “The Parliament for the Future” (german)

 

Regarding the representation of non-human actors in planetary politics: The political ecologist Bruno Latour has called a gathering of non-human actors a Parliament of Things, which have so far been excluded from the political process, although they are affected by it and subordinate to it. Claus Leggewies lecture marked the beginning of the event series "The Parliament for the Future" and took place at 8 pm on September 25th in the Salon of Stadttheater. During the talk, he invited the guests to consider the idea of an expanded representation. A more detailed retrospection can be found in an article of Giessener Anzeiger from September 27 (in german)

The series is organized in cooperation with Stadtheater Gießen, further information can be found here. Tickets for the upcoming events can be purchased at the Ticketshop of Stadttheaters or at the box office.

 

September 19, 2023 - Planetary Colloquium on "The Sun. A Discovery"

 

On Tuesday, Sept. 19, we held a Planetary Colloquium on "The Sun. A Discovery".

As part of the Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence fellowship program, the Panel supports the renowned astrophysicist and philosopher Dr. Sibylle Anderl in her interdisciplinary publication project on the Sun's history of discovery. Connected to this, the colloquium brought together expert perspectives from various disciplines, such as solar system research, cultural studies, and art history.

In-depth discussions between speakers and participants enabled an enriching exchange across disciplinary boundaries that impressively demonstrated the importance of a methodically broad approach to studying fundamental natural phenomena such as the sun. To take the sun seriously as an epistemic object that has both societal and physical effects, multidimensional perspectives are required.

More detailed information about the contributions can be found here.

 

 

September 04, 2023 - A warm welcome to the new Fellow with the Planetary Scholar & Artists-Program!

 

We are very pleased to welcome new fellow Juan Pablo Pacheco to the Planetary Hub! This year’s fellowship program focuses on the theme of PLANETARY SPACES. The project for the winter residence focuses on the deep sea as an underexplored space in terms of its ecological identity.

At our traditional welcome breakfast, the implementation of our winter workshop was also in focus, which will take place from November 2nd to 4th. The preliminary program promises exciting insights into various local bodies of water. More detailed information will follow shortly.

We are looking forward to an exciting semester!

August 1, 2023 - Winners of the Planetary Futures Competition Vol II (2023)

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Planetary Futures Competition Vol. II (2023): Prof. Dr. Mirjam Stockburger and Lukas Spatz from the Department of Economics at Justus Liebig University Giessen receive funding from the Panel on Planetary Thinking for a proposed project that seeks to evaluate the impact of urban greening projects on people’s health and well-being, the housing market and municipality finances.

The project will utilize a novel approach to examine causal effects by studying the award procedure of national and state garden shows using data combinations. It explores the conception of environmental justice by specifically analyzing the consequences of such greening events on the landscape, studying the effects of such green, public goods on economic outcomes (such as housing prices, local economy), and by analyzing their impacts on inhabitants’ health and well-being as well as on socioeconomic disparities.

The transdisciplinary empirical project will combine the knowledge and experience on analyzing geographical data and indicators with expertise from economists to identify such causal effects and impacts for society. The research group at JLU will collaborate with the team of Public Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen and Department of Geography at the Philipps-University Marburg. A two-day workshop with input from experts of different disciplines will be organized before the project is submitted for third-party funding. The Panel views this project as a step in the direction towards a planetary responsible future and is delighted to support our colleagues in their endeavor.

 

© North News and Pictures Ltd.
© North News and Pictures Ltd.

Recap: Kick-off event of Planetary CineScience at Kinocenter Gießen: Film review of Oppenheimer (2023, Nolan) - 25.07.2023, 7 pm

 

In cooperation with Kinocenter Giessen, the Panel invited the moviegoers to the screening of Christopher Nolan's new Oppenheimer. For the kick-off event of our new Planetary CineScience series, we had Dr. Simon Märkl (LMU Munich) as a guest for a film talk. In his dissertation "Big Science Fiction", the cultural historian uses the example of nuclear fusion research in the USA to describe the complex relationship between science, politics and propaganda during the Cold War. Before the film, he gave a short introduction to the topic, which led to a productive and exciting discussion afterwards. We would like to thank our guest, all visitors and the Kinocenter for a successful event.

 
© Wiegand

 

July 7, 2023 - Sibylle Anderl receives the German Physical Society's (DPG) medal for scientific journalism

 

We would like to congratulate our fellow Sibylle Anderl who received the medal for scientific journalism from the German Physical Society. Her success in science communication highlights how valuable a connection between the sciences and the arts can be. 

 

Exhibition "Unstable Planetary Spaces" (06.07.-11.07.2023) in Kunsthalle Giessen

© Harad Schätzlein

The Panel is pleased to invite everyone to our upcoming exhibition in cooperation with Kunsthalle Gießen. "Unstable Planetary Spaces" will be displayed July 6th 2023 to July 11th 2023. From the shrinking of the mega-lake Chad due to climate change to the irradiated Fukushima exclusion zone caused by the nuclear fallout in Japan 2011, Unstable Planetary Spaces explores how artists and activists are dealing with some of the most challenging durational disasters. More information can be found on our event page and a press release of the JLU. A detailed report of the exhibition can be found here.

© Aaron Endres

 

Article - Bente Castro-Campos on last year's excursion to the Rosbach Forest

Panel member Bente Castro-Campos wrote an insightful article on an excursion we did last year to the Rosbach Forest: Investigating the Moral Nuances of Nature: A Multisensory Exploration through the Anthropoogenic Urban Woodland" reflects upon an interdisciplinary experience tracing "the moral and ethical dilemmas of environmental (in)justice and resource use in the Anthropocene".

As a result of this workshop, the Planetary Forest Sculpture was created.

Castro-Campos included the artwork in her teaching: when she and her students visited the sculpture at the end of June 2023, the weeds had taken over the artwork. Inspired by the book "The Mushroom at the End of the World" by Lowenhaupt-Tsing" that she read with students this semester, the students who visited the artwork said that the weeds will continue to grow without human intervention, as Lowenhaupt-Tsing also explains with the concept of Satoyama. 

The artwork is open to the public and can be visited by anyone curious about the way how planetary material originating from an ecological disturbance area can slowly reclaim an autonomous form of existence inside a human-made world like the botanical garden. 

© Bente Castro-Campos

 

June 19, 2023 - Excursion to Museum Sinclair-Haus

On June 19th, our trip to Museum Sinclair-Haus to see the exhibition “Clouds: From Gerhard Richter to the Cloud Art” (19.3.-13.08.2023) took place. The exhibition fitted perfectly with the theme of the semester "Planetary Spaces" and the projects of our fellows Adenike Oladosu and Jason Waite.

We were particularly fascinated by how scientific methods and technology were incorporated into contemporary artistic explorations of clouds - both in the depiction of man-made clouds caused by pollution and natural variants of clouds.

We pondered the day's impulses for a long time while gazing at the overcast sky on the way home.

The link to the exhibition can be found here.

 

June 7 & 15, 2023 - Adenike Oladosu as Expert at the Bonn Climate Conference and for Tagesschau  

Our summer fellow Adenike Oladosu was invited as an expert to talk at the Bonn Climate Conference. Further information on the event can be found here and in an interview with German Tagesschau.

© Jessica Antonisse/ONE Campaign

  

June 5, 2023 - JLU and Sustainability: Keeping the Bigger Picture in Sight

We are looking back on an immensely enjoyable event on June 5th, in the course of which we presented our fellows, their projects, and our other activities to Angela Dorn-Ranke, the Hessian minister for science and art. The event took place in the new palm house at Giessen’s Botanical gardens and ran under the headline “JLU & Sustainability: Keeping the Bigger Picture in Sight”. Together with the JLU’s office for sustainability, we were able to present a wide range of activities to about 90 colleagues from the JLU and beyond. When the morning came to a close, Frederic Hanusch, Claus Leggewie, and Liza Bauer had the great pleasure of taking Ms Dorn-Ranke on a brief walk-through to the Planetary Forest sculpture – the participatory artwork initiated by our first round of fellows. We cordially thank the minister for the ongoing support in making transdisciplinary research a reality at the JLU! A more detailed recapitulation of the event can be found in a press release of the JLU.

© Katharina Endres

  

Claudia Ford selected as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Buffalo

 

Congratulations to our alumna Claudia Ford! She has been selected as a 2023-24 Distinguished Visiting Scholar for the University of Buffalo's School of Arts and Sciences. As an UB Distinguished Visiting Scholar, she will lead mentoring for diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as engaged learning. With this prestigious fellowship, she plans to collaborate with the departments of indigenous studies and environmental and sustainability to develop a program focused on student skill development through service to community organizations. She will also collaborate with the DEI office and the SUNY PRODiG program in a pilot faculty mentoring to help underrepresented students and women in STEM faculties. Further information can be found here.

  

June 3, 2023 - Liza Bauer at Stoppels offener Lebenshof  

Our interim scientific managing director Liza Bauer was a guest at the vegan brunch at Stoppel's open farm where she spoke about the topic "How animals shape our lives and what open farms tell us about it."
In her talk on the relationship between humans and farm animals using the example of the farm, she compared the global effects of violent structures in factory farming with the influence of animals on the farm and other animals living with humans.

  

June 16, 2023 – Planetary Lecture: "Planetary Intersectionality: Feminism, Impermanence and the Radicalness of Simpleness" (Minna Salami)

© Hanusch
 

On June 16th, the Planetary Lecture Vol. IV took place on the topic of "Planetary Intersectionality: Feminism, Impermanence and the Radicalness of Simplicity" at the Salon of the Gießen City Theater. Our guest was Minna Salami (THE NEW INSTITUTE, Hamburg) - our fellow Adenike Oladosu acted as a respondent and opened the group discussion.

Salongespräche X Planetary Lecture - thus ran the title under which the collaborative event between the Panel and the city theater was held. Minna Salami called on the approximately 21 participants to rethink: Through slowness, mindfulness, and experiencing with all senses, we can learn much about the non-human world that withdraws from quantifiable research methods.

The local newspaper, Gießener Anzeiger, reported on the even in the article "Aufruf zur feministischen Perspektive".

 

 

June 1-2, 2023 – Planetary Spaces Summer Workshop: "Shrinking Spaces & Toxic Zones" (Adenike Oladosu & Jason Waite)

 

Together with this year’s fellows in the Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program, we cordially invite you to the Planetary Spaces Summer Workshop.

The workshop will take place from 01.-02.06.2023 at Castle Rauischholzhausen. We will take care of transportation to and from Giessen, as well as accommodation costs - we therefore ask for a binding registration by May 19th, 2023 at panel@planet.uni-giessen.de.

The program consists of lectures, discussion rounds, interactive workshops, an exhibition, as well as outdoor activities.

A detailed report of the event can be found here.

The group posing for a commemorative photo

 

May 31 2023 – Planetary Lecture-Performance: "Drift as a Planetary Phenomenon" (Bronislaw Szerszynski)

 

The Panel on Planetary Thinking warmly invites to the next hybrid instalment of our Planetary Lecture Series: On May 31 2023 at 6 pm, Bronislaw Szerszynski will be talking and performing on the topic “Drift as a Planetary Phenomenon”. Jason Waite, a Fellow in the current cohort of our Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program and Sven Opitz (Professor for Sociology at Philipps University Marburg) will respond to the lecture and open the discussion.

Further information is available here.

The event will take place on Wednesday, May 31 at 6 pm in room AUB1 at Bismarckstraße 37, 35390 Gießen, and will be streamed online via BigBlueButton. Please register at panel@planet.uni-giessen.de  until the 30th of May.


 

 

April 25 2023 - A warm welcome to the new Planetary Scholars & Artists!

We are very pleased to welcome our two new fellows, Jason Waite and Adenike Oladosu, to our Planetary Hub! This year’s fellowship program focuses on the theme of PLANETARY SPACES. In the summer, our fellows will be looking at places that are changing due to long-term disasters such as climate change or radioactive contamination.

At our traditional welcome breakfast, we worked directly on the program of the Planetary Workshop series for the summer semester:“Shrinking Spaces & Toxic Zones” will take place from June 1-2 at Schloss Rauischholzhausen - you can register until May 19, 2023.

We are looking forward to an exciting semester!

©: Meike Wiegand

March 06, 2023: "Remain faithful to the earth!": "Review by Claus Leggewie of Markus Schroer's "Geosociology. The Earth as Space of Life" (german)

 

On March 06, Claus Leggewie's review of Marburg sociologist Markus Schoer's publication "Geosociology. The Earth as Space of Life". The book argues for the development of a new theoretical program of "environmental sociology" towards an expansion of sociological-perspective and methodological approaches in view of the challenges of the Anthropocene.

 

Winners Planetary Futures Competition 2022: Workshop Planetary Pedagogy at the Theaterlabor (20.-22.02.23)

Ecological catastrophes concern us all, civil society and scientific actors alike. This also applies to pedagogy as a discipline: crises of planetary magnitude, such as the climate crisis and mass extinction of species, require a new,a planetary pedagogy, in order to adequately grasp the dimensions of these phenomena. This new approach needs to include physical, affective, and material practices in addition to solely teaching factual knowledge.

This week, the winners of our Planetary Futures competition explored new concepts for teaching in a multi-sensory approach: Through a series of workshops, Carolina Mendonça, Luïza Luz, and Max Haiven offered sessions on Embodiment, Listening Pratices, Game-making and Performativity.

We thank the initiators Gerko Egert, Martina Ruhsam and Bojana Kunst for a successful event at the intersection between performance art, pedagogy and activism.

 

Podcast "Knowing Animals" 209: Liza Bauer on Teaching Animal Studies

 

Our scientific manager Liza Bauer was a guest on the podcast series "Knowing Animals" to talk about her research on Animal Studies, pedagogy and science fiction. The conversation was based on her publication "Reading the Stretch the Imagination: Exploring Representations of 'Livestock' in Literary Thought Experiments," which appeared translated to English in Multispecies Studies (2022) and in the original German version in InterspeziesLernen (2021).

 

January 2023: Second Call for Applications of our Planetary Futures Competition 

 

For the second time, the Panel on Planetary Thinking announces the Planetary Futures Competition Vol. II (2023). The aim is to provide financial support for transdisciplinary research projects that are in the initial stages of applying for external funding. Project ideas dedicated to researching planetary phenomena using innovative approaches and methods will be awarded funding of up to 5,000 euros. The main aim is to pave the way for explorative research projects that require a research practice beyond disciplinary boundaries and thus entail special risks, challenges and opportunities.

  

January 2023: Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class for Prof. Claus Leggewie

 

We congratulate our Scientific Director Claus Leggewie: On January 20, 2023 he was awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his commitment to democracy and tolerance. For further information, please visit https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns/pressestelle/pm/pm11-23bundesverdienstkreuzleggewie. We would like to express our sincere gratitude for his commitment to the Panel, to the University of Giessen, and to his many activities far beyond.

 

©: Paul Müller

Press Release: Announcement Fellows “Planetary Spaces” for the first semester of 2023

 

The Panel on Planetary Thinking is very pleased to welcome our Fellows for the first semester of 2023: Sibylle AnderlAdenike Titilope Oladosu and Jason Waite will spend the summer semester as Resident Fellows researching planetary spaces to collaboratively develop new ideas for their own projects. A press release with detailed information about the Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence program, as well as the projects of our Fellows can be found here.

 

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