"“The great River flows from the mountains to the sea. I am the River, the River is me.”
Rivers in the Anthropocene are transformed into an object. But rivers, as we see above (Maori tribe, Aotearoa New Zealand), are also ancestors. This fundamental description of indivisibility between human/non-human fully captures the interplay between place-based knowledge, lives and shared experiences. Recently, various legislative moves, judicial decisions and social movements have made this prominent through engaged and decisive measures. These emergent responses require addressing longstanding, often conflicting worldviews between different groups and interests. This lecture primarily focuses on the case study from Aotearoa, New Zealand, and India to demonstrate how rivers in the Anthropocene draw seemingly different responses by socio-legal initiatives but are closely tied to the alarming state in the wake of anthropogenic climate change. Both cases help explain how state institutions, communities and movements negotiate the rights of non-humans.
About the presenter
Dr. Rahul Ranjan is a writer and Assistant Professor of Climate/Environmental Justice at the Department of Human Geography, University of Edinburgh. His recent book "The Political Life of Memory" was published by the Cambridge University Press in 2023. He is interested in how we make sense of living in the midst of environmental grief and crisis that arrests our time.
Suggested readings
Elizabeth Macpherson, Axel Borchgrevink, Rahul Ranjan & Catalina Vallejo Piedrahíta (2021) Where ordinary laws fall short: ‘riverine rights’ and constitutionalism, Griffith Law Review, 30:3, 438-473, DOI: 10.1080/10383441.2021.1982119
The Welcome to the Anthropocene lecture series
The Anthropocene is a widely used term that designates the most recent epoch in Earth's history: an epoch in which humans have radically altered (and disrupted) the climate and ecosystems of the planet.
The annual Welcome to the Anthropocene lecture series invites scholars and researchers across the humanities, social and natural sciences to explore how their disciplines are responding—both to the concept of the Anthropocene, and to the planetary crisis that it designates.
For the 2024 Anthropocene Lecture Series we've invited leading international scholars. Read more about the other lectures in the series here.
2024 Convenors and organizers: Sara Asu Schroer and Anna-Katharina Laboissiere.
How to attend
The 2024 lecture series are free and open to the public. You can either attend in person at the University of Oslo or on Zoom. Register in advance to join.