The Research Institute for the Humanities and the Leung Po Chuen Research Centre for Hong Kong History and Humanities will host a two-day international conference on Environmental Humanities at The Chinese University of Hong Kong on 6-7 December 2018.

It gathers scholars from CUHK and institutes from across the world to share their work as part of their effort to foster interdisciplinary conversation and learning. Presenters will bring a humanities perspective to understanding the landscapes, empires, imagined environments, and the boundaries of nature and humanity.

Environmental humanities involve human beings and non-humans (animals, plants, minerals, objects, etc.), as well as a number of critical positions such as post-capitalism, post-humanism, post-colonialism, rejection of anthropocentrism, and distance with constructivism that deserve to be discussed and confronted. The objective is to enrich pre-existing conjunctions across environmental philosophy, environmental history, ecocriticism, cultural geography, cultural anthropology and political ecology, including their debates as captured by environmental humanities. These alliances can help build environmental humanities across regions and environments.

To contribute to such debates, the conference will focus on seven broadly formulated topics and questions:
1. The Management of Nature in the Ancient World
2. Eco-Humanities: History, Narratives and Reflections
3. Body and Nature
4. Religion and Environment
5. The High North: Arctic Encounters
6. Nature at the Point of No Return? Philosophical Reflections
7. Survival of the Fittest: A Historical Perspective