Historical research in the time of the Anthropocene: can climate data help us read the past (and, if so, how)?

Over the past few decades historians have investigated paleoclimate data seeking answers to long-standing questions in the premodern world that may be linked to climate variability.

At the same time, scientists have sought to find in historical knowledge keys to better understand the impact of climate on societies. Have these collaborations enhanced our understanding of climate’s role in shaping the human past?

In this talk, Professor Di Cosmo, Luce Foundation Professor in East Asian Studies in Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, will examine the results yielded by interdisciplinary research on climate and history, and the issues they raise in terms of methodology, theoretical assumptions, and the general goals of a climatic “turn" in historical research.

This is a joint event with the Oxford Martin Programme on Changing Global Orders, the Oxford Centre for European History and the Oxford Centre for Global History.