"The Coming Catastrophe": Stephan Gregory on "Class, Capital, Catastrophe. From 'No Future' to 'Fridays for Future'"

The coming catastrophe poses a challenge to thinking. Only recently have the interrelated events of human-induced climate change and mass extinction begun to unfold as a global media event of proportional magnitude. The proliferation of discourses around impending anthropogenic doom seems to have reached a virtual tipping point, from which there is no return to a “business as usual”-attitude. As the environmental conditions on which all human life depends change in ever more alarming rates, there seem to be few aspects of life, of policy making, and of theoretical work, that can remain unchanged. Scholars in the field of cultural and media theory, particularly in Weimar, are used to observing phenomena of change in terms of their historical becoming. While the identification of the historical causes (and causers) of anthropogenic change is decisive for the assessment of “what there is to be done”, the current situation is unique in that it also challenges habitual modes of thinking and forces us to train our eyes on the things to come.

As a part of this semesters "Bauhaus.Module", the lecture series "The Coming Catastrophe" invites everyone to Stephan Gregory's upcoming lecture on "Class, Capital, Catastrophe. From 'No Future' to 'Fridays for Future'".

Stephan Gregory studied medicine in Marburg and Berlin, philosophy and German literature at the Universities of Munich and Vienna. After working as a journalist in Munich and as a lecturer of Media Theory at Merz Akademie in Stuttgart he was a scientific coordinator of the graduate program “Mediale Historiographien” at the universities of Weimar, Erfurt and Jena. In 2007 he received his PhD with a thesis on the epistemological policies of 18th century's secret societies. Since 2010 he has been assistant professor for the History of Media at Bauhaus-University of Weimar. He is conducting the project “Mimesis Tropical” within the DFG research team Media & Mimesis, based in Weimar.

Topic: "Class, Capital, Catastrophe. From 'No Future' to 'Fridays for Future'"
Date: 3rd December 2019
Time: 19:00-20:30 Uhr
Location: R 015, Bauhausstraße 11