Critical Anthropocenes strives to build a community of researchers at Maynooth University, working together across disciplinary boundaries to deepen our understanding of the ecological issues facing the planet. 

We have members from different departments across the University, including English, Ancient Classics, Modern Languages and Theoretical Physics, who conduct vital research across disciplines and periods, from antiquity to the present. We are leading experts in ecocritical and ecofeminist theories, the ethical traditions of ancient and modern philosophies, critical toponymy, language endangerment, petrocultures, and the energy humanities. We bring these diverse approaches into conversation to enquire into narratives of nature and the human, to uncover the long history of human transformations of the natural world, and to lay bare the ideologies that underwrite extractivism and exploitation.  

At the same time, we aim to challenge the simplicities of the culture / nature divide by restoring agency to non-human actors and marginalised others and by emphasising the ‘natural’ in the ‘human’ and the sociocultural forces shaping the more-than-human. We seek to combine the urgency of a decisive geopolitical context with a cultural legacy of haunted ‘pastoral’ imaginings. 

The Critical Anthropocenes group was set up on the premise that in order to address ecological crisis, it is necessary to understand the relationship between environmental processes and how we perceive them, culturally and affectively as well as theoretically and scientifically. The objective of the group is to provide a space for collaboration and communication between scholars working in eco-critical and environmental contexts; for interdisciplinary projects that bridge traditional divides between academic fields; for postgraduate students interested in pursuing research in the environmental humanities and related areas; and for the promotion of upcoming events and activities. 

Postgraduate opportunities

A growing number of postgraduate researchers are part of our group. We warmly welcome enquiries from students who wish to join or those interested in future PhD study. See the Members page to find a potential supervisor.  

Contact

For further information about the Critical Anthropocenes research group or to join, please contact the group’s convenors, Leah O’Hearn and David Conlon.