In this short course Big Questions in the Anthropocene, you will critically evaluate your relationship with the planet and study new ways and the cultures and practices that it sustains. Together, we will explore questions such as: how do our economies impact waste disposal and energy sources? In addition, we will examine technological innovations, debate ethical issues, and perform social analyses. As we interrogate the idea of the Anthropocene, we will also discuss and challenge related concepts and oppositions. These include the presumptive binary division between ‘nature’ and ‘humankind’; the myth of human domination over nature; and naturalized conceptualizations of time and history.
To tackle these questions, the short course is divided into three main sections, introduction, discussion and solutions/navigation tools, with interactive teaching, in-class assignments as well as a take-home Big Question message.
This short course Big Questions in the Anthropocene is the synthesis of a course that is developed (as of 2019) at the Amsterdam University College, a liberal arts college, that is governed by two universities: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University of Amsterdam.
The course has succesfully run now for six years, and is taught teachers from the science, social science and humanities domains. The course is taught in part as self organising by students, given the fact that they are responsible for organising and presenting excursions about the Anthropocene of Amsterdam, as well as reflecting and reviewing on other students' excursions. The current short course at EGU2026 is a synthesis of course that is run over 4 months and will be now presented in less that 2 hours.