'Historical research in the time of the Anthropocene: can climate data help us read the past (and, if so, how)?' with Prof Nicola Di Cosmo (Online only)

Forthcoming Event

Date
 08 May 2024, 5:00pm - 6:15pm

Location
 Online - Crowdcast

Adobe Stock Zahid Historical Research

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.

REGISTRATION - Online only event

Di Cosmo Nicola

Professor Nicola Di Cosmo
Luce Foundation Professor in East Asian Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Nicola Di Cosmo is the Luce Foundation Professor in East Asian Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study {Princeton, USA) since 2003. He received his PhD from the Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies (now Central Eurasian Studies) at Indiana University in 1991, and held research and teaching positions at the University of Cambridge, Harvard University, and the University of Canterbury (New Zealand).

His main field of research is the history of the relations between China and Inner Asia from prehistory to the modern period. Within that broad area he has published widely on the history (political, military, and economic) of China’s relations with steppe nomads, and on Mongol and Manchu history.

His most recent works explore the use of proxy data from climatology and other palaeosciences in the study of China and Central Asia, with special reference to early Eurasian nomads, the Mongol empire, and the Qing dynasty. Most recently, he has collaborated with climatologists and archaeologists in the research project "Volcanoes-Climate-History" at ZiF (Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung, Bielefeld University, Germany) from 2021 to 2024.