Anthropocene

Adapted in a wide range of disciplinary contexts to describe an era in which humanity has profoundly transformed earth systems, the Anthropocene has also been used to come to terms with how the resulting changes to earth’s climate, ecologies and biologies are affecting global and local contexts for health, often in ways that jeopardize health for human and non-human animals at the same time.

UCSC scholars are engaged in many of these debates both through their research into biophysical changes associated with the Anthropocene (e.g. climate heating) and into diverse adaptive and resilience-enhancing innovations in agroecology, aquaculture and water systems.

At the level of theory, our faculty and students are also involved in challenging the Anthropocene as a concept while ‘staying with the trouble’ it evokes. This includes pointing to the problems of the geoengineering fixes that the Anthropocene idea inspires and the various ways that resilience rhetoric becomes reactionary when it obscures the structural violence and inequalities of capitalism and structural racism. But, more than this, it further includes mapping multispecies stories and Chthulucene connections in ways that point with hope as well as critique to possibilities of continuing life with non-human natures through precarious times of anthropogenic change.

David L Bernick

• Pronouns
  • he, him, his, his, himself
• Title
  • Associate Teaching Professor
• Department
  • Biomolecular Engineering
• Campus Email
  • dbernick@ucsc.edu

Nancy N. Chen

• Title
  • Professor
• Department
  • Anthropology Department
• Campus Email
  • nchen@ucsc.edu

Jennifer L. Derr

• Pronouns
  • she/they
• Title
  • Associate Professor; Founding Director, Center for the Middle East and North Africa at UC Santa Cruz
• Department
  • History Department
• Campus Email
  • jderr@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • Disease and Immunity

Lindsey Dillon

• Title
  • Assistant Professor
• Department
  • Sociology Department
• Campus Email
  • lidillon@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • Activism

Lars Fehren-Schmitz

• Title
  • Professor
• Department
  • Anthropology Department
• Campus Email
  • lfehrens@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • Ancient DNA

Marcella Gomez

• Title
  • Associate Professor
• Department
  • Applied Mathematics
• Campus Email
  • mgomez26@ucsc.edu

Julie H Guthman

• Title
  • Professor
• Department
  • Community Studies Program
• Campus Email
  • jguthman@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • Agroecology and Agriculture

Brent M. Haddad

• Title
  • Professor of Environmental Studies
• Department
  • Environmental Studies Department
• Campus Email
  • bhaddad@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • Water Policy and Management

Naya Jones

• Pronouns
  • she, her, her, hers, herself
• Title
  • Assistant Professor & Core Faculty in Global and Community Health Program
• Department
  • Sociology Department
• Campus Email
  • njones6@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • African Diaspora

Stacy M Philpott

• Pronouns
  • she, her, her, hers, herself
• Title
  • Professor
• Department
  • Environmental Studies Department
• Campus Email
  • sphilpot@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • Ecology

Raquel Prado

• Title
  • Professor
• Department
  • Statistics
• Campus Email
  • rprado@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • Statistics

S. Ravi Rajan

• Title
  • Professor
• Department
  • Environmental Studies Department
• Campus Email
  • srrajan@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • Environmental Human Rights

Chad W Saltikov

• Title
  • Professor
• Department
  • Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology Department
• Campus Email
  • saltikov@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • Microbiology

Pallab Sarker

• Title
  • Assistant Professor
• Department
  • Environmental Studies Department
• Campus Email
  • psarker@ucsc.edu

Nirvikar Singh

• Title
  • Distinguished Professor
• Department
  • Economics Department
• Campus Email
  • boxjenk@ucsc.edu
• Faculty Areas of Expertise
  • Economics

Anna L Tsing

• Title
  • Professor
• Department
  • Anthropology Department
• Campus Email
  • atsing@ucsc.edu