About the Project
Catastrophic environmental breakdown, mass species extinction, financial collapse, racist separatism, global nuclear war…there is much speculation these days that we are living at the end of democracy, liberalism, capitalism, a cool planet, and civilization as we know it.
What are our chances for survival? How can we envision the unimaginable, and what will life look like in the near and distant future?
Funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Sawyer Seminars, this project will bring leading international thinkers and cultural practitioners to UC Santa Cruz to engage with these questions through a series of seminars, public lectures, and other research-related activities. It will culminate in an art exhibition and interdisciplinary conversation titled “Beyond the End of the World: Approaches in Contemporary Art”—addressing the topic from the perspective of the visual arts and providing a venue to connect cross-disciplinary thinking.
Led by Professor of the History of Art and Visual Culture T.J. Demos, in collaboration with Professor of History Matthew O’Hara, Associate Professor of Literature Hunter Bivens, Associate Professor of Anthropology Mayanthi Fernando, and Associate Professor of Sociology Deborah Gould. Administered by the Humanities Institute in conjunction with the Center for Creative Ecologies.
Project Website
Exhibitions
- March 6 – June 21, 2020 Exhibition at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History Beyond the World’s End
- April 2 – May 9, 2020 Exhibition at the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery We Are Not Aliens: Arthur Jafa, Martine Syms, and Afro-Futurism 2.0
Events
- January 23, 2020 Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
- February 27, 2020 Amitav Ghosh: “Unmuting the Brutes: Human and Non-human After the Collapse of ‘Civilization’”
- March 4, 2020 Radical Futurisms Film Series: Part 1
- March 11, 2020 Radical Futurisms Film Series: Part 2
- March 18, 2020 Radical Futurisms Film Series: Part 3
- April 15, 2020 Nick Estes and Melanie Yazzie
- April 29, 2020 Nitasha Dhillon and Amin Husain, of MTL / Decolonize This Place
- May 15, 2020 Moor Mother & Las Sucias presented by Kuumbwa Jazz & Indexical
News
- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor to kick off ‘Beyond the End of the World’ lecture series
- CFA Graduate Fellowship: “Beyond the End of the World” — Applications due 3/8/2019
- Call for Postdoctoral Fellow: “Beyond the End of the World” Sawyer Seminar – Apply by 2/4/2019
- UC Santa Cruz receives Mellon Foundation Humanities Grant to Explore Earth Futures