This session of the "Forms of Ethnography – Ethnography as Form" group is organised by the AMBER time, and in collaboration with Richard Irvine (University of St Andrews). In it we will discuss Mike Davis's 1996 paper "Cosmic Dancers on History’s Stage? The Permanent Revolution in the Earth Sciences" alongside some emerging research within the earth sciences that discusses the notion of mass extinction.
How can we approach mass extinction from an anthropological perspective? How does this notion shape our understanding of history and time -- and perhaps of our present predicaments?
In addressing these questions, we will also attempt to write mass extinction in an ethnographic way.