Religious studies scholars, including IU professor Lisa Sideris, will receive $141,215 over three years for a project that will bring humanities perspectives to climate change and other issues of human-environment interaction.
The project, “Being Human in the Age of Humans: Perspectives From Religion and Ethics,” is researching what it means to be human in an age where human influence has become the dominant force on environmental issues according to an IU press release.
Sideris is an associate professor of religious studies in the IU College of Arts and Sciences.
“We argue that scholarship in mythic and religious genres will contribute to deeper understanding of the Anthropocene, including humanity’s role in interacting with and shaping the natural world,” Sideris said in the release.
Funding comes from Humanities Without Walls, a university consortium that encourages research in the humanities.
The project establishes a collaboration by scholars at IU, University of Chicago, Michigan State University and University of Notre Dame.
The project features three main areas: alternative Anthropocene narratives, understanding the implicit religiosity of Anthropocene narratives and frameworks and Incorporating local or native world views.
Cody Thompson
