Our event summary page includes descriptions of past events hosted by the OHPA. Additionally, recordings are uploaded to YouTube and the links to specific videos can be found on the relevant event page.
Has the Paris Climate Agreement Changed Corporate Behavior?
On November 21th, 2024 the OHPA hosted a lecture by Dr. Jeff Colgan, Richard Holbrooke Professor in the Department of Political Science and Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs at Brown University. His talk “Has the Paris Climate Agreement Changed Corporate Behavior?” analyzes the impact of the Paris Climate Agreement (2015) on corporate decarbonization, focusing on the automotive industry. Dr. Colgan highlighted the role of international treaties in influencing firm behaviors and the challenges in assessing their effectiveness. His study examines 12 major automakers, aiming to determine whether the Paris Agreement motivated resource allocation toward electric vehicles (EVs).
Reforming Europe: Climate Crisis, Human Capital, & the Draghi Report
On 11 November, 2024, OHPA hosted a multidisciplinary discussion to address the complex and interconnected crises facing Europe today, including climate change, energy insecurity, economic stagnation, and geopolitical tensions. The event provided a platform for thought leaders to critique, analyze, and expand on the ideas presented in the Draghi Report, while highlighting their own perspectives.
The Unequal Anthropocene: Power and Resource Exploitation
On October 18th 2024 the OHPA hosted a joint seminar with the CEU International Relations department entitled The Unequal Anthropocene: Power and Resource Exploitation, featuring the OHPA’s post-doctoral researchers Dr. Ayansina Ayanlade and Dr. Johanna Gautier Morin.
Climate Trauma: Part I & Part II
On September 20th, 2024 the OHPA hosted its first interdisciplinary workshop of the academic year on “Climate Trauma”, bringing together scholars from CEU, Zürich University, Ghent University, and Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau. The workshop focused on the political, psychological and cultural aspect of climate trauma. The first panel was held by Prof. Alexander Etkind (Head of OHPA), and Prof. Andreas Maercker (Zürich University).
The Geopolitics of a Finite Earth - Seminar Recap
On September 19th, 2024 the OHPA hosted its first lecture of the new academic year featuring Dr. Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University. The topic of her talk was “The Geopolitics of a Finite Earth: From the Middle East Oil Wars to Mineral-Rich Ukraine” and traced the urgent need for a low-carbon energy transition, the historical significance of fossil fuels in shaping global power dynamics, and the political and economic challenges of shifting from oil to metal dependence in the future decarbonization process.
Reluctant Decarbonization and Militant Petrostates Workshop: Part II - Europe
The OHPA hosted its first workshop entitled “Reluctant Decarbonization and Militant Petrostates” on May 27, 2024. The workshop was divided into three thematic panels: ‘Global’, which you can read here, European and the upcoming Case study panel.
Reluctant Decarbonization and Militant Petrostates Workshop: Part I - Global
The OHPA hosted its first workshop entitled “Reluctant Decarbonization and Militant Petrostates” on May 27, 2024, in which an array of scholars formed interdisciplinary panels to discuss their individual research and how it relates to broader issues of Petroaggression and Decarbonization in international climate politics. The workshop was divided into three thematic panels: Global, European and a Case study panel.
Resilient Futures - Seminar Recap
On May 16th, 2024 the OHPA hosted a lecture by Dr. Orit Halpern, Full Professor and Chair of Digital Cultures at Technische Universität Dresden. The topic of her talk was “Resilient Futures” and traced a history of resilience in ecology, cybernetics, and economics to ask how models of nature as constantly volatile and crisis ridden are shaping technology, habitat, and life in our present and future.
The OHPA was pleased to host a lecture given by Dr. Jeremy Green on his research entailing the economic history of the Great Acceleration, which traces the competing philosophies at play during the Bretton Woods conference, the implementation of the gold standard internationally and its relationship to the Anthropocene in the second half of the twentieth century.
Reshaping the World: Public Preferences between the Polycrisis and the Anthropocene
On March 21st, the OHPA was happy to host Dr. Francisco Nicoli for a lecture on his research concerning Poly-crises and the public’s preferences for international governance. Dr. Nicoli’s work focuses on the interaction between multiple crises happening simultaneously, a “Polycrisis,” and how these circumstances may affect and even exacerbate one another. The subject of the lecture featured how Dr. Nicoli’s research interacted with the climate crisis and the public’s opinion regarding policy on a supranational level, particularly the EU, and what inferences may be drawn relating to the politics of the Anthropocene.
Fossil Fuels, Current Wars, and the Limits of Explanation
On 14 March 2024 the OSUN Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene (OHPA) hosted a conference entitled 'Fossil Fuels, Current Wars, and the Limits of Explanation’ at Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, Austria. The event was organized by Aleh Cherp (Environmental Sciences, CEU) and Alexander Etkind (International Relations, CEU), with Sergey Vakulenko (nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center) as the keynote speaker.
Populism and the Politics of Energy Transition - Seminar Recap
The OHPA seminar with Dr. Kacper Szuleckion the topic of Populism and the Politics of Energy Transition. What is populism and how does it relate to climate policies? Explore how populist politicians are influencing the climate agenda, what to expect from them and how to counter climate denialism.
What has changed? Society-nature relations in the Anthropocene - Seminar Recap
Here you can see our Joint seminar hosted by OHPA and CEU's department of Enviornmental Science and Policy with Dr. Anke Schaffartzik, assistant professor at the department. Dr. Schaffartzik’s enlightening talk featured conceptualizing how we as homo-sapiens have developed and changed our interaction with the natural world throughout our evolutionary development.
The OHPA’s inaugural seminar was held on the 25th of January, 2024 and moderated by Dr. Thomas Fetzer, head of the department of International Relations at CEU. Dr. Alexander Etkind, the director of the OHPA, gave a talk about his research into “Petroaggression,” which refers to the link between a state’s hydrocarbon exportation and its militaristic ambitions.