Environmental Humanities Colloquium: “A Woman of Many Masks”

Iain McCalman, professor emeritus of history at the University of Sydney, will present, “A Woman of Many Masks: Alice Sheldon as Climate-Fiction Pioneer and Anthropocene Prophet,” at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, in East Pyne, Room 111.

McCalman will examine the work of Sheldon, who wrote popular science fiction under the name James Tiptree Jr. for a decade before her identity was revealed. Sheldon was fiercely anti-patriarchal as Tiptree, a big-game hunter and CIA operative who often wrote of women inheriting a decimated planet. McCalman will reframe Sheldon’s work as equally deserving of recognition as a passionate and pioneering oeuvre of science-fiction environmentalism that depicted disastrous climate scenarios long before they became fixtures of public discourse.

McCalman is the third speaker in the Fall 2019 Environmental Humanities Colloquium sponsored by the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI). Additional speakers and dates in this series are:

Sept. 25

“Once Upon a Tomorrow”
Meera Subramanian, Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities, Princeton University

Oct. 16

“Humans as Acquired Taste: Thoughts on the History of an Idea”
Jacob Dlamini, Assistant Professor of History, Princeton University

Dec. 4

“Salvage: Experiment, Engagement and the Environmental Humanities”
Allison Carruth, Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies, Princeton University; Associate Professor of English, University of California-Los Angeles

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Environmental Humanities Colloquium: “A Woman of Many Masks”

Event Date

Wed, Nov 13, 2019 ・ 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM

Location

East Pyne, Room 111

Category

Department

Iain McCalman, professor emeritus of history at the University of Sydney, will present, “A Woman of Many Masks: Alice Sheldon as Climate-Fiction Pioneer and Anthropocene Prophet,” at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, in East Pyne, Room 111.

McCalman will examine the work of Sheldon, who wrote popular science fiction under the name James Tiptree Jr. for a decade before her identity was revealed. Sheldon was fiercely anti-patriarchal as Tiptree, a big-game hunter and CIA operative who often wrote of women inheriting a decimated planet. McCalman will reframe Sheldon’s work as equally deserving of recognition as a passionate and pioneering oeuvre of science-fiction environmentalism that depicted disastrous climate scenarios long before they became fixtures of public discourse.

McCalman is the third speaker in the Fall 2019 Environmental Humanities Colloquium sponsored by the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI). Additional speakers and dates in this series are:

Sept. 25

“Once Upon a Tomorrow”
Meera Subramanian, Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities, Princeton University

Oct. 16

“Humans as Acquired Taste: Thoughts on the History of an Idea”
Jacob Dlamini, Assistant Professor of History, Princeton University

Dec. 4

“Salvage: Experiment, Engagement and the Environmental Humanities”
Allison Carruth, Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies, Princeton University; Associate Professor of English, University of California-Los Angeles