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2025 Humanities Symposium: Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor

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Keynote Address
by Amitav Ghosh

Thursday, March 13, 2025 at 6:30 p.m.
McGuire Hall

In The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, a work of non-fiction, acclaimed novelist Amitav Ghosh explores the climate crisis through multiple disciplinary lenses. In three short chapters: Stories, History, and Politics, which also address art, colonialism, and Laudato Si among other topics, Ghosh interweaves reflections on how we are constrained by our current modes of thinking and how we might find a way forward. 

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria. Amitav Ghosh’s work has been translated into more than thirty languages and he has served on the juries of the Locarno and Venice film festivals. The Great Derangement was given the inaugural Utah Award for the Environmental Humanities in 2018. His essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic and The New York Times.  Amitav Ghosh holds four Lifetime Achievement awards and five honorary doctorates. In 2007 he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest honors, by the President of India. In 2010 he was a joint winner, along with Margaret Atwood, of a Dan David prize, and 2011 he was awarded the Grand Prix of the Blue Metropolis festival in Montreal. In 2018 the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary honor, was conferred on Amitav Ghosh. He was the first English-language writer to receive the award. In 2019 Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the preceding decade. In 2024, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize by the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation. Headshot credit: Mathieu Genon.

This event will be captioned. If you require additional accommodations, please contact Disability and Accessibility Services at das@loyola.edu.

Faculty Teaching Seminar 

Faculty members are invited to attend this year's Humanities Symposium Fall Teaching seminar on Wednesday November 13 from 12:00 to 1:00 PM in College Center Conference Room 105. This seminar will provide information about the Humanities Student-Faculty Colloquia and will also offer suggestions and resources for teaching this year's text.

Faculty from three different departments will share ideas about how to incorporate this text into your spring courses. This fall's seminar will feature:  
Terre Ryan (Writing) 
Suzanne Keilson (Engineering) 
Mark Sentesy Wagner (Philosophy) 

Lunch will be provided.
Please RSVP to Bess Garrett, esgarrett@loyola.edu by November 1. Please let us know any food restrictions.

Student-Faculty Colloquia

Wednesday, March 12 and Thursday, March 13, 2025
McManus Theatre

Faculty from all disciplines are invited to bring their classes to our student-faculty colloquia March 12 and March 13.

For more information about the 2025 Humanities Symposium events, please email Billy Friebele, associate professor of Visual and Performing Arts, at wefriebele@loyola.edu

 

Event Information

Theme: Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor

Keynote Address: 
Thursday, March 13, 2025
McGuire Hall
6:30 p.m.

Text: The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh

Questions? Please contact Billy Friebele, Associate professor, Visual and Performing Arts 
wefriebele@loyola.edu