A Monument to All Species

NYUAD Institute

November 18, 2020 Monuments commemorate moments or figures of public victory or sorrow. Some protect significant lands or mark noteworthy geographic features. Most have historically tended to foreground the human species and to avoid sticky subjects and non-dominant histories, including the histories of other species. This panel explores multispecies monuments to the Anthropocene, to the techno-human’s capacity to alter the earth at a geological scale, by starting with a modest example: Habitat Compensation Island, a small artificial island in Abu Dhabi that was carefully created from marine dredge, and intended to be both a nature preserve for marine species harmed in the process of dredging itself as well as a pedagogical and outreach tool. Speakers Bronislaw Szerszynski, Professor of Sociology, Lancaster University