Purdy leads multidisciplinary project on humanity’s place in Anthropocene with Divinity’s Wirzba
Prof. Jedediah Purdy
Jedediah Purdy, the Robinson O. Everett Professor of Law, is leading a multidisciplinary project titled “Rethinking Humanity’s Place in an Anthropocene World” at Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics, along with Norman Wirzba, professor of theology, ecology, and agrarian studies at Duke Divinity School and a Kenan Institute senior fellow.
The project, funded by a four-year grant of $550,000 from the Henry Luce Foundation, seeks to transform and redirect academic disciplines so they can better prepare communities to meet the health, sustainability, and justice challenges of the Anthropocene, the current geological age in which human activity has been the dominant influence on Earth’s geology and ecosystems. Questions of theology and law are intended to provide a dual orienting focus while drawing in perspectives from a wide range of other disciplines. The project includes an intensive multidisciplinary working group in which scholars are engaging with the topic through conversation, monographs, and essays; a university-wide graduate seminar taught by Purdy and Wirzba on the project’s themes; public lectures and panel discussions; and research projects for graduate students.
Purdy’s scholarship and teaching focus on constitutional, environmental, and property law, as well as legal theory. He also writes on issues at the intersection of law and social and political thought. His most recent book is After Nature: A Politics for the Anthropocene (Harvard University Press, 2015).
Listen: Professors Purdy and Wirzba discuss their project
Read: A conversation between Professor Purdy and Wirzba on reimagining nature