SiP Talk #10

Insects: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Complex Interactions

Fire ants. Houseflies. Dragonflies. Cuckoo wasps. Rock bees. A death’s-head moths. Mosquitos. Rhinoceros beetles. Praying mantes. Pollinators, pests, disease vectors, decomposers, laboratory animals, objects of scientific attention, experimentation, and intervention. These tiny creatures are only a small portion of the overwhelming existence of insects. Their world accounts for a large proportion of all biodiversity on the planet, and insects are protagonists in forging many fundamental conditions for humans. Yet some are at risk of extinction due to radical anthropogenic interventions in ecosystems, like global warming and chemical pesticides. Others are fiercely and, more often than not, futilely flighted because of the diseases they transmit to humans. Urban light systems have been in the spotlight lately as part of political campaigns against light pollution affecting insect behavior. Insects are complex biological agents, and their research has evolved expansively over the past century. Insects are also important historical actors, despite the fact that scholars in humanities and social sciences have only recently started to study them seriously. Interactions between insects and humans date back millennia, yet many questions about them are still open. Such inter-species encounters require interdisciplinary approaches to address the paradox of sizes, scales and ecological functionality. This panel seeks to explore the complexity of these interactions between these tiny creatures called “insects” and world-encompassing imperial, political and economic structures to contribute to recent debates on planetary history and the interdisciplinary study of the environment.

Wednesday, 27. November 2024, 18:15

ETH Zurich, RZ F21 (Clausiusstrasse 59, 8092 Zurich)
 

Panel Discussion with

Prof. Dr. Jessica Wang
Department of History and Geography, University of British Columbia

Prof. Dr. Marcus Hall
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich

Dr. Georgia C. Drew
Collegium Helveticum ETH Zürich, and Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

Moderation

Dr. Tomás Bartoletti
Senior Lecturer and SNSF-Ambizione Principal Investigator at the Chair for History of the Modern World,
Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, ETH Zurich