The debate about the new Anthropocene era is also shaping the historical sciences. Demands for new methods, new sources and new narratives are dominating the field. Ques- tions about the significance of nature, the expansion of time and the role of the human actor touch the core of historical science’s disciplinary self-image. In order to still have relevant interpretative power under the conditions of the looming climate change, historical science must also change.
The author guides us through the international debate on the Anthropocene, searches for connections and points of reference and suggests developing new narratives of contamination and relation.
Sandra Maß is Professor of Transnational History of the 19th Century at Ruhr Universität Bochum. She completed her doctorate in 2004 at the European University Institute in Florence with a thesis on colonial masculinity in Germany and habilitated at the University of Bielefeld on the history of childhood and capitalism. Her research focuses on the colonial history of Europe, the Anthropocene, and global childhood and family history.
