Anyone alive today is among a tiny fraction of the once living: over 90% of species that ever existed are now extinct. How did we come to think of ourselves as survivors in a world where species can vanish forever, or as capable of pushing our planet to the verge of a sixth mass extinction? Join us for an event exploring these questions with David Olusoga in conversation with Sadiah Qureshi to mark the launch of her new book Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction published by Allen Lane/Penguin Press.
Extinction, is a surprisingly modern concept and far more than a scientific idea. In Europe until the late eighteenth century, species were considered perfect and unchanging creations of God. Then in the age of revolutions, scientists gathered enough fossil evidence to determine that mammoth bones, for example, were not just large elephants but a lost species that once roamed the Earth alongside ancient humans. Extinction went from being regarded as theologically dangerous to pervasive, and even inevitable. Europeans and Americans quickly used the notion that animal extinction was a natural process to justify forced migration, persecution and genocide, predicting that Indigenous nations from Newfoundland’s Beothuk to Aboriginal Australians were doomed to die out from imperial expansion.
Exploring the tangled and unnatural histories of extinction and empire, this event will discuss how extinction is a political choice that has led to devasting consequences. It will explore how histories of extinction offer important lessons for illuminating our past and choosing a better future.
David Olusoga is a British author, historian, presenter and BAFTA-winning film-maker. He is Professor of Public History at The University of Manchester. He specialises in the British Empire and how we experience its lasting effects in modern society. David has presented historical television programmes on the BBC. His television credits include Civilisations, Black and British, Our NHS: A Hidden History, A House Through Time and the BAFTA award-winning Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners.
Sadiah Qureshi is Professor of Modern British History at the University of Manchester. She is a prize-winning historian of science, race, and empire. Her research explores how the very notion of extinction emerged, and shaped our understanding of life on earth, genocide, and empire within the Anthropocene. She has written for the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and New Statesman. She cannot bear the thought of living in a world without birdsong, trees or tigers.
This event forms part of the CIDRAL series of events linked to Im/mobilities.
It is supported by Modern British History and Race, the Roots and Resistance Collective, and the Department of History.
Those who wish to attend should sign up using the following Eventbrite link:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sadiah-qureshi-in-conversation-with-david-olusoga-about-extinction-tickets-1319872998669?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl
