“Palissy Technofossil”

About the Lecture:

Ten years ago, geologist Jan Zalasiewicz introduced the term “technofossil” to designate the civilizational byproducts of human presence on earth, from silex tools to plastic bags and the islands of glass and concrete we call cities. This talk offers a reflection on what the neologism means to early modern studies, with a specific focus on a chimeric architectural project designed by French polymath Bernard Palissy (1510-1589).

About the Speaker:

Vincent Bruyere is Associate Professor of French and a faculty affiliate in the Center for the Study of Human Health at Emory University in Atlanta, USA. He is the author of La Différence Francophone (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2012), Perishability Fatigue: Forays into Environmental Loss and Decay (Columbia University Press, 2018), and Environmental Humanities on the Brink: The Vanitas Hypothesis (Stanford University Press, 2023). In 2023-24, he was a research fellow at the Center for Apocalyptic and Post-apocalyptic Studies in Heidelberg, Germany.