Conference Report: H. G. Wells and the Anthropocene: Time, Earth, and Us

H. G. Wells and the Anthropocene: Time, Earth, and Us (University of Siedlce, Poland), 21 September 2024

On 21 September 2024, the H. G. Wells Society held its international conference ‘H. G. Wells and the Anthropocene: Time, Earth, and Us’. Organized by Dr Maxim Shadurski of the University of Siedlce (Poland), the event took place at Voluntary Action Islington in London and brought together delegates from eight countries: the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Austria, Poland, India, and the Philippines. During the day, 17 papers were presented, including plenary talks by David Shackleton of the University of Cardiff (UK) and Gregory Claeys of Royal Holloway University of London (UK). Discussions focused on the relevance of Wells’s legacy in twenty-first-century contexts, analysing issues such as deep time and history, anthropocentrism, posthuman geology, the fate of Earth and its inhabitants, coevolution, degradation and symbiosis of humans and nonhumans, as well as the harmful impacts of extractivism on climate, life, and matter.