The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java
In this talk, Adam Bobbette introduces his book The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java (Duke University Press, 2023), which tells the story of how modern theories of the earth emerged from the slopes of Indonesia’s volcanoes as a fusion of Western and non-Western cosmology, theology, anthropology, and geology.
This talk takes place in the IIAS conference room from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (not online).
Everyone is welcome to attend. We kindly ask you to register, as seating is limited.
The Book Talk
In The Pulse of the Earth, Adam Bobbette follows Javanese knowledge traditions, colonial geologists, volcanologists, mystics, Theosophists, orientalists, and revolutionaries to show how the earth sciences originate from a fusion of Western and non-Western cosmology, theology, anthropology, and geology. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and fieldwork at Javanese volcanoes and in scientific observatories, he explores how Indonesian Islam shaped the theory of plate tectonics, how Dutch colonial volcanologists learned to see the earth in new ways from Javanese spiritual traditions, and how new scientific technologies radically recast notions of the human body, distance, and the earth.
The book decenters the significance of Western scientists to expand our understanding of the evolution of planetary thought and rethinks the politics of geological knowledge.
The Speaker (author)
Adam Bobbette is a Lecturer in Political Geology at the University of Glasgow, School of Geographical and Earth Sciences. His co-edited books include New Earth Histories: Geo-cosmologies and the Making of the Modern World (Chicago, 2023) and Political Geology: Active Stratigraphies and the Making of Life (Palgrave, 2018).
Registration (required)
Everyone is welcome to attend. Please use the web form on this page to register so that we may know how many people to expect, as seating is limited.