David Anderson, professor in the UT Department of Anthropology, will present “Climate Change and Human Culture: Saving the past and present for the future” Friday, February 5 via Zoom.

Climate change is erasing the record of past as well as present human culture at an alarming rate. Major interrelated challenges facing those responsible for saving our shared cultural heritage include determining what will be lost and deciding what will be saved; and developing diverse and cumulative approaches in response.

In his presentation, Professor Anderson will discuss the collaboration and the parties developing a cumulative approach to the response needed in order to preserve our cultural history. He will share a wide array of the cultural and research considerations and designs for the appropriate fieldwork and analysis efforts. Anderson will discuss how researchers make sure what is saved is maintained for the long term, and that the results at every stage of the process are publicly reported and widely shared. Finally, he will discuss a flexible and changing approach emphasizing long-term solutions that maximize what can be saved is what is needed, rather than short-term and limited responses focusing on a few areas or items.