“Slow disasters” are events whose damage and disruption results from factors developed over a long time, such as climate change, environmental degradation, desertification or wildfires caused by engineered planning of spaces and government policies. Scott Knowles will address the topic of risk, governance, vulnerability and resilience in relation to slow disasters and will reflect on how the Anthropocene — with their specific socio-cultural, spatial, temporal, and environmental topologies — can help us conceptualize and perceive tools for tackling this subject.

Professor and historian of modern cities, technology and public policy, with a particular focus on risk and disaster, Knowles is also research fellow of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. Author of The Disaster Experts: Mastering Risk in Modern America and co-author of a volume on the Fukushima disasters. With Amy Slaton and Tiago Saraiva, he hosted the Anthropocene Campus Philadelphia at Drexel University (2017).