© Hans Sell

Christoph Rosol

Department Structural Changes of the Technosphere

    • Main Focus

    As a media studies scholar trained in the history of science and technology my interests are intrepedly broad. I am fascinated by the ways in which scientific knowledge is being created on a multiplicity of subjects, ranging from the reconstruction of abrupt paleoclimatic events in deep time to devising future pathways of the Earth system, or from the study of ancient to current assessments of the metabolic regime of the Great Acceleration … in short: much of what the science of geoanthropology is about. How have these particular forms of knowledge evolved over time, what are their epistemic foundations and how can they cross-fertilize to help alleviating the ongoing crisis of the Anthropocene?

    The climate and Earth system sciences are a case in point. In my doctoral thesis I have studied the epistemic origins and technological foundations of (paleo)climate modeling, stable isotope mass spectrometry, and marine geology. These disciplines present key ways of uncovering the dynamic nature and potential trajectory of Anthropocene climate, yet they are deeply grounded in particular technologies of (proxy) data generation and computation that were coming to the fore in the middle of the 20th century—not by coincidence also the pivotal point of the Great Acceleration.

    Before joining the MPIGEA I have been a research scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), Berlin for a number of years. At the MPIWG I led the research cluster Anthropocene Formations, which was instrumental in creating the new institute. Since 2012, and in parallel, I have worked as researcher and curator at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. Being a liaison between both institutions I co-developed and led a variety of transdiciplinary programs and projects, amongst them the Anthropocene Curriculum, a global platform for experimental research and education (www.anthropocene-curriculum.org).


    Latest Publications

    (2024) Ed. with G Rispoli, K Klingan, N Hoffmann-Walbeck: Evidence Ensembles, Leipzig: Spector Books

    (2023) with GN Schäfer, SD Turner, CN Waters, MJ Head, J Zalasiewicz, C Rossée, J Renn, K Klingan, BM Scherer, “Evidence and experiment: Curating contexts of Anthropocene geology.” The Anthropocene Review 10(1): 330–339.

    (2022). “1948.” In Environing Media, ed. A. Wickberg and J. Gärdebo, 75–92. London: Routledge, 75-92.

    (2022) “When the Signal Disappears in the Noise: Geology of a Floating Present.” In Anthropogenic Markers: Stratigraphy and Context, ed. C. Rosol and G. Rispoli. Berlin: MPIWG.

    (2022) with M Rosol (lead author): “Food, Pandemics, and the Anthropocene: On the Necessity of Food and Agriculture Change.” Canadian Food Studies / Le Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation 9 (1): 281–29.

    (2022) with F Creutzig (lead author), D Acemoglu, X Bai, PN Edwards, MJ Hintz, LH Kaack, S Kilkis, S Kunkel, A Luers, N Milojevic-Dupont, D Rejeski, J Renn, D Rolnick, D Russ, T Turnbull, E Verdolini, F Wagner, C Wilson, A Zekar, M Zumwald: “Digitalization and the Anthropocene.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 47: 479-509.


    Curatorial Work

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