© UNESCO
Climate Change

The conference will serve as an occasion to supplement ongoing work of the UNESCO Programme on Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation, while also examining the discursive, representational, and concrete implications of the disaster imaginary, disaster prevention, the disaster itself, and post-disaster reconstruction.

With a view to further developing this framework and creating a methodology for reflection and practice that can adequately confront the contemporary stakes of the disaster, the conference aspires to bring scholarly and scientific expertise to bear on UNESCO’s programs and its cross-cutting approach to disaster prevention and response.

In addition, the conference will provide a vital forum wherein social scientists, ethicists, anthropologists, and disaster scientists can collectively reflect on the past, present, and future of the disaster culture and disaster policy.

In hopes of developing not only the burgeoning discipline of Disaster Studies, but also new modalities of epistemological and physical “preparedness,” the conference hopes to fill in lacunae and chart new directions that surpass the hitherto all too technical engagement of the disaster.