idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
This interdisciplinary event will bring together scholars, researchers, and practitioners to explore public communication strategies that integrate the planetary scale of water studies while maintaining a focus on human-water relationships at the local level. The intertwined crises of climate change and biodiversity loss urge us to incorporate a planetary perspective into our thinking and actions more than ever before. The conference “Planetary Waters” addresses this challenge by examining water in its many forms—oceans, seas, inland waters, and wetlands—through interdisciplinary dialogues that balance abstraction with empathy.
Key questions include: How can the complex effects of climate change on the hydrosphere be made accessible to diverse audiences? Can the humanities and museum exhibitions integrate a planetary perspective while conveying local dimensions in an engaging and empathetic manner? What role can visualization techniques play in this process? The conference brings together scholars, science communicators, curators, and artists drawing on Blue Humanities to explore human-water relationships while advancing three central goals: deepening the planetary dimension in the humanities, fostering interdisciplinary approaches to water studies, and developing innovative public communication strategies. Bremerhaven, with its strong maritime heritage, provides an ideal setting for these discussions. Hosted at the German Maritime Museum/Leibniz Institute of Maritime History (DSM) in the Bremerhaven Havenwelten, the conference seeks to illuminate the vital connections between people and water.
For questions, please contact one of the organizers, Dr. Katrin Kleemann (DSM), Dr. Noemi Quagliati (University Ca' Foscari, Venice), Dr. Fabienne Will (Deutsches Museum, Munich).
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
October 22
13:30-13:40 Welcome, Ruth Schilling (Scientific Director DSM, Bremerhaven)
13:40-14:00 Introduction, Katrin Kleemann, Noemi Quagliati, Fabienne Will
14.00-15.30 Conceptualizing and Narrating Human-Water Relations in Times of Disaster
Chair: Anja Binkofski (DSM, Bremerhaven)
Anna Barcz (Polish Academy of Sciences), Major Danube Floods in the 19th Century Europe: The Phenomenon of Travelogues
Victoria Mummelthei (FU Berlin), Drowned Cities, Sunken Empires: Submerged Memory and Environmental Justice in Dishonored and Bioshock Infinite
Silja Klepp (Kiel University), The Politics of Coastal Erosion in Sicily: Concrete Infrastructures and the Economy of Disaster
Miles Powell & Dolly Jørgensen (RCC Munich, University of Stavanger), White Bears, Blank Spaces: How Polar Bear Imagery Eroded Regional Specificity in Climate Change Discourses
15:30-16:00
Coffee Break
16.00-17.30 Planetary Crisis and Underwater Heritage
Chair: Brooke Grasberger (DSM, Bremerhaven)
Jamie Allen et al. (Critical Media Lab Basel), Sunk Costs
Tülin Fidan & Sven Bergmann (DSM Bremerhaven), Learning to See Through the Deep: Visualizing the Legacy of Dumped Munitions
Anthea Oestreicher (Zurich University of Arts), Breathing Inverted Spaces: Exchanges in Plankton-Human Relations
Judith Riemer (Deutsche Fotothek Dresden), Under Water: Strategies of Eco-critical Visualisation in Artists' Photo Books
17:30-16:00
Coffee Break
18.00-19.00 Keynote
Elda Miramontes (MARUM, University of Bremen), Plastic Pollution from the Coast to the Deep Sea
19:00 Public Reception
October 23
9.00-11.00 Workshop
Christian Schwägerl (RiffReporter), Lessons from Wetlands Journalism Projects
Sonia Levy (Royal College of Art, London), Extractive Epistemologies of the Sea: A Discursive Workshop
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11.30-13.00 Consuming Waters: Global (Hi)Stories Between Extractivism and Activism Chair: Solomon Sebuliba (DSM, Bremerhaven and University of the Balearic Islands)
Eike-Christian Heine & Agathe Four-Moret (University of Stavanger, Nantes University), From Sea as Resource to Climate Afterthought: Reframing Environmental History in Stavanger's Petroleum Museum
Julia Schade (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), “Don’t extract it, don’t consume it.” Liquid Ecologies and Water Activism in Latin American Visual Performance Arts
Stephen Okpadah (University of Warwick), Indigenous Performativity and Hydro-Justice in the Global South
13:00-14:30
Lunch
14.30-16.00 Linking Abstraction and Empathy: Exploring Waters through Arts and Sciences Chair: Renée Hoogland (DSM, Bremerhaven and University of Southampton)
Lesley Pleasant (University of Evansville), Scaling Water Perspectives
Katharine Anderson (York University, Toronto), Atlantic Elements
Inka Koch & Angharad Dean (University of Tübingen), Into the Wild: Fragile Alpine Water and Biodiversity Through Lenses of Art & Science in a Transdisciplinary University Course
Fantina Madricardo et al. (Institute for Marine Sciences Venice), Re-Connecting to the Venice Lagoon Natural and Cultural Heritage Through Science and Art
16:00-16:30
Coffee Break
16:30-17:30
Museum Tour
18:30
Dinner (Servus Bremerhaven, Theodor-Heuss-Platz 1-3, 27568 Bremerhaven)
October 24
9:00-10:00
Keynote
Anne Hemkendreis (University of Stavanger), Acoustic Empathy: Experiencing Loss in the Submarine
10.00-11.30 Curating Waters — Problems, Potentials, Perspectives
Chair: Amandine Colson (DSM, Bremerhaven)
Elis Jones (TU Munich), Ocean Health and Ocean Metabolism: Dangers and Opportunities
Regine Ehleiter (Witten/Herdecke University), Curating Planetarity: Tidal Poetics, Global Infrastructures
Claudia Garradas & Alice Semedo (University of Porto), The Memory of Water: Curating Absence and Empathy in Maritime Museums
11:30-12:00 Coffee Break
12.00-13.30 Final Discussion and Conclusion
Information on participating / attending:
Date:
10/22/2025 10:00 - 10/24/2025 15:00
Event venue:
Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum · German Maritime Museum
Leibniz-Institut für Maritime Geschichte · Leibniz Institute for Maritime History
Hans-Scharoun-Platz 1
27568 Bremerhaven
Bremen
Germany
Target group:
Scientists and scholars
Email address:
Relevance:
international
Subject areas:
Environment / ecology
Types of events:
Conference / symposium / (annual) conference
Entry:
09/19/2025
Sender/author:
Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum (DSM) / Leibniz-Institut für Maritime Geschichte
Department:
Kommunikation
Event is free:
no
Language of the text:
German
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event80105
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