Rescheduled from its original date due to weather. This 2019-20 University Scholar talk takes its impetus from two trends unfolding around us: the ongoing 'digitalization' of everyday life, as digital images, digital media, and digital data systems become increasingly intertwined within the management of human lives, desires, identities, and governance systems; and the growing recognition of an impending 'climate emergency,' wherein ever larger populations of humans (and nonhumans) become subject to the instabilities brought about by climatic and ecological destabilization. What, if anything, might a linked analysis of these two trends contribute to understanding each of them? Drawing from the author's work on image ontologies and changing media systems, and his research on the environmental and cultural politics of disasters (including the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident), the talk will speculate on the possibilities for hope amidst the foreseeable suffering of the coming decades. Memorial Lounge (Room 338), Waterman Building, University of Vermont. Further info here.