Commodity histories have proven to be particularly productive to develop fresh perspectives on the global history of capitalism. While scholars in this field have repeatedly reflected on their subject’s environmental dimension, recent interdisciplinary discussions about the Anthropocene raise the question whether new models need to be developed to avoid replicating the “logic of frictionless production” (Dara Orenstein) inherent in dominant imaginaries of global capitalism. In this workshop, we will probe whether the thinking of the anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the psychoanalyst Félix Guattari could help historians in this endeavour.

Lasse Heerten is currently the interim professor for modern history at the University of Heidelberg in the winter semester 2025/2026. He is an historian specialising in modern and global history, with research interests in imperial, transimperial and (post-)colonial entanglements, the history of port cities, humanitarianism and human rights. In July of 2025 he submitted his habilitation thesis “Water and Stone: Hamburg, its Port, and the River Elbe in the Age of Global Empires" at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

Please register by sending an email to paul.blickle@clutterunibas.ch