The History of Philosophy group cordially invites you to an upcoming talk by Prof. Deborah Coen (Yale) on Wed. 1 June, 16.00-18.00. The meeting will be held online. To register and receive the link to this event, please email c.cecconi@uu.nl before the 31^st of May. Title: "Degrees of Vulnerability: Towards a Feminist History of Climate Science" Abstract: The science and politics of climate change hinge on a concept that fits awkwardly into the usual vocabulary of physical scientists: vulnerability. In 1979, the World Climate Conference seized on vulnerability as an organizing concept, and in 1992 the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) committed wealthy countries “to assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in meeting costs of adaptation to those adverse effects.” Yet there is little agreement over how to measure vulnerability to climate change. This presentation will ask: why have scientists and policy-makers believed vulnerability to be measurable in the first place? The answer to this question lies, most immediately, in the science and politics of development in the era of decolonization. But it also reflects a deeper historical pattern that has shaped scientific interactions with the atmosphere since roughly 1750. Any attempt to forge a concept of climatic vulnerability better suited to the goal of climate justice must include attention to the ways in which the modern imperative to manage risk has constrained human relationships with meteorological instruments. More on Prof. Coen: https://hshm.yale.edu/people/deborah-coen