The Australian National University’s Centre for Environmental History invites you to the Third Biennial Robin-Griffiths Lecture in Environmental History, to be delivered by Dipesh Chakrabarty, the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History and South Asian Languages and Civilisations at the University of Chicago and Honorary Professor at the School of History in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at ANU. The lecture will be held in the auditorium of the ANU’s RSSS Building on 22 October 2026. A reception will be held 5:30-6:30pm, followed by the lecture from 6:30-8:00pm.

Delivered biennially, the Robin-Griffiths Lecture in Environmental History honours the Centre’s founders and AANZEHN members Emeritus Professors Libby Robin and Tom Griffiths. In this lecture, which coincides with the 80th anniversary celebrations of the ANU, Professor Chakrabarty (PhD ’84) will build on the distinction that earth-system science allows us to make between “the globe” and “the planet” to argue for a secular, non-religious basis for a renewed spiritual sense of reverence for the planet. Without such a shared sense of reverence, whether sourced from religious ideas or scientific ones, it will be difficult for humanity to deal with planetary environmental problems while also striving for world peace.

For more information, or to register your attendance, see here.