The last 5 years have seen a revival of concern with “existential risks,” defined variously as risks of mass death, extinction, and/or the destruction of modern civilization. Beyond definitional concerns lie realities.

At present, three risks seem both salient and interrelated. Unstable states and leaders hold thousands of nuclear weapons among them. The boundaries of planetary support for human life are being breached, from microplastics to climate change and biospheric integrity. Authoritarian regimes – many of them hostile to environmental regulation and international law, as well as abusive of democratic governance practices  – have overtaken major world powers. Digital information systems have both reduced and amplified particular risks.

This workshop will take stock of how present realities are remaking the landscape of existential risk concerns. How can scholars, academics, and other intellectuals most effectively confront existential risks – as teachers, as writers, as mentors, and as citizens?