Peder Anker
Professor
pja7@nyu.edu
(212) 998-7389
1 Wash Pl, Room 425
Office Hours
Tuesday 9-12
Wednesday By Appt and 12-2
B.A. Philosophy & Environmental Studies, University of Oslo, 1990
M.A. Philosophy, University of Oslo, 1993
M.A. History of Science, Harvard University, 1998
Ph.D. History of Science, Harvard University, 1999
Professor Peder Anker's teaching and research interests lie in the history of science, ecology, environmentalism and design, as well as environmental philosophy. He has received research fellowships from the Fulbright Program, the Dibner Institute, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and been a visiting scholar at both Columbia University and University of Oslo. With Louise Harpman and Mitchell Joachim, Professor Anker is the co-author of Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned (Prestel, 2014), a showcase of design research as it relates to visionary architecture, landscape architecture, urbanism, and ecological planning. He is the author of From Bauhaus to Ecohouse: A History of Ecological Design (Louisiana State University Press, 2010), which explores the intersection of architecture and ecological science, and Imperial Ecology: Environmental Order of the British Empire, 1895-1945 (Harvard University Press, 2001), which investigates how the promising new science of ecology flourished in the British Empire. Anker’s current book project explores the history of ecological debates in his country of birth, Norway. He received his PhD in history of science from Harvard University in 1999. Links to his articles and up-to-date information about his work are available at http://pederanker.com.
Grants & Fellowships
2020
Peder Anker was awarded an Abu Dhabi Washington Sqaure North Faculty Fellowship for Spring 2020.
Awards & Honors
2019
Peder Anker is the winner of the American Scandinavian Society's Crystal Award for Cultural Achievement.
Performances, Productions, Exhibitions & Releases
2019
Peder Anker and Mitchell Joachim’s research and collaborative work was displayed at the Global Design NYU Berlin exhibition titled Berlin Collapse: Climate, Cities and Culture in Berlin, Germany from July 6-11, 2019.
Books
2017
Mitchell Joachim and Peder Anker's School of the Earth: Gallatin Reimagined 2061 was published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
2017
Peder Anker and Mitchell Joachim's School of the Earth: Gallatin Reimagined 2061 was published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
2014
Peder Anker, Louise Harpman, and Mitchell Joachim's Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned was published by Prestel.
2010
Peder Anker's From Bauhaus to Ecohouse: A History of Ecological Design was published by The Lousiana State University Press.
Teaching and Research Interests
history of science, environmental affairs, ecology, and sustainable design
Recent News
AWARDS AND HONORS
In 2019, Peder Anker was awarded The American Scandinavian Society’s Crystal Award for Cultural Achievement. Anker was the recipient of the Abu Dhabi 19 Washington Square North Faculty Fellowship for the Spring 2020.
EXHIBITIONS
The 2019 COLLAPSE: CLIMATE, CITIES, and CULTURE Exhibition, which was held at NYU Berlin and from June 6-July 11, 2019, focused on the design/artist community’s response to environmental urgency, using architectural models, design prototypes, drawing, and art to frame and advance this vitally important conversation. The exhibition contrasted examples of design from central Europe to show efforts to find solutions for our current state of planetary peril. The practices and projects selected for this exhibition came from different disciplines and operate at multiple scales, in a range of forms--constructed works, materials and systems research, community development, and speculation. These diverse projects were joined by their shared focus on improving the health and well-being of our fragile planet and all of its occupants.
PUBLICATIONS
Anker's book The Power of the Periphery: How Norway Became an Environmental Pioneer for the World is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.
Anker contributed the chapter “Computing Environmental Design” to Computer Architectures: Constructing the Common Ground, 1945-1980, edited by Theodora Vardouli and Olga Touloumi and published by Routledge in 2019.
Anker published the article “A pioneer country? A history of Norwegian climate politics” in the March 2016 issue of Climatic Change.
In February 2016, Peder Anker, Louise Harpman, and Mitchell Joachim, through Global Design NYU, convened ENVISION: Nature and Design, a dialogue between disparate researchers within the Gallatin community, aimed at broadening the horizons on the meanings of Nature and Design.
CONFERENCES
Anker was invited to “A High Mountain Utopia: History of Ecology” held by the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology Conference at the Finse Research Station in Oslo, Norway, from July 7-12, 2019.
Anker was invited to “British Imperialism and the Bauhaus Legacy” held at the Center of Literature at the Burg Hülshoff in Münster, Germany, on February 15, 2019.
Courses
2021 Spring
2020 Spring
Designing for New Climates: Histories of Adaptation
2020 Fall
History of European Environmental Sciences
History of Ecology and Environmentalism
2019 Fall
First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar: History of Ecology and Environmentalism
History of Environmental Sciences Before Darwin
2018 Spring
