Join us for the launch of Forecasts: A Story of Weather and Finance at the Edge of Disaster, by Caroline E. Schuster, illustrated by Enrique Bernardou and David Bueno, published by University of Toronto Press.

Wednesday 1 November, 5:00 - 6:00pm

ANU Classics Museum, A.D. Hope Building (Bld #14), Ellery Cres, ACTON 2601

Keynote speakers:

Distinguished Prof Genevieve Bell, School of Cybernetics ANU

HE Armando Fernández Galté, Head of Mission - Chargé d’Affaires of Paraguay in Australia

Refreshments provided Registrations are essential

Forecasts: A Story of Weather and Finance at the Edge of Disaster
Based in the agrarian world of commercial sesame farming in northern Paraguay, Forecasts tells a story about what happens when global insurance companies promise financial safety nets to local farmers struggling with the effects of climate change. This striking graphic novel brings together original ethnographic research and Paraguayan gothic art to confront the
limitations of finance to respond to a deteriorating environment.

Taking a human-centered approach to complex weather and financial models, Forecasts offers new ways of looking at overlapping speculative futures in a more-than-human landscape. Based on more than a year of fieldwork in Paraguay, the book follows one man's possible journeys through a season of planting and harvesting, buffeted by losses and sustained by the hope that he can cultivate conditions that will help his family thrive. Forecasts makes a sweeping account of environmental and financial risk accessible through the intimate story of one family's triumphs, heartbreaks, and hopes for the future.

The graphic novel is followed by appendices that provide historical, anthropological, and methodological insights, as well as classroom guides, exercises, and questions that make this book ideal for teaching.

About the authors:

Caroline E. Schuster is an associate professor in the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology
Enrique Bernardou is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Paraguay
David Bueno is a graphic designer based in Paraguay.