Michael Schnegg awarded in New Orleans

3. Dezember 2025, von Christina Fastner

Collective loneliness: Michael Schnegg studies climate emotions.

Photo: Michael Schnegg

At this year's annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in New Orleans, Professor Michael Schnegg received the Stirling Prize for his article "Collective Loneliness." This award recognizes the outstanding significance of the article for psychological anthropology. 

Outstanding publication: Michael Schnegg (center) receives Stirling Award in New Orleans;
Photo: Bridget Haas

The winning article explores how people in rural Namibia experience climate change emotionally. To achieve this, Schnegg adopts a phenomenological approach, locating emotions not 'between the ears', but as atmospheres that emerge between human and non-human bodies, transcending them simultaneously. According to this perspective, people resonate with these atmospheres, and it is this resonance that gives rise to their feelings. If these landscape constellations change as a result of climate change, their atmospheres also change, ultimately leading to certain feelings – in this case, collective loneliness.

The article forms the theoretical basis for Schnegg's research project within the CLICCS Cluster of Excellence at the University of Hamburg. In the project, he is working with Prof. Simone Rödder and Prof. Frank Steinicke to investigate how people react emotionally to climate change.
 

Publication

Schnegg M (2025): Collective Loneliness: Theorizing Emotions as Atmospheres. Current Anthropology. 66 (2) DOI 10.1086/734796

More about the Stirling Award.