INTRODUCTION TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES

Credit Hours: 3 · Graduate

This seminar explores the “environmental humanities,” a wide range of approaches to the cultural, social, historical, and aesthetic dimensions of pressing ecological questions. Topics may include studies of plants, animals, and other creatures; biodiversity and extinction; energy humanities; environmental justice and environmental racism; climate and environmental histories; theories and philosophies of disaster; waste, toxicity, pollution; marine or blue humanities; religion and ecology; and many others. We will consider representative recent publications in the field as well as the research of scholars working here at Rice and far beyond. We will consider how to write about the environmental humanities, from scholarly publications in a range of fields to forms of public-facing writing on the subject. We’ll consider strategies for teaching of the environmental humanities, from individual assignments to the design of courses in the home disciplines of the participants. Coursework will include opportunities through the Center for Environmental Studies, the Environmental Studies minor (ENST), and the Mellon Foundation funded Diluvial Houston project at the Humanities Research Center. These opportunities may include: observing classes in the ENST minor; working on Cultures of Energy, a public facing platform for writing and activity about energy and the environment; and spring events at the Center for Environmental Studies, including a symposium.