CLCS 331 Narrative Ecologies: The Uses of Environmental Humanities
This course explores the central role of storytelling in the way cultural sustainability and environmental challenges are conceptualized, represented, understood and acted upon. How is our understanding of issues such as the relationship between humans and earth, of emerging "green" technologies, and of precepts of social justice conditioned by the way authors, filmmakers and activists have imagined them? How do narratives we consume in literature, film and the broader culture in turn influence our own actions? What are the ethical and political stakes of these stories in the large questions animating debates around climate change, social justice and the environment?
The class engages with ways in which the environmental humanities movement deploys humanities, specifically storytelling, as a tool to tackle the most urgent environmental challenges we face today. Students will be asked not only to be alert and critical readers of texts on climate change, the environment and sustainability, but also to be creative producers of stories and projects that re-imagine solutions to environmental problems and social justice issues to help shape more future-friendly practices.