COML 4902 - Environmental Humanities: Theories and Methods

(crosslisted) STS 4902
(GB) (ALC-AS, CA-AS) (EC-SAP)

Spring. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with COML 6902/STS 6902.

A. Banerjee.

The environmental humanities pose a radically different set of questions to texts, materials, and contexts that were previously approached in terms of human intentions and actions alone. This seminar explores the theoretical and methodological potentials of this rapidly emerging and constantly evolving field from the interdisciplinary, comparative perspective that it also axiomatically demands. Together we will discuss seminal works that tackle four foundational concepts imperative for reframing the traditional concerns of the humanities under the sign of anthropogenic planetary change – scale, form, matter/ energy, and distribution. The seminar will develop ways to configure these focal points to the theoretical and practical concerns of various disciplinary approaches and, especially, to participants’ individual interests and research projects.