Environmental Humanities
The Environmental Humanities Module
The environmental humanities module in the Liberal Arts Programme seeks to bring together cultural, historical, social, and scientific dimensions of ecological thought. Environmental humanities is a relatively new but rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field that combines humanistic perspectives and methods to explore the ways in which the biophysical world has influenced the course of human history and the ways in which people have thought about their natural surroundings.
Key themes and schools of thoughts are discussed in four core courses:
- History of Environment and Environmental Humanities - this course aims to give a comprehensive overview over the history, development and ongoing discussions within environmental humanities and environmental history. In the seminars the similarities and differences between environmental history and environmental humanities are discussed.
- Environmental anthropology - this course aims to introduce the most important theoretical approaches and practical applications of the study of environmental anthropology. It considers some of the main cultural and social aspects of the human-environment interaction. This course is a must-attend for anyone interested in the roots of today’s environmental crisis and possible solutions to it.
- Special Course on Environmental Humanities - the purpose of the course is getting acquainted with some theories in the present-day environmental humanities, with a stress on ecocriticism and employing these methodological instruments in analysing various literary texts as well as audiovisual media (such as films), from the point of view of the intersection of culture and the environment.
- Landscape Studies and Cultural Geography - the aim of the course is to offer research tools to examine the living environment by integrating nature and culture from the perspective of human geography. The course gives an overview of the fields of landscape studies and cultural geography with integrating their developments to the progress in cultural and social theories.
Contact us
Joonas Plaan, Lecturer of Social and Cultural Anthropology