Learning Pathways - Environmental Humanities
Description
This pathway encourages students to engage with humanity’s lived experience with the natural world by taking courses in history, literature, and philosophy. The environmental humanities emphasize human perceptions, representations, and valuations of nature; our historical interactions with the environment; ethical attitudes toward the earth and its creatures; the study of environmental science and technology as human activities; and many other dimensions of nature-culture relations.
Faculty
Gregory T. Cushman, History — Lead Faculty Member, Environmental Humanities
Santa Arias, Spanish & Portuguese
Byron Caminero-Santangelo, English
Phil Drake, English
Sara Gregg, History
Megan Kaminski, English
Paul Outka, English
Edmund Russell, History
Resources
Suggested Courses
Typically Offered Every Year
- ENGL 306 Global Environmental Literature
- An examination of a variety of literary and other representations of human and non-human environments and environmentalism. Particular attention will be paid to how race, gender, class, sexuality, and geography produce and are produced by those representations. (Same as GIST 306.) Prerequisite: Prior completion of the KU Core Written Communication requirement. Recommended: Prior completion of one 200-level English course. LEC.
Fall 2019 Type Time/Place and Instructor Credit Hours Class # LEC Echterling, Clare
APPT- ONLNE KULC - LAWRENCE3 20169 LEC Echterling, Clare
APPT- ONLNE KUEC - EDWARDS3 22503 LEC Echterling, Clare
APPT- ONLNE KULC - LAWRENCE3 20170 LEC Echterling, Clare
APPT- ONLNE KUEC - EDWARDS3 22504
- EVRN 336 Ethics, Ideas and Nature
- This course examines the ethical frameworks developed for thinking about, using, and protecting the natural world. Examples of topics include indigenous approaches to nature, the history of ecological ideas, environmental movements, the role of the state in managing resources, utilitarianism and progressivism, environmental lawmaking, wilderness advocacy, nature and theology, the rights of nature, and environmental justice. Students are introduced to the theories of duty ethics, justice ethics, utilitarianism, and rights ethics, and required to apply ethical decision making to contemporary and historical environmental issues. Multiple perspectives on the history of human interactions with nature demonstrate the importance of reflecting upon the value systems inherent in human-centered environmental ethics and nature-centered environmental ethics. (Same as HIST 336.) LEC.
Fall 2019 Type Time/Place and Instructor Credit Hours Class # LEC Boynton, Alex
MW 11:00-12:15 PM WES 4008 - LAWRENCE3 21792 LEC Boynton, Alex
MW 12:30-01:45 PM WES 4035 - LAWRENCE3 22644 LEC Boynton, Alex
Tu 03:00-05:50 PM BEST 310 - EDWARDS3 28960
- HIST 336 Ethics, Ideas, and Nature
- This course examines the ethical frameworks developed for thinking about, using, and protecting the natural world. Examples of topics include indigenous approaches to nature, the history of ecological ideas, environmental movements, the role of the state of managing resources, utilitarianism and progressivism, environmental lawmaking, wilderness advocacy, nature and theology, the rights of nature, and environmental justice. Students are introduced to the theories of duty ethics, justice ethics, utilitarianism, and right ethics, and required to apply ethical decision making to contemporary and historical environmental issues. Multiple perspectives on the history of human interactions with nature demonstrate the importance of reflecting upon the value systems inherent in human-centered environmental ethics and nature-centered environmental ethics. (Same as EVRN 336.) LEC.
Fall 2019 Type Time/Place and Instructor Credit Hours Class # LEC Boynton, Alex
MW 11:00-12:15 PM WES 4008 - LAWRENCE3 21793 LEC Boynton, Alex
MW 12:30-01:45 PM WES 4035 - LAWRENCE3 22687
- PHIL 380 Environmental Ethics
- After a brief survey of techniques of moral argument and analysis, particular moral issues related to the environment will be discussed. These will include such topics (one of which may be dealt with in depth) as animal rights, rights of future generations, wilderness preservation, population control, endangered species, and economics and public policy. Prerequisite: EVRN 148 or consent of instructor. LEC.
Fall 2019 Type Time/Place and Instructor Credit Hours Class # LEC
APPT- ONLNE KULC - LAWRENCE3 21738 LEC
APPT- ONLNE KULC - LAWRENCE3 21739
Typically Offered Every Two Years
- ENGL 568 American Literary Environmentalism
- An examination of representations of nature and human/nature relations and their political, social and environmental consequences, with a special focus on the 19th and 20th centuries, including the writings of transcendentalists and conservationists, slave narratives, scientific writing on toxicity and other topics, and environmental justice literature. Capstone course. Prerequisite: Prior completion of at least one 300- or 400-level English course. LEC.
The class is not offered for the Fall 2019 semester.
- HIST 103 Environment and History
- Nature is our oldest home and newest challenge. This course surveys the environmental history of the earth from the extinction of the dinosaurs to the present with a focus on the changing ecological role of humans. It analyzes cases of ecological stability, compares cultural attitudes toward nature, and asks why this ancient relationship seems so troubled. (Same as EVRN 103.) LEC.
The class is not offered for the Fall 2019 semester.
- HIST 347 Environmental History of North America
- A survey of changes in the landscape and in people's perceptions of the natural world from 1500 to present. Topics include agroecology, water and energy, the impact of capitalism, industrialism, urbanization, and such technologies as the automobile, and the origins of conservation. (Same as EVRN 347.) LEC.
The class is not offered for the Fall 2019 semester.
Typically Offered Less Than Every Two Years
- HIST 636 Agriculture in World History
- A survey of the development of agriculture from prehistory through the present. The major themes of the course will be how various methods of farming have spread around the world, how new techniques have transformed agriculture, and how peasants and farmers have interacted with cities and governments. LEC.
The class is not offered for the Fall 2019 semester.
PLEASE NOTE: If you are interested in enrolling in one of the courses listed above, remember to check the Schedule of Classes or contact the offering department (e.g., Geography & Atmospheric Science) to verify that the course will be offered during the semester in which you plan to enroll in the course.
