The Humanities and the Global Environmental Crises

The Anthropocene, the age of humans in the history of the earth system, poses unprecedented challenges that demand radical rethinking of socio-economic models, on the one hand, and of epistemological assumptions regarding humans' place in nature, on the other. Although building on previous periods, the Great Acceleration since World War II has brought about an exponential growth of humanity's ecological footprint, putting severe pressure on ecosystems, biodiversity and livelihoods around the world. Mitigating the global environmental crisis and building up resilience in communities and built environments requires significant transformative action.

Given the complex interplay of economic, technological, political, societal and cultural dimensions to global environmental issues, the humanities play a crucial role in analyzing the past and present of the nature-society nexus and in developing solutions for the future.
This course addresses global environmental change (climate change, land-use, commodity cycles, toxins, energy regimes, etc.) by focusing on and comparing local struggles over regimes of extraction, livelihoods and meanings of landscape as well as emerging multi-species relationships. It draws on approaches from history, anthropology, sociology and other sub-fields of the broadly defined environmental humanities.

Course leader

Heather Anne Swanson

Target group

Bachelor's level

Fee info

EUR 824: Exchange students: No Fee

Freemovers, EU/EEA: 824 EUR

Freemovers, NON-EU/EEA: 1373 EUR

Books, course materials, social programme, and housing are not included in the fee.

Scholarships

No scholarships available