Global Environmental Humanities

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: Dr Joseph John Viscomi
• Tutors: Dr Stephen Willey, Dr Anna Richards, Dr Brodie Waddell
• Assessment: a 1000-word source commentary (20%), group presentation (30%) and 2500-word essay (50%)

In this module we will explore the histories and connections between environmental, social and political changes and interrogate the relationship between the human and more-than-human worlds. We will historicise contemporary debates and conversations about the environment and climate change and consider connections between historical processes such as empire, migration and state formation with environmental histories.

Indicative syllabus

• Defining environmental history and the environmental humanities
• Commons, enclosure and improvement
• Urbanisation, trade and the built environment
• Disasters and catastrophes; or, nature’s agency
• Migrant environments
• Climates of empire
• Environments of war and revolution
• Agriculture and food ecologies
• History in/of the Anthropocene; or, oil and energy
• Climate futures

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge of debates in environmental history and humanities
• examine and articulate the connections between different historical processes and how to apply these to the real world
• understand how ideas about the environment and nature have changed over time.