MA English Literature and American Studies / Course details

That climate and ecological crises are also cultural and social crises has been argued by scholars working in an emergent interdisciplinary field known as the ‘Environmental Humanities’ (EH).  EH ‘brings the insights and approaches of the humanities - centering on questions of meaning, value, and ethics - to bear on some of the most pressing challenges of our time’ (Gorman, et al, 2019). Taught by academics from across the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures in collaboration with colleagues from Manchester Museum, this course will introduce students to some of the central questions and concepts of EH.

Students will be invited to think about ‘critical ecologies’ in two, interrelated ways: (1) As addressing climate and ecological crises with the tools offered by disciplinary expertise; and (2) As requiring us to think beyond such disciplinary perspectives, as we also become aware of the historical forces that shaped them. Indigenous ways of knowing, relating and being in the world is one approach students will be introduced to in order to do this. This will allow students to begin to develop informed, diverse ways of thinking about the complex, diverse human and multispecies relations that are at stake in the histories and futurities of climate crisis.

The unit aims to:

- introduce students to some of the key texts and concepts from Environmental Humanities;
- introduce students to diverse source materials (different media, genre, objects) as we discuss key concepts
- introduce students to different aspects of climate crisis;
-  introduce students to questions of social justice in relation to climate crisis;
- introduce students to aspects and challenges of interspecies relations;
- engage with objects (from the Manchester Museum collection) and physical environments (at locations such as the Firs within the city);
- develop skills of critical thought, speech, and writing in relation to climate crisis;
- develop teamwork skills (through group discussion and work on field trips);
- develop flexible and creative thinking in response to the interdisciplinary ethos of EH and demands of environmental crisis

•    This course will be taught by 2-hour seminar per week, for 11 weeks;
•    Engagement with objects from the Manchester Museum collections ;
•    Materials (e.g., links to object images, bibliographies, discussion questions, online media resources [podcasts, etc]) will be posted on Canvas. 
•    Students will be encouraged to use a range of learning methods (e.g., spidergrams, short presentations on the weekly topic)
 

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

- demonstrate a good familiarity with a range of concepts and critical paradigms central to EH;  
- demonstrate understanding of some of the pressing issues arising from climate and ecological crisis;
- engage in an informed manner with a range of discourses, objects and locations through the lens of  theories and concepts introduced  on the course;
- understand  and apply some of the critical tools from EH to other contexts (academic and beyond)

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

- think critically about concepts and contexts introduced on the course;
- understand some of the interconnection between different aspects of climate and ecological crisis;
- think in a nuanced and informed manner about a range of ethical questions; 
- identify and outline key problems and issues related to climate and ecological crisis;
- reflect critically on different social and political histories and practices, including disciplines;
- develop and articulate a reasoned argument for a particular point of view about the concepts covered on the course

- To plan and execute independent research on an object from the Manchester Museum collection;
- To make good use of library, electronic, and online resources pertaining to the course;
- To speak and write clearly and thoughtfully about concepts introduced on the course;
- To engage in peer group discussions involving interdisciplinary concepts;
- To present to the class on their chosen object/concept.

Students who have taken this course will have developed skills in following areas:

- Retrieving sifting, organising, synthesising and critically evaluating material from a range of different sources, including library, electronic, and online resources;
- Delivering oral presentation in front of peers and instructor within a seminar group;
- Producing written work using appropriate language for an academic audience; 
- Making good use of, for instance: word processing software, the internet, library databases; objects from the Manchester Museum collection;
- Demonstrating good listening and communication skills (through regular group discussions of complex topics);
- Developing and completing an effective research project on a chosen object;
- Demonstrating the ability to improve one’s own learning through critical reflection, discussion and independent study.
 

Essay workshop seminar (formative): Oral feedback during the seminar

Visual display of three curated objects related to a connected concept: Written feedback via Turnitin

Essay: Written feedback via Turnitin 

Indicative reading:

J .Andrew Hubbell and John C. Ryan, Introduction to the Environmental Humanities (2021)
Brendan Coolsaet, Environmental Justice: Key Issues (2021)
Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016)
Donna J. Haraway, When Species Meet (2008)
Jeffrey T. Nealon, Plant Theory: Biopower and Vegetable Life (2016)
Deborah Bird Rose, et al, Manifesto for Living in the Anthropocene (2015)
Deborah Bird Rose, Reports from a Wild Country: Ethics for Decolonisation (2004)
Matthew Schneider-Myerson, et al, An Ecotopian Lexicon  (2019)
Vandana Shiva, The Vandana Shiva Reader (2015)