BA Art History and History

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Climate Change & Society

Course unit fact file
Unit code HSTM33501
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 3
Teaching period(s) Semester 1
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

  • The unit suits students of all academic backgrounds who are willing to ‘think from scratch’ and use creative approaches and ‘out-of-box’ thinking about today’s most celebrated of environmental issues.
  • Explore why climate change became the environmental and socio-economic problem of the century? Why had it taken so long after the discovery of the greenhouse effect for politicians to become aware of its cataclysmic potential? Who and why brought the issue to the policy arena?
  • The unit proceeds thematically, discussing the various formats of the climate problem: from the issues of scientific uncertainty and denialism, to the problems of institutional governance and international agreements, to the economic issues of emission control and the environmental justice between global North and South?
  • We also explore how climate change featrues in the public sphere and whether the media work to be transparent in conveying the scientific knowledge.

Aims

This unit explores why climate change attracts so much public, political and economic attention during the last fifty years. What makes it so important that recent books about the problem have titles such as 'This Changes Everything.'Is climate change changing everything? Is it changing anything? The unit covers the issue from various perspectives: scientific, cultural, political, economic and media.

What weather and climate mean to different groups and institutions, and how these meanings influence the ways in which people individually and collectively respond to the climate change problem?

The course is suited to Arts, Humanities and Science students interested in the scientific, social and policy aspects of climate change.This course unit is also available as a 10 credit course unit (UCIL 33201)

Learning outcomes

 

 

Transferable skills and personal qualities

 

 

Assessment methods

Essay, 1500 words: 25%

Expedition Photo Essay,1000 words: 25%

Project, 3500 words: 50%

Feedback methods

Students will receive individual feedback on their essay assignments, as well as their project.

All submitted coursework will be returned with annotations and comments on Blackboard explaining the rationale for the marks given.

All feedback on written coursework will be given within two weeks time, unless otherwise specified.

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 11
Seminars 11
Independent study hours
Independent study 178

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Vladimir Jankovic Unit coordinator

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