What are the Environmental Humanities Good for? Research, Education, and new Perspectives for the 21st Century
Workshop
07.04.2022
Date: 7 April 2022, 2:00 pm (CET)
Location: Online and live at Jurisics Miklós u. 44, PAB Székház, Pécs, Hungary
Organizers: Environmental Humanities Research Group, University of Pécs; Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich; Department of European Ethnology - Cultural Anthropology, University of Pécs; Green University Program, University of Pécs & PAB II. Filozófia-, Történettudomány- és Néprajztudományok Szakbizottsága, PTE Fenntartható Fejlődésért Szakkollégium
Over the last years, historians, literary critics, philosophers, and other humanities scholars have dedicated their research and teaching to a new field that has developed enormous and lively appeal: the environmental
humanities.
The main reason for the rise of this new field lies in the environmental challenges humankind is facing around the globe: researchers from different disciplines have noted the need for radically new approaches in view of the unprecedented destruction of the planet, its natural resources, and its species. The rise of the environmental humanities is a response to this new awareness.
The new field integrates a variety of impulses from a diverse set of academic disciplines but also from outside environmental practicioners: from conservationists and bureaucrats to politicians and activists. Teachers in the environmental humanities have developed exciting forms of engagement and they have used innovative tools and approaches to reach out to a broader public—through social media, art, digital publications, and exhibitions.
In his own teaching and research, Christof Mauch, the director of the Rache Carson Center for Environment and Society, has emphasized the fact that the environmental humanities make us think creatively about the role of humans in shaping the future of planet Earth. In his lecture he will discuss past and current trends of this new field and he will reflect on both challenges and opportunities for the future.
Christof Mauch is director of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, and chair in american cultural history at LMU Munich. He is an honorary professor and senior fellow at the Center for Ecological History of Renmin University in China, a past president of the European Society for Environmental History and a former director of the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. (1999–2007). His recent and books include Slow Hope: Rethinking Ecologies of Crisis and Fear (2019); Urwald der Bayern (Bavaria’s Primeval Forest) (2020), and Paradise Blues: Reisen in die Natur und in die Geschichte der USA (2022).
Register here.
Find more information click here or contact varga.anna@pte.hu.