Convenors 2024-25: Dr Nick Lawrence and Dr Jonathan Skinner

Class schedule: Thursdays 11am-1pm (S.171)
Nick’s office hours: Tues. 2-3pm, Thurs. 10-11am
Jonathan’s office hours: Tues. and Thurs. 2-3pm

Critical Environments provides a core foundation in the study of the environmental humanities, a cross-disciplinary field bringing the theoretical and methodological frameworks of humanistic study to the investigation of environmental questions and concerns. The module offers students the opportunity to develop an informed perspective on the emerging field of environmental humanities research in its ecological, cultural and political aspects, and to adapt this perspective to further research in a variety of humanistic subfields.

You will be introduced through weekly readings to key topics, concepts, methodologies and theoretical debates in the emergent field of environmental humanities, with special attention to its interdisciplinary origins. The module allows students to navigate their own subsequent pathways through the MA in Environmental Humanities, depending on individual research interests. You will develop an informed perspective on a variety of areas, from debates over nature to the cultural registration of natural ecologies, extinction, climate imaginaries, histories and trajectories of pollution and waste, ecopoetics, the emergence of the Anthropocene/Capitalocene, the energy humanities, cultures and contexts of activism, ecological imperialism, speculative environmental futures, emergent cultures of degrowth and more, all analysed through a world-ecological lens unique to Warwick Environmental Humanities. The module will provide a focused understanding of the cultural challenges in responding to such topics as climate change, environmental despoliation, species extinction, media ecology and truly sustainable futures.

Assessments: See MA Handbook for essay deadlines and variable essay word lengths.