October 23, 2013

Conference – The Future of the Environmental Humanities: Research, Pedagogies, Institutions, and Publics on 10/31-11/3 (free and open to the public)

This fall the Simpson Center is hosting a conference called “The Future of the Environmental Humanities: Research, Pedagogies, Institutions, and Publics.” It takes place Oct. 31-Nov. 3 and seeks to spark the emergence of a regional network of environmental humanities scholars who will come together to understand how the humanities may contribute to civic conversations about environmental change. They also hope to better define the place that the academic humanities have in this process. The conference will be primarily a working conference, but its two keynote addresses—a Walker Ames lecture by ecocriticism pioneer Lawrence Buell (Harvard University) and a talk by noted scholar Ursula Heise (University of California, Los Angeles)—will be free and open to the public.

The Simpson Center is working with three UW faculty to organize this conference: Gary Handwerk (English and Comparative Literature), Sabine Wilke (Germanics), and Rich Watts (French & Italian Studies). According to them, the environmental humanities are at a developmental crossroads. Growth in the field of ecocriticism over the past few decades has shown steady progress during a period when the humanities have in general experienced a decline in their enrollments and perceived relevance. The same pattern of growth has been visible in environmental history, environmental ethics, and many of the humanities-oriented areas of the social sciences as well.

At the same time, they contend, there has been less progress particularly in the Pacific Northwest in creating a regional network among active environmental humanities scholars and teachers. They see major potential for ongoing collaboration and cross-fertilization among faculty at different universities, for sharing ideas and innovations with regard to research, program-building, and public engagement. They hope that a Pacific Northwest research and teaching network can serve as a platform for making the cross-cultural and historical study of environmental issues a central concern of the universities and colleges in the region, and for profiling the ways in which humanities research and education can be useful, even essential, for the scientific and political dimensions of these concerns.

To know more: www.simpsoncenter.org/environmental-humanities