Environmental Humanities Initiative
University of California, Santa Barbara
Environmental Humanities Initiative
University of California, Santa Barbara
Environmentally,
what can any of us do to help?
When people think about making a difference environmentally – especially when thinking seriously and vocationally about what sort of subjects they can major in at college, and, ultimately, what sort of eco-professions they might pursue – they often fail to consider art, literature, history, philosophy, theology, music, theater, film, or any of the many other fields and pursuits of the arts and humanities.
This is a mistake, and a big one. The humanities have a major role to play in our shared challenge of forging an environmentally better future. It’s true: poets, playwrights, performers, and artists of all sorts, as well as a range of scholars from across the humanities, can (and daily do) make important environmental interventions.
For example, if we wanted to make clear the extent to which we use, misuse, overuse, and abuse our global water supply, how might we go about communicating all this?
Although daunting, photographer and filmmaker Edward Burtynsky takes up this challenge in his striking film Watermark. Take a minute – it literally runs for just a minute – and view this video introduction.
Environmentally,
what can any of us do to help?
When people think about making a difference environmentally – especially when thinking seriously and vocationally about what sort of subjects they can major in at college, and, ultimately, what sort of eco-professions they might pursue – they often fail to consider art, literature, history, philosophy, theology, music, theater, film, or any of the many other fields and pursuits of the arts and humanities.
This is a mistake, and a big one. The humanities have a major role to play in our shared challenge of forging an environmentally better future. It’s true: poets, playwrights, performers, and artists of all sorts, as well as scholars from across the humanities, can (and daily do) make important environmental interventions.
For example, if we wanted to make clear the extent to which we use, abuse, misuse, and overuse our global water supply, how might we go about communicating all this?
Although daunting, photographer and filmmaker Edward Burtynsky takes up this challenge in his striking film Watermark. Take a minute – it literally runs for just a minute – and view this video trailer (click to play, click to pause).
who we are
Housed at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Environmental Humanities Initiative (EHI) is composed of faculty and students from across the arts and humanities who focus on a range of environmental issues. With over 70 faculty members from 24 Departments, Programs, and Schools teaching over 300 unique graduate and undergraduate courses, UC Santa Barbara is unrivaled in its commitment to the environmental humanities.
Among other issues, our members work on climate change, the emergence of environmental thinking, the cultural/environmental implications of urbanization, histories of land use, natural resource management, environmental politics, non-human/human relations, environmental and social justice within a global rather than national context, and the political impact of institutions, networks, and regimes on bodies and the biosphere.
The goal of the EHI is to foster this work and interest in it.
uc santa barbara, campus lagoon & UCen
who we are
Housed at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Environmental Humanities Initiative (EHI) is composed of faculty and students from across the arts and humanities who focus on a range of environmental issues. With over 70 faculty members from 24 Departments, Programs, and Schools teaching over 300 unique graduate and undergraduate courses, UC Santa Barbara is unrivaled in its commitment to the environmental humanities.
Among other issues, our members work on climate change, the emergence of environmental thinking, the cultural/environmental implications of urbanization, histories of land use, natural resource management, environmental politics, non-human/human relations, environmental and social justice within a global rather than national context, and the political impact of institutions, networks, and regimes on bodies and the biosphere.
The goal of the EHI is to foster this work and interest in it.
our history
Our institutional commitment to environmental studies dates from 1969. After one of the worst oil spills in U.S. history, which came from a drilling platform off the Santa Barbara coast, a group of twenty-one UC Santa Barbara faculty members calling themselves the “Friends of the Human Habitat” came together and soon established what has become one of the oldest, largest, and one of the most respected environmental studies programs in the country.
Even before that, in 1967, Roderick Nash, a History professor and one of the founders of our ES Program, published Wilderness and the American Mind, one of the first modern classics in the environmental humanities, which the Los Angeles Times named, along with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, as one of the 100 most influential books published in the previous quarter century.
Today, as we approach the 50th anniversary of the publication of Wilderness and the American Mind and the environmental humanities being introduced to UC Santa Barbara (and the world), faculty from a range of departments and programs annually teach popular environmentally oriented courses and do ground-breaking research, confronting some of the most important issues of our time.
oil platform, santa barbara channel
our history
Our institutional commitment to environmental studies dates from 1969. After one of the worst oil spills in U.S. history, which came from a drilling platform off the Santa Barbara coast, a group of 21 UC Santa Barbara faculty members calling themselves the “Friends of the Human Habitat” came together and soon established what has become one of the oldest, largest, and most respected environmental studies programs in the country.
Even before that, in 1967, Roderick Nash, a History professor and one of the founders of our ES Program, published Wilderness and the American Mind, one of the first modern classics in the environmental humanities, which the Los Angeles Times named, along with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, as one of the 100 most influential books published in the previous quarter century.
Today, as we approach the 50th anniversary of the publication of Wilderness and the American Mind and the environmental humanities being introduced to UC Santa Barbara (and the world), faculty from a range of departments and programs annually teach popular environmentally oriented courses and do ground-breaking research, confronting some of the most important issues of our time.