| Unit name | Introduction to Environmental Humanities |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HUMSM0010 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Dudley |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Humanities |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
How can humanities disciplines help us to understand the complex environmental challenges that the world is facing? How has the study of literature, history, thought, and visual arts, among other areas, engaged with the environment over time? What does it mean to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to the environmental humanities? This introductory unit addresses these questions and traces the emergence of the field of environmental humanities. It pays particular attention to perspectives from the Global South and postcolonial contexts, and explores the significance of collaborative practices, both across disciplines and with non-academic partners. The unit allows students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds to work together to establish a shared understanding of the shape of the field, and covers a number of important approaches including ecocriticism, environmental history, and ecofeminism.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This is the first of the two core units that are taken by all students on the MA in Environmental Humanities, and provides an essential grounding in key concepts, frameworks and methodologies that you can then develop elsewhere in the programme, and especially as part of your dissertation project. Importantly for a highly interdisciplinary field, the unit will also provide students with a clear map of the relevant disciplines within environmental humanities and the connections among them.
An overview of content
The unit will first explore the emergence of key areas of study in the humanities relating to the environment, such as environmental history and ecocriticism, before examining the gradual constitution of an interdisciplinary field. We will analyse key texts by scholars including Ursula Heise and Astrida Neimanis, and will also consider ecofeminist perspectives and responses from the Global South to an intellectual movement that has often been articulated from Australia, North America and Europe. Finally, we will critically examine the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity and collaboration that lies at the heart of much environmental humanities discourse.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
Students will have acquired detailed knowledge of the development of the environmental humanities, will have reflected on the affordances and limitations of the interdisciplinary research methods that characterise the field, and will be able to articulate critiques of scholarship in the area. They will have gained confidence in group work and in testing out new ideas and adapting them in response to feedback from tutors and peers.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this unit, a successful student will be able to:
This unit will be taught via a weekly two-hour seminar, which will include plenary presentations by the seminar tutor, group presentations by students, and student-led discussion of key texts. In a typical year, three academic staff, ideally with different environmental humanities backgrounds, will be responsible for teaching the unit, collaborating on the teaching of the first and last seminars and then teaching three seminars each. The seminars will also include contributions from non-academic professionals and community organisations working in related areas, and field trips to sites of relevant community projects in Bristol. Each seminar tutor will coordinate and host one contribution from a non-academic partner, for a total of three such contributions over the course of the unit. Where necessary, local travel costs for external participants will be covered by the discretionary budget that is available for this programme
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Group presentations in weekly seminars, outlining a critical reading of a particular text. In-class feedback will be provided verbally by the seminar tutor and from peers.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Collaborative annotated bibliography (25%, group mark)
3,000-word essay (75%, individual mark)
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. HUMSM0010).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
