SUM4036 – Environmental Humanities: From Civil Disobedience to Arne N?ss to Extinction Rebellion
Course description
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
The Environmental Humanities is a new area of interdisciplinary studies of the environmental crisis which draws on the legacy of, among others, Norway’s greatest nature philosopher, Arne N?ss. Students examine the environmental crisis through the lens of philosophy and ethics, literary traditions, history, media, landscape studies, and the arts. The course covers research areas such as environmental history and anthropology; climate and environmental ethics; ecological literature/media; the nexus environment-religion-ideology; and studies of the relationship between culture, identity and environmental conflicts.
In this course we will explore cultural and political preconditions for achieving momentous social and environmental change. To learn from previous social mobilizations, we will examine main actors, their visions, and political actions. What stories and practices compelled society at large to change course? What worked and what didn’t? How important were morally charged narratives of better lives? What kind of moral community did they aspire to forge? What can we learn from psychological studies of prosociality and wellbeing as drivers of human and environmental flourishing? In what way can our conceptions of the ‘good life’ contribute to a sustainable future?
The course has a threefold objective:
(1) to revisit influential narratives and initiatives in socio-environmental history - such as Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience,” Aldo Leopolds’s “Thinking like a mountain,” or Arne N?ss’s Deep Ecology - to discern how and why they broadened socio-environmental consciousness and inspired social mobilization;
(2) to illuminate the imaginative, political, and moral sources of successful paradigm shifts, the emergence of the ‘Nordic wellbeing state’. Can we crack the code of positive, world-changing visions and strategies? What can we learn from the dynamics of historical groups that managed to address insurmountable challenges and make unimaginable worlds come true?
(3) to study modern environmental and climate movements such as Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future in terms of their narrative appeal, mobilizing potential, and social structure. What are the meeting points between the modern environmental struggle and past “revolutionary scripts”? What can be emulated and what needs more work? How can we improve cultural innovation toward a more sustainable world?
Learning outcome
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to critically evaluate climate mobilizations of our time;
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to better understand the key conditions of achieving maximum success in combatting the climate crisis;
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to scrutinize contemporary attempts to effectuate a socio-environmental change by putting the present into a creative dialogue with the past;
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to identify the main sources of cultural innovation for a sustainable future.
Admission
You may apply to be a guest student at SUM. Please follow these instructions.
Prerequisites
Formal prerequisite knowledge
A bachelor’s degree with a specialization equivalent to at least 80 ECTS within subjects from the humanities or social sciences, sustainable development, or equivalent relevant subjects.
Overlapping courses
5 credits overlap with SUM4033 – Environmental Humanities: From Civil Disobedience to Extinction Rebellion
Teaching
The course is based on a rich combination of lectures, video presentations, and “imagining the future” colloquia.
Students are expected to actively take part in all the lectures and seminars.
Examination
3 days home exam.
Digital home examination
The home examination is conducted in the digital examination system Inspera.You will need to familiarize yourself with the digital examination arrangements in Inspera.
Read more about home examinations using Inspera.
Use of sources and citation
You should familiarize yourself with the rules that apply to the use of sources and citations. If you violate the rules, you may be suspected of cheating/attempted cheating.
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.
Explanations and appeals
Resit an examination
Withdrawal from an examination
It is possible to take the exam up to 3 times. If you withdraw from the exam after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.
Special examination arrangements
Application form, deadline and requirements for special examination arrangements.
Evaluation
The course is subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students to participate in a more comprehensive evaluation.