Teaching
Starting September 2024 we offer a new and exiting interdisciplinary minor in Environmental Humanities, that explores urgent questions relating to sustainability, biodiversity, the climate crisis, and the role the Humanities can play in facilitating fair transitions.
Read all about the minor Environmental HumanitiesThere are also a number of other interesting courses in Environmental Humanities on offer, at both bachelor and master level, taught by members of our network, at the Faculty of Humanities and beyond. Please browse the list below for individual courses (in English and Dutch).
Bachelor level
Block 1
Contemporary media are increasingly used not only to entertain, but also to persuade people, raising their awareness and changing or reinforcing their attitudes and behavior for the good of society. 'Green media' seek to contribute to ecological thought and to make people become ecological citizens. This course introduces students to key environmental issues as these are ariculated in computer games (ecogames, eco-modding), VR, social media, data visualizations, transmedia, film (art, Hollywood, science fiction, video essays), documentaries, television series and theatre. The underlying questions are: how can media address today’s environmental challenges? How do we conceptualize impact of (green) media from a media-comparative perspective? How can green media facilitate social change on a micro, meso and macro level? How do green media construct (playful forms of) civic engagement by positioning its users in medium-specific ways? What is the environmental impact of media production, distrubution and reception? Examining the ways in which green media can influence the public’s awareness of environmental issues, this course is a critical starting point for students researching and studying the growing field of green media studies as a subdiscipline within the environmental humanities.
- Course code: ME3V19001
- Coordinators: Joost Raessens, Stefan Werning
- BA Media en Cultuur (VP New Media and Digital Culture; VP Participatory Cultures: Civic Engagement in Media and Performance)
- Block: 1
- Level: 3
- Language: English
What does it mean to be human in a time of global environmental crisis? How are political, social and economic structures intertwined with the ecological realities of the Anthropocene? How do our conceptions of the human, of nature, and of the environment need to change in response to our current situation? How can media, culture and the arts foster environmental awareness and promote systemic change? And what can the Humanities contribute to sustainable and fair transitions?
This Introduction to Environmental Humanities addresses such pressing questions from different disciplinary perspectives within the Humanities and beyond. We will explore new understandings of major environmental crises and the related historical, social, political, and cultural challenges. The course is organized around a series of "object lessons" emphasizing salient materials pertaining to the environment and to climate breakdown, such as water, oil, soil, meat, and so on. These materials will be explored from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, emphasizing their historical, cultural, political, and philosophical dimensions. These disciplinary perspectives will include questions of history, ethics, narration, representation and imagination within an interdisciplinary, engagement oriented course design. Beyond lectures and discussions of foundational theoretical texts in Environmental Humanities, students will engage with questions of sustainability, planetary justice, and fair transitions in small research projects that explore the contribution of Humanities perspectives to understand environmental issues and imagine fundamental solutions beyond technological fixes.
- Course code: GE2V24001
- Coordinator: Flora Roberts
- Programme: Minor Environmental Humanities
- Block: 1
- Level: 2
- Language: English
In this course, we address several challenges to environmental sustainability such as global warming due to CO2 emissions, air pollution and water contamination, or the decline in biodiversity.
This is an interdisciplinary course combining insights from history and political science. The course will start with an overview on what sustainability is and then discuss the historical roots of current day global sustainability issues. We will look at the socio-economic changes since the 19th century and pay particular attention to historical drivers of power imbalances that today influence global environmental governance.
We will then examine the institutions which govern sustainability. We will look to the contemporary world, examining the formal and informal, public and private, institutions which preserve and undermine sustainability. We will examine institutional arrangements at several geographic levels: global/regional, national, and local.
We will introduce you to different concepts and theories that are highly relevant to sustainability issues and can be applied in both disciplines. At the end of the course, students will have a more detailed understanding about the complexity of sustainability issues, their historical origins, and governance challenges.
A central concept of this course, which connects to both disciplinary insights, is that of a wicked problem. Environmental problems are almost always wicked problems. These are problems that are complex and interconnected in nature and in which the causes and solutions are often disputed. To deal with this complexity through insights from history as well as political science is necessary to get a better understanding of the problems, its origins and potential solutions. This course will offer students integrated perspectives to better understand and analyse such wicked problems.
- Course code: PP2V19007
- Coordinator: Swantje Falcke
- BA Politics, Philosophy and Economics
- Block: 1
- Level: 2
- Language: English
Block 2
Climate change, natural resource depletion and biodiversity loss are key challenges in our times and closely linked to processes of economic globalisation. The inevitably transnational nature of environmental problems has propelled a transformation of governance beyond the nation-state. Moreover, public and private actors have become increasingly involved in the performance of governance activities. This course historicizes the environment as an arena of global governance. Through the lens of the environment, it will explore the changing relationship between international organisations, state governments and non-state actors, such as (international) environmental organisations, multinational corporations and expert bodies, all of which have become major players in the global arena in the twentieth century. The course will also critically discuss the role of power asymmetries in general and the growing divide between the Global North and the Global South in particular when it comes to environmental and developmental interests.
International History and Environment is the fourth and final course within the minor International Relations. The minor offers students a comprehensive and in-depth introduction to International Relations and International History. This is done from both a historical and social science perspective. All four courses deal with historical backgrounds and contemporary political issues. IHE gives you the opportunity to study in-depth a specific arena within global governance that is highly topical. Concurrently, it allows you to explore and evaluate environmental governance as a function of historical trajectories and transnational interactions between local and global stakeholders.
- Course code: GE3V21030
- Coordinator: Joep Schenk, Liesbeth van de Grift
- BA History (Minor International Relations)
- Block 2
- Level: 3
- Language: English
What is the environment? What is the global climate or the weather? Many scientific disciplines devote themselves to the study of these phenomena, providing the building blocks for our knowledge of the earth as a planetary system. How did this come about? And how should we think about the various sciences of the earth?
This course applies a historical and philosophical perspective to the sciences of the earth—including ecology, geology, oceanography, meteorology, climate science, glaciology, and geography. To earth and climate science students, it provides an opportunity to reflect on fundamental questions about the practice of doing science, and on such critical topics as the dynamics between science and society or the nature of scientific expertise. To other students, it offers an introduction to a field that has had an outsize impact on the humanities and social sciences through data on climate change and the concept of the Anthropocene.
This course traces the traditions that gave rise to today’s earth sciences from the seventeenth century to the present, but also explores ways of knowing climate and environment in other times and places. Scientific knowledge of the planet draws on tangled histories of speculation and observation, collecting and classification, instrument making and model building. These sciences are shaped by social context, by field work and lab work, and by empire, exploitation and extraction. They range across different landscapes, from the deep sea up into the stratosphere. By reflecting on the ideas and circumstances that have shaped the sciences of the earth, students will learn to reflect on and position their own scientific or scholarly knowledge, both among other academic disciplines and within a wider societal context. Thus they gain critical skills in an era when the sciences of the earth have assumed a crucial role in debates both inside and outside academia.
The main goal of this course is to reflect historically and philosophically on the various sciences of the earth. Students learn to think critically about processes of knowledge production and about the role of science in society.
- Course code: BETA-B3CN
- Programme: Elective component in Liberal Arts and Sciences (LASB)
- Coordinators: Mathijs Boom, Robert-Jan Wille
- Block: 2
- Level: 3
- Language: English
The most important challenge of the coming decades is the need to craft a sustainable future. A sustainable future that is also just, desirable, and democratic. In this course, we connect technical and environmental questions around sustainability to social questions around equality, democracy, and participation – and show that these questions meet each other in our images of the future. What is a sustainable future? What do we think we know about the (sustainable) future? What can we know about the future? And who shapes our images and visions of and for the future? In the search for a sustainable future world, a world we want to live in, these questions are crucial. What we do in the present is always influenced by our expectations and aspirations. In the course Futuring for Sustainability, they are the central questions. In the course, we investigate sustainability from the perspective of the future, and try to understand how our images of the future can help (or hinder!) the sustainability transition. To do so, we look at how 'techniques of futuring', the practices we use to create ideas about the future, influence societal transformations towards sustainability. But what does a sustainable world look like? In what type of sustainable future would you want to live? How can we prepare and collaboratively create a sustainable world?
Our expectations about the future, and our dreams and imaginations for it, profoundly influence the way we act in the present. Visions of plausible, possible, or desirable futures are fundamentally important in shaping our social and environmental futures. For example, just think about the effects novels such as George Orwell’s 1984, films such as Back to the Future, and artistic styles such as Afrofuturism and steampunk have had on the way people feel about and prepare for the future. So too do unexpected downturns such as 9/11, the financial crisis, and the on-going C19 pandemic. But also think about the influence that climate projections and warnings about biodiversity loss have had on the way we act. Politics, society, and technology always rely on images of the future, on people acting based on their imaginations and expectations. In society, people and groups are also always actively trying to shape expectations and visions for the future. They are always trying to shape the future.
Drawing on a wide variety of literature, ranging from political science to urban planning to integrated assessment modelling, this course offers the Urban Futures Studio approach to shaping and creating visions for desirable sustainable futures. It also offers our interpretation of how to give those visions a social life, our take on making them affect processes in the real world.
Join us for an interactive course to learn to understand how techniques of futuring contribute to realising societal transformations towards sustainability: living well equitably within ecological means. Learn how to how people imagine alternative futures – and learn how to do so yourself. Understand futuring techniques including scenario planning, modeling, backcasting, experiential futuring, arts-based approaches, science fiction, and design. earn to understand where our current sustainability discourse comes from - and how 'the future' became an object of study. Lecturers from various disciplines will introduce what they deem to crucial insights for building a more sustainable future. This course builds your capacity to develop new visions and imaginations of possible futures and alternative sustainability pathways.
- Course code: GEO2-2427
- Coordinator: Jeroen Oomen
- BA Global Sustainability Science
- Block: 2
- Level: 2
- Language: English
In deze thematisch oriënterende cursus staan de relaties tussen mens, natuur en klimaat centraal. De cursus verkent deze relaties op een interdisciplinaire manier aan de hand van emoties in het debat over het klimaat. Emoties vormen een drijvende kracht in onze samenleving en ons leven. Discussies over klimaatverandering roepen allerlei emoties op. Veel jongeren kijken niet bepaald positief naar de toekomst van de aarde, zo blijkt uit diverse onderzoeken. Uit woede over ecocide gaan sommigen protesteren. Anderen ontdekken nieuwe culturele paden naar een duurzame, rechtvaardige en gezonde toekomst.
In deze cursus worden studenten uitgedaagd om de wisselwerking tussen emoties, taal en media in het klimaatdebat te begrijpen en te duiden aan de hand van hedendaagse en historische perspectieven op de relaties tussen mens, natuur en klimaat uit de geesteswetenschappen. Deze perspectieven worden verkend aan de hand van de volgende thema's:
- Woorden: Wat is de affectieve lading van woorden en hoe brengen ze emoties over? Waarom werken sommige woorden wel en anderen niet (meer)?
- Gesprekken: Verkenning van verschillende vormen van communicatie over natuur en klimaat in heden en verleden. Is ecokritiek een modern verschijnsel of van alle tijden?
- Verhalen: Analyse van ingebedde emoties, empathie en betrokkenheid bij personages in moderne en historische literatuur en media. Hoe denken personages in moderne en historische verhalen over hun natuurlijke omgeving en over het klimaat? Welke effecten dacht men in de Middeleeuwen dat natuur en klimaat hadden op de lichamelijke en psychische gezondheid van de mens? En hoe beïnvloedde dit de omgang van de premoderne mens met natuur en klimaat?
Net als de andere TOC’s in blok 2 bevat de cursus een uitgebreide training in academische vaardigheden: je leert een wetenschappelijk onderzoek uitvoeren en een onderzoeksverslag schrijven.
- Course code: TC1V16002
- Coordinator: Eggo Müller
- BA Taal- en cultuurstudies
- Block: 2
- Level: 1
- Language: Dutch
Block 3
What are natural disasters? How have occurrences like floods, forest fires, droughts, volcanoes and earthquakes been experienced, interpreted and understood by the societies that experienced them? What types of explanations have been offered, and how have these aetiologies shaped societal and cultural responses to such events? This course will explore how societies in the past have prepared for and responded to natural disasters. We will consider resourceful adaptations to local environmental and geographic conditions, the rise of scientific expertise, colonial knowledge production, and humanitarian responses to unforeseen tragedy.
Furnished with analytical provocations from interdisciplinary thinkers including Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit, and Amartya Sen, we will consider case studies from different continents, and a range of historical periods, from ancient to contemporary. We will probe the extent to which it is still possible to talk of disasters as ‘natural.’ We will analyse a broad range of sources, literary, visual and material, from poetry and paintings to manga and maps, to interrogate the range of meanings ascribed to natural disasters, and the responses these have evoked. Forms of class participation will include role play and board games, as well as discussion and debate. Assessment will take the form of a portfolio presenting a case study of a historical disaster (including both collaborative and individually assessed elements), and an essay.
- Course code: GE2V23001
- Coordinator: Flora Roberts
- BA History, independent course
- Block 3
- Level: 2
- Language: English
On a global scale, wealth, health and life opportunities are unfairly distributed. Several philosophers have emphasised that this unfairness gives the affluent a moral duty to help the worst-off, others have tried to formulate basic principles for a fair society. Whereas political philosophers of the past mainly focused on these issues through the lens of the nation state, contemporary thinkers argue that globalisation processes force us to approach themes like sustainability, justice and equality on an international level, for example by constructing international institutions or by rethinking ideas about national sovereignty.
In this course, we will discuss a wide range of analyses of these issues by visiting core political theories of past and present and coupling these with debates on specific (applied) questions. We will focus on values as diverse as liberty, equality, (international) justice, sovereignty, sustainability and more, and critically discuss issues arising from phenomena like migration, climate change and poverty.
- Course code: FI2V0001
- Coordinator: Naomi van Steenbergen
- BA Filosofie (minor Ethics in Modern Society. Former code: FI3V19016)
- Block 3
- Level 2
- Language: English
Opkomende zoönosen, de klimaatcrisis, dalende biodiversiteit, het wereldwijde voedselvraagstuk en dierenrechten: de grote uitdagingen van dit moment hebben te maken met de relatie tussen dieren, mensen en het milieu. De keuzecursus Dieren en mensen in het Antropoceen onderzoekt deze relatie vanuit de langere termijn. Hoe veranderde de relatie tussen dieren, mensen en milieu door de tijd heen en in verschillende culturele en maatschappelijke contexten? Waar komen de grote hedendaagse problemen rond dieren en milieu vandaan en hoe kunnen we dat ontstaan begrijpen? De cursus geeft studenten een nieuwe kijk op onderwerpen zoals zieke dieren, dieren als hobby, dieren als voedsel, vegetarisme/veganisme, dierenbescherming, het Antropoceen, wilde dieren en dierenpolitiek, aan de hand van inspirerend werk van historici en andere geesteswetenschappers over dieren en milieu. De nadruk ligt op de moderne periode tussen 1800 en nu. De cursus wordt aangeboden vanuit de faculteit Diergeneeskunde, maar staat ook open voor studenten van andere faculteiten. Wel hebben diergeneeskundestudenten voorrang als er selectie nodig is. Er kunnen maximaal 25 studenten deelnemen.
- Course code: DB-K-DMA
- Course coordinator: Floor Haalboom
- Elective Veterinary Science
- Block 3
- Level: 3
- Language: Dutch
Games en elementen van games worden in toenemende mate ingezet om producten, diensten en ervaringen alsmede ideologische overtuigingen op een aantrekkelijke en persuasieve wijze te communiceren. Dit geldt in het bijzonder voor complexe maatschappelijke fenomenen als de klimaatcrisis en 'ecogames', die centraal staan in het ontwerp van deze cursus.
Wij onderzoeken op welke wijze serious games en fenomenen als gamification en nudging gebruikt worden om – door middel van taal, beeld, audio, verhalen, procedures, etc. – de klimaatcrisis en mogelijke wegen naar een duurzame toekomst te verkennen. Welke veranderingen in gedrag en/of houding worden nagestreefd en zijn deze eigenlijk wel wenselijk vanuit een ethisch perspectief? En liggen de betekenissen van game-elementen besloten in hun ontwerp of komen deze tot stand in relatie tot de speler en de context van het spel?
In deze derde cursus uit de minor Game Studies bespreken we op kritische wijze serious games en gamification - aan de hand van de case study van ecogames - binnen hun bredere culturele, economische en politiek/culturele context.
- Cursuscode: ME3V21006
- Coördinatoren: Stefan Werning and Joost Raessen
- Blok: 3
- Categorie: 3
- Taal: Nederlands
De mens verandert de aarde zo diepgaand, dat de tegenwoordige tijd het Antropoceen genoemd wordt – het tijdperk van de mens. Alles lijkt door de mens beïnvloed te worden.
De klimaatcrisis en het verlies aan biodiversiteit zijn bijzonder opvallende gevolgen die de mogelijkheid van een goed en rechtvaardig leven van toekomstige generaties bedreigen. Het Antropoceen en de klimaatcrisis zijn ook met een diepgaande verandering van de relatie van de mens met de niet-menselijke wereld verbonden. Moeten we deze relatie volledig opnieuw denken? In hoeverre liggen specifieke filosofische en religieuze denkbeelden tot grondslag van de klimaatcrisis? Welke bijdrage kunnen tot nu toe gemarginaliseerde theorieën en tradities voor het toekomstige samenleven in het Antropoceen leveren? Door het bestuderen van dergelijke vragen verkennen we in dezecursus hoe filosofie en religie samenhangen met de klimaatcrisis. Thema’s die daarbij centraal staan zijn (onder meer):
- De mogelijke (historische) rol van religie bij het veroorzaken van de klimaatcrisis.
- Verantwoordelijkheid voor toekomstige generaties, eerbied voor het leven, rentmeesterschap of beheersing van de natuur door de mens.
- Inheemse tradities: hoe zien zij de relatie tussen mens en de niet-menselijke wereld? In hoeverre heeft hun koloniale onderdrukking bijgedragen aan de klimaatcrisis?
- Deep ecology, filosofisch en religieus ecofeminisme en neo-animisme – bieden zij resources voor klimaatrechtvaardigheid en een goede toekomst in het Antropoceen?
- Utopieën en dystopieën van een post-natuurlijke wereld in filosofie, religie, en culturele producten als films en literatuur.
- Klimaatactivisme of het ontkennen van menselijke oorzaken van de klimaatcrisis – in hoeverre kunnen zij door filosofie en religie gemotiveerd zijn?
- Course code: RE3V24001
- Coordinator: Christoph Baumgartner
- BA Religiewetenschappen
- Block: 3
- Level: 3
- Language: Dutch
In this course students study utopian and speculative literature as narrative tools to imagine the future. At the same time they learn that these utopian texts reflect a historical setting and mindset. We will study the function and meaning of utopian texts at two turning points in history: the age of colonialism and the scientific revolution (16th-18th century) and the social-economic tensions and changes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Central in these two periods is that we focus on the interplay between European and non-European visions on possible futures. In the early modern period European utopian writers and thinkers had to adapt to a broader geographical and philosophical perspective (the "New World" and a New Worldview). They have to deal with their role as colonizers (cultural superiority vs cultural relativism) and scientists (positivism vs scepticism). In the second period utopian writing is becoming a more visibly global endeavour and often takes the shape of a literary dialogue between (former) colonizing and colonized countries. In both periods the role of utopias and dystopias in social and political constellations will be addressed, exploring issues such as gender, the postcolonial and the environmental. How does literature intervene in conflicts and debates on science, religion and politics? How can utopian optimism or irony develop into pessimism and (dystopian) scepticism?
- Course code: LI3V17103
- Coordinator: Flore Janssen
- BA Literary Studies
- Block: 3
- Level: 3
- Language: English/Lingua receptiva
Block 4
Critical Ecologies examines the role of literature and cultural theory in imagining the relationship between humans, nonhumans, and the environment in an age of increasing environmental precarity. Focusing particularly on writing from the (post)colonial world, as well as non-Western and Indigenous thought concerning the entanglement of humans and nonhumans, we will consider how literature provides a means to imagine and articulate alternative narratives about the world and our place in it. We will engage with a range of narrative and poetic forms, which we will bring into conversation with key theories and concepts from fields such as ecocriticism, animal studies, and post-/decolonial studies, in order to explore issues relating to climate change, species extinction, environmental justice, sustainability, nonhuman agency, and indigenous cosmologies. How can literature help us to rethink the increasing precarity of earthly life and reshape the role of the human in planetary futures?
This course focuses on key concepts, theories, and debates at the intersection of ecocriticism and post-/decolonial theory. It aims to provide insight in and knowledge of the relationship between environmental and social change and its expression in works of art and literary texts.
- Course code: LI3V23001
- Coordinator: Kári Driscoll, Merve Tabur
- BA Literary Studies, VP World Literature
- Block: 4
- Level: 3
- Language: English
This course will examine the relation between human and non-human worlds as an enduring question in anthropology. We will explore diverse ideas relating to the themes of “nature”, wilderness, “natural resources”, animalities, the environment and the state, and ecological justice. Against the current global environmental crisis, in which both human and non-human futures are deeply entangled and endangered, we consider what critical tools anthropology may offer for rethinking ethics and politics beyond the human. This includes exploring the politics of marking distinctions between the human and the non-human, as well as engaging themes of access, equity and justice with an emphasis on colonialism, race and political economy. Guided by ethnographic analysis, our studies will be in conversation with explorations of nature and the non-human in neighboring disciplines like philosophy, cultural studies, literature, psychology and feminist science and technology studies (STS).
Some of the questions we consider include: what does it mean to be “human” in the anthropocene? How did human and non-human futures come to be so deeply entangled and endangered? How does one rethink ideas of the “difference” between the human and the non-human? How can we think of more-than-human compositions and assemblages?
By focusing on the long disciplinary engagement with non-human worlds and entities in anthropology, we hope to better equip students to devise independent research projects on themes in environmental anthropology.
- Course code: 202200003 [Social Sciences]
- Coordinator: Aditi Saraf
- Elective component in minor Citizenship, Identity and Globalization
- Block: 4
- Level: 3
- Language: English
De klimaatcrisis komt niet uit de lucht gevallen. Hij is het gevolg van een hardnekkig geloof in vooruitgang, een ongebreidelde exploitatie van milieu en mensen, een spectaculair toegenomen welvaart en consumptie, en een collectief onvermogen om de waarschuwingen van wetenschappers om te zetten in daden. De crisis stelt ons voor grote maatschappelijke en technologische uitdagingen, maar in wezen is hij cultureel van aard: hij toont ons wat mensen beschouwen als een goed leven en welke offers we wel en niet bereid zijn te leveren om dat leven te leiden. In de ecokritiek onderzoeken geesteswetenschappers de waardepatronen die schrijvers in dit opzicht uitdragen.
Historisch gesproken is de klimaatcrisis het gevolg van beslissingen die sinds het einde van de achttiende eeuw zijn genomen, vooral in het Westen. Pas sinds de Industriële Revolutie immers gebruiken we op grote schaal fossiele brandstoffen. De kracht, warmte en welvaart die zo ontwikkeld konden worden, versterkten de indruk dat de mens heerser was over de natuur. Niet iedereen deelde dit vooruitgangsgeloof. Sommige, in ons taalgebied vooral religieuze auteurs waarschuwden voor deze hoogmoed. Scherpzinnige geesten zagen problematische parallellen tussen hoe dieren, bomen, vrouwen en mensen van kleur werden behandeld. Anders geformuleerd: de geschiedenis van de moderniteit is er (ook) een van exploitatie – van de aardbodem én van mensen.
De culturele en literaire geschiedenis van deze crisis moet grotendeels nog geschreven worden. In deze cursus kijken we naar wat we op dat vlak al weten, maar gaan we vooral ook op zoek naar extra primair materiaal dat ons beeld kan verdiepen en verbreden. We doen dit specifiek voor Nederlandstalige gebieden en onderzoeken ook het lokale, regionale en/of nationale zelfbeeld dat samenhangt met de energiegeschiedenis (turf, steenkool, olie, gas, windmolens). Extra aandacht gaat daarbij naar de koppeling van extractie (het delven van grondstoffen), exploitatie (van arbeiders en milieu) en kolonialisme. Ook de relatie met dieren staat op het programma, waarbij we ons onder meer afvragen of koeien in Nederland op dezelfde manier communiceren dan hun soortgenoten elders in de wereld.
We lezen de waarschuwende natuurgedichten van Guido Gezelle uit de negentiende eeuw en de vroeg-twintigste-eeuwse geschriften van Jac. P. Thijsse, de oprichter van Natuurmonumenten. Maar we hebben ook oog voor hoe auteurs helemaal opgingen in de zegeningen van de moderne tijd, in hun bijdrage aan de walvisvaart, liefde voor auto's, hun werk voor Shell, hun streven naar grotere welstand. Na de Tweede Wereldoorlog en vooral deze eeuw, waarin vervuiling, dierenmishandeling en milieuschandalen steeds meer aandacht krijgen, waren het vaak schrijvers of liedjesmakers, striptekenaars en scenaristen die aandacht vroegen voor de tol die we (zouden moeten) betalen voor onze omgang met de natuur. Het leidde tot de ontwikkeling van een nieuw genre – clifi, klimaatfictie – en ook een nieuwe manier om literatuur te bestuderen, ecokritiek. Deze cursus geeft een inleiding tot die ecokritiek en reconstrueert de rol die de Nederlandstalige literatuur heeft gespeeld in deze geschiedenis.
- Course code: NE3V24204
- Coordinator: Geert Buelens
- BA Nederlandse taal en cultuur
- Block: 4
- Level: 3
- Language: Dutch
This fourth course within the minor 'The Middle Ages' aims to familiarize you with research of the medieval period in different disciplines. In order to do so, we concentrate on a particular theme: the way medieval men and women dealt with and thought about animals. This topic will be dealt with from different angles: a more historical one, an art historical one and a more literary approach. We will look at animals as property and as food, but also at animal symbolism in art or literature. We will explore different venues for research and a great range of source material.
- Course code: GE3V17051
- Coordinators: Rob Meens & Veerle Fraeters
- Minor The Middle Ages
- Block: 4
- Level: 3
- Language: English
Master level
Al decennia worden we gewaarschuwd voor de impact van de klimaatverandering, maar pas recentelijk heeft deze kwestie zich - als een crisis - in het hart van het maatschappelijke, politieke en culturele debat gemanifesteerd. Ook in de Nederlandse literatuur is ze op korte tijd uitgegroeid tot een centraal thema. In deze cursus analyseren we werken van onder meer Lieke Marsman, Annelies Verbeke en Dominique De Groen in het licht van deze ontwikkeling. We reconstrueren hoe in de naoorlogse Westerse cultuur over ecologische ontwrichting is gedacht en geschreven en bestuderen de literaire werken in het kader van theorievorming rond Eco criticism & het Antropoceen. We vragen ons ook af welke bijdrage de verschillende literaire genres (proza, poëzie, drama en non-fictie) kunnen hebben in processen van bewustwording en gedragsverandering.
- Course Code: TLMV20005
- Course Coordinator: ###
- MA Neerlandistiek; MA Literature Today; RMA Nederlandse Literatuur en Cultuur
- Language: Dutch
Note: from 2024 on this course will be called Making Climate and Environmental Knowledge
The climate crisis has forced “the environment” into every aspect of our existence. Knowledge of the climate and environment is present in our daily weather forecasts and our economic models; in our politics and our energy systems. Yet how we define things like “the climate” or “the environment,” and how we measure them has changed dramatically over the last centuries. Our way of knowing the Earth as a planetary system draws on a long and tangled history of speculation and observation, instrument making and model building, scientific politics and institutionalization, field work and lab work, empire and extraction. It is a history that ranges from deep mines up into outer space. Understanding that history allows us to better understand some of the challenges faced by today’s climate, environmental, and Earth scientists.
The aim of this course is to bring together students from the sciences and the humanities to delve into the history and philosophy of the sciences dealing with the “Earth system.” Collectively, we will explore new historical and philosophical perspectives; read about some of the most pressing issues in the field; and discuss how reflecting on the practice of science will help us make sense of our current predicament. To understand where we come from is to have a better sense of where we are going.
- Course code: FI-MHPSMCE
- Course coordinator: Mathijs Boom
- Block 4
- Level: MA
- Language: English
This course is designed to introduce you to the methods and approaches of environmental history, a vibrant and interdisciplinary subfield, and to encourage you to explore the creative potential at the intersection of environmental and cultural history. Together, we will explore major themes in the history of human interactions with rivers and their ecosystems, in the modern period. What role have rivers played in modernisation, and what made rivers so vital to the development of major cities? How have different cultures and societies conceptualised the role of rivers in their lives – as threat, spiritual force, transport system, source of energy, food and drink?
We will explore the rivers of the Anthropocene informed by theories derived from anthropology (Verena Strang), Science and Technology Studies (Sara Pritchard), and geography (Erik Swyngedouw), as well as cutting edge historical monographs. The central themes tackled by this course include historical agency (human and non-human), the nature-culture binary, power and knowledge, the Anthropocene, resource extraction, indigeneity and resistance, and modernization.
What is involved in writing the history of a river, whose voices are heard and whose run the risk of remaining silent? In this course, you will engage with the genre of river histories, and discuss patterns of continuity and change discernible over time, between different regions of the world and major river systems. You will develop the skills needed to write a historical case study of your own, choosing a river that is meaningful to you. This course will provide opportunities to work collaboratively, hone your theoretical toolkit, strengthen your research skills, and deepen your knowledge of the environmental and cultural history of rivers. We will devote particular attention to the environmental impacts of colonisation, industrialisation and modernisation, and reflect upon the challenges to rivers posed by climate change.
- Course name and code: Research Tutorial 1, GKRMV16041
- Tutorial coordinator: Flora Roberts
- RMA History
- Block: 2
- Level: M
- Language: English
The notion that one should strive for a sustainable world seems widespread. Nonetheless, making this ambition operational appears to be rather complicated in practice, and implies many normative decisions. For instance, the need to address climate change-related problems is widely acknowledged. But how to address this need while simultaneously guaranteeing energy security in the Global North, industrial development in the Global South, and food security on a planet that is likely to exceed a population of 8 billion people, by the end of this course? Furthermore, questions of climate justice often have an anthropocentric focus, but is this focus justified? What is the role of non-human animals in a sustainable world? This course discusses core questions in the debate on sustainability and deals with their normative background. The course approaches sustainability as a normative issue that has direct implications on our dealing with humans, animals, and nature. It touches open concepts and approaches from animal ethics, environmental ethics, and climate ethics, and discusses principles of justice, welfare, problems of uncertainty, the role of technology, moral psychology, and institutional questions that arise in the context of sustainability.
- Course code: AEMV16007
- Coordinator: Frank Meijboom
- MA Applied Ethics
- Block: 2
- Level: M
- Language: English
What does an authoritarian regime look like when examined not from the traditional perspective of economic crisis, forms of coercion, or associations, but from that of the natural world and its various forms? How does nature give shape to authoritarianism, and how is the natural environment itself shaped by political decisions? How have categories like ‘nature’, ‘climate’ or ‘environment’ emerged and been understood under authoritarian regimes?
This course focuses on the environmental history of dictatorships and explores the cultural and material role played by nature in 20th-century authoritarian regimes in domestic and colonial settings. Right-wing and left-wing authoritarianisms waged wars against allegedly unproductive environments; launched campaigns of social, economic, and ecological reclamation; implemented extractive and autarkic policies.
This course understands dictatorships as polities featuring both oppression and modernization and enters into the following representative laboratories of reactionary modernity. It explores authoritarian forms of nature protection debunking the myth of an authoritarian environmentalism; it discusses environmental failures and consequences of authoritarian policies; it compares authoritarian and non-authoritarian environments.
Authoritarian regimes to be explored (the list is not exhaustive): Nazi Germany, the New State in Portugal, Franco's regime in Spain, the Soviet Union, Latin American authoritarianisms, Japanese colonialism in Korea, Italian Fascist authoritarianism in Africa.
- Course code: GKMV24002
- Coordinator: Roberta Basilio
- MA History of Politics and Society
- Block: 2
- Level: M
- Language: English