Environmental Humanities - ENVPD13938
Stream Summary
Faculty: ARTSC - Faculty of Arts&Social Science
School: School of Humanities and Languages
Contact: hal@unsw.edu.au
Program: 3938 - Adv Science/Soc Rsch & Policy
Award(s):
Bachelor of Social Research and Policy (Major)
View stream information for previous years
Stream Outline
Species extinction, genetically modified organisms, climate change and nuclear power are just a few of the challenges facing us today. While these are all clearly ‘environmental’ issues, they are also all profoundly social, cultural and political challenges. Education in the Environmental Humanities focuses on developing critical insight into the ‘human dimensions’ of these environmental issues; issues that now permeate almost every aspect of our lives, from everyday lifestyle decisions to collective and public choices concerning urban development, energy security and food production.
Drawing on resources from across the humanities and social sciences, teaching in Environmental Humanities provides students with a valuable and distinctive approach to the environment, grounded in the fields of history, philosophy, geography, cultural studies, literature, science and technology studies (STS) and social theory.
The Environmental Humanities major stream aims to develop:
- An awareness of the historical, philosophical and political implications of the human construction and transformation of the environment.
- An ability to utilise a range of disciplinary methods to analyse and critically interrogate diverse perspectives on contemporary environmental concerns.
- An understanding of the way environmental concerns have become prominent political issues, as well as how social, economic and technological systems affect human relationships with the environment and the ways in which environmental decisions are made and controversies resolved.
- An ability to apply an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis and resolution of contemporary environmental dilemmas
Stream Structure
- ARTS1240 Environment and Society (6 UOC)
- ARTS1241 Environmental Activism (6 UOC)
- ARTS2240 Environment and Development (6 UOC)
- ARTS2243 Waste and Society (6 UOC)
- ARTS2244 Rethinking Wildlife (6 UOC)
- ARTS2247 Indigenous Environments (6 UOC)
- SART2855 Art and the Environment (6 UOC)
- ARTS3241 Environmental Justice (6 UOC)
- ARTS3242 Environmental History (6 UOC)
- ARTS3243 Remaking Nature (6 UOC)
- ARTS3302 Technology & Consumption (6 UOC)