Recent years have been marked by an alarming escalation of environmental crises, turning climate change, pollution, the depletion of natural resources, mass extinction and global health into some of the most urgent concerns of contemporary society.
Using the discussion of pre-selected material as starting point, the Ecocultures seminar intends to reflect on the interrelation between culture and the environment, to examine the growing awareness of the negative impact of human activities and to discuss the necessity to rethink, reconceptualize and redefine the relationship between humans and the non-human world.
It is expected that students develop a reflexive discourse about the curricular unit’s thematic; that they understand the different and complex ways in which culture and environment intersect; and that they seek to critically analyze theory and apply it to case studies.