Henry Nickson "Eroded Landscape" (Cap Haitien, 2007)
Project Description
The most persistent and pressing issue of the 21st century will probably be ecological change; most notoriously, global warming and its diverse ramifications. As many scholars have argued, environmental stewardship is directly tied to our cultural understandings of the natural world. Accordingly, the field of ecocriticism, an environmentalist approach to the humanities, is one of the fastest-growing fields of study. This seminar series is based on the foundational concept that ecological change is a global and historical phenomenon and one best approached with attention to historical depth and spatial breadth. The struggles of societies to assimilate environmental change have always been represented in their artistic productions; works of art both reflect and significantly affect the work of survival. "A Cultural Pre-History of Environmentalism" brings together the work of scholars on UCLA campus with visiting scholars in the humanities, and is organized around a lecture series and graduate seminar scheduled for Winter and Spring Quarter, 2009. We hope this Mellon program will offer a rare opportunity for scholars across several disciplines to begin filling in the crucial gaps in ecocritical scholarship, building an integral, intricate, and socially valuable new field of humanistic study.
Speaker Schedule 2009
Wednesday, February 25 Jayne Lewis, University of California, Irvine
"Priestley, Radcliffe, and the Gothic Grammar of
Atmosphere"
306 Royce Hall 4-6PM
Wednesday, March 4 Julian Yates, University of Delaware "What was Pastoral (Again)? More Versions."
Humanities 193, 4-6 PM
Wednesday, March 11 Ursula Heise, Stanford University
"No Talk of Trees: Environmental Literature and the
Question of Cultural Difference."
Humanities 193, 4-6 PM
Wednesday, April 22 Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, Vassar College
"Of Creole Pigs and Other Vanishing Species: The
Environmental Costs of Colonialism in the Caribbean"
193 Humanities 4-6 PM
Tuesday, April 28 Pablo Mukherjee, Warwick University
"Touring the Dead Lands: Emily Eden, Indian Famine and
the Imperial Apocalypse"
Humanities 193 4-6 PM
Wednesday, May 6 Jennifer Wenzel, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
"The Planet and Postcolonial Studies; or, Caution--
Progress Narratives Ahead!"
306 Royce Hall 4-6 PM
Wednesday, May 20 Timothy Morton,University of California, Davis "Beautiful Soul Syndrome."
Cancelled - Please see our podcast page or Professor Morton's podcast
at iTunes U for an MP3 of this talkor read it here.
Wednesday, June 3 "Comparative Environmentalisms: A Roundtable Discussion" Bunche 10383 4:30 PM
Elizabeth DeLoughrey
UCLA Department of English
Caroline Ford
UCLA Department of History
Susanna Hecht
UCLA Department of Urban Planning / Institute of the Environment
Robert N. Watson
UCLA Department of English
chaired by
Claire McEachern
UCLA Department of English
For further information, please contact Amanda Waldo at awaldo@ucla.edu. Alternative energy market research.
