Environmental Humanities
The minor in Environmental Humanities introduces you to a vibrant interdisciplinary field, which explores urgent questions relating to sustainability, biodiversity, the climate crisis, and the role the Humanities can play in facilitating fair transitions.
Summary
| Number of EC | 30 EC |
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| Number of courses | 4 compulsory courses |
| Start | Block 1 |
| Coordinator | |
| Course overview | |
| Code minor | EHU-MINOR |
| Entry requirements | None |
| Associated MA-programmes |
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| Register between 2 June and 20 June 2025 |
Make sure to register for the minor as well as all its courses |
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Contents of the minor
What does it mean to be human in a time of environmental crisis? How are ecological realities tied to political, social, and economic systems? How can culture, science, and the arts foster sustainable transitions? These pressing questions are central to the Environmental Humanities, an emerging field that addresses the intertwined challenges of climate change, inequality, and ecological degradation.
This minor offers four interdisciplinary courses that examine the Anthropocene through the lenses of history, sustainability ethics, narrative and imagination. Themes such as representation, rhetoric, and the role of science are explored across disciplines in a collaborative, engagement-driven format.
The program draws on expertise from the Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Geosciences, united in the Network for Environmental Humanities. (NEH). NEH offers a platform for connection and enrichment through events, screenings, and excursions.
The minor takes particular care to foster a supportive and engaged community, through a range of regular, optional meetings for enrolled students, including Biophillia lunches (a student-led project for a greener, wilder library courtyard), Ecogame and eco-film nights.
Aims
This minor equips you with conceptual and analytical tools to engage with today's urgent environmental issues. You will:
- explore key concepts in the Environmental Humanities across past, present and future contexts
- compare interdisciplinary approaches to environmental challenges
- develop skills for small-scale research using appropriate theories and methods
- critically examine central debates in the field
- gain experience in interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork
Matching Bachelor programmes
This minor represents a useful addition to almost every BA imaginable: it is open to all students who want to be involved in imagining sustainable, just and inclusive solutions, different to prolonged policies and economies that tend to focus on the next ‘technological fix’ of a broken, extractive system.
More information
If you wish to know more, or have questions about this minor, please contact the Student Desk Humanities.