Module Code and Title:        ENV403 Environmental Humanities

Programme:                          BSc in Environmental Management

Credit:                                    12

Module Tutor:                       Leishipem Khamrang (Coordinator), Tshewang Dorji

General objective: This module will challenge students to think beyond conventional scientific framework, which is the common paradigm for understanding environmental crises. Students will examine alternative conceptualizations such as indigenous values practices, human imagination, belief systems, indigenous cosmologies, ethics, arts and literature. They will gain new perspectives on the complexities of human and non-human relationships, and learn how humanities approaches can aptly serve as appropriate approaches to environmental management issues.

Learning Outcomes – On completion of the module, students will be able to:

1. Explain the emergence of environmental humanities.
2. Explain the relevance of humanistic perspectives in addressing environmental issues.
3. Describe the ‘spiritual landscape’ construct.
4. Justify the usefulness of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in an age of science.
5. Discuss the interconnectedness of culture and nature among indigenous people.
6. Analyse the perspective that all living beings emerge from and make their lives within multispecies communities.
7. Contrast different cultural perspectives on the environment.
8. Describe the connection between environmental values and spiritual attachment.
9. Discuss sacred cosmologies relatedness in everyday life of the indigenous Trans-Himalayan communities.

Learning and Teaching Approach:

Assessment Approach:

1. Critical Reflection Paper: 15%

Students will individually produce one reflection paper based on assigned readings. Reading materials will be on diverse topics under the broad themes such as ecocriticism, ecosophy, indigenous cosmologies and spiritual landscape. Students will be expected to review key concepts and critically reflect on how lessons learned can be applied to environmental issues.  Each response paper will be 750-1000 words in length.

7%       Accuracy and completeness of summary

5%       Insightful use of class material to analyse and critique the materials

3%       Mechanics (Language, organization and referencing)

1. Individual Presentation: 10%

Students will be assigned topics under broad themes such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, lively ethnography, eco-religion, multispecies and anthropocene. Students will prepare a 10-minute presentation to share their findings with the class. The presentation will be evaluated on:

4%       Accuracy and completeness of material summary

3%       Insightful use of class material to explain the significance of the findings

3%       Presentation delivery and clarity

1. Case study (Individual): 20%

Towards the end of the semester, students will carry out a case study choosing a specific community, activist, movement, project site, etc. Students will write a case study report of 1250-1500 words.

6%       Accuracy and completeness

6%       Insightful use of class material, the relevant theory and course concepts, to analyse and critique the findings and facts given in the case.

5%       Meaningful application drawn from the case study to solve environmental issues

3%       Mechanics (Language, organization and referencing)

1. Midterm Examination: 15%

Students will take a written exam of 1.5-hr duration covering topics up to the mid-point of the semester. The exam will comprise structured questions like MCQ, fill-in-the-blanks, matching, definition, as well as open-ended essay questions.

1. Semester-End Examination: 40%

Students will take a written exam of 2.5-hr duration encompassing all the subject matter covered in the semester. This assessment is comprehensive and summative in nature, and will comprise structured questions like MCQ, fill-in-the-blanks, matching, definition, as well as open-ended essay questions.

Overview of assessment approaches and weighting

Pre-requisites: ETH201 Environmental Ethics

Subject Matter:

1. Unit I: Introduction to environmental humanities
   • Concept, meaning, and scope of environmental humanities
   • Overview of the interface of social sciences, natural science and the humanities
   • Emergence of the environmental humanities
     • Anthropocene in the environmental humanities
     • Ecocriticism and the analysis of the treatment of environmental issues in literary texts
     • Ecosophy as an approach to ecological harmony
     • Geography and environmental humanities
     • The environmental turn

2. Unit II. Indigenous cosmovision, spirituality, and landscape
   • Indigenous cosmologies and spiritual landscape
   • Intertwining of spirit, nature, and place
   • Beyond dualities: nature-culture and human versus non-human
   • Rights of nature and indigenous cosmovision
3. Unit III. Indigenous epistemologies: Traditional ecological knowledge
   • Review of TEK definition and components
   • TEK as tools to understanding environmental ‘crises’
   • Protection of the nature – dualities of science and indigenous philosophy
   • Indigenous stewardship model
4. Unit IV. The green religion imagination
   • Review on major religious views on nature
   • Spiritual ecology and radical environmentalism
   • Earth spirituality and green religion        
   • Spirituality, nature and conservation
   • Planetary challenges and religious engagement
5. Unit V. Key concepts of multispecies studies
   • Resituating human and non-humans
   • Human-animal intimacies
   • Co-becoming and more-than-human kin-making
   • Posthumanism and multispecies studies
   • The ecological thought and coexistentialism
   • Speciesism, symbiotic relation, and co-evolution
   • Ecocide and responses to geographies of extinction
6. Unit VI. The environmental imagination
   • Concept and definition of environmental imagination
   • Ecological affordances
   • Storying the environment; Concept of “lively ethnography” as a tool to recognize the meaningful lives of other (humans and non-humans)
   • Popular culture and creative re-envisioning of environmental issues
   • Environmental imagination – case studies
     • Reading cultural texts
     • Activisms and actions - development sites and projects
     • Nature writing (literature), art and film
   • Pan-humanly sustainable intelligence and ethics
7. Unit VII. Environmental humanities in the Trans-Himalaya
   • Ecological animism and ecological humanism
   • Transhumance practices and the environment
   • Folk tales, folklores, oral history and the environment
   • Philosophical animism in the Trans-Himalaya
   • Sacred cosmologies, meaning, significance, and practices
   • Commoning and changing commons

Reading List:

Essential Readings

Barilla, J.  (2021). Naturebot: Unconventional visions of nature. Abingdon, England: Routledge

Berkes, F. (2017). Sacred ecology (4th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Emmett, R.S., & Nye, D.E. (2017). The environmental humanities: A critical introduction. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Heise, U.K., Christensen, J., & Niemann, M. (2017). The Routledge companion to the environmental humanities. Abingdon, England: Routledge.

Morton, T.  (2007). Ecology without nature: Rethinking environmental aesthetics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Additional Reading

Bergmann, S., & Clingerman, F.J. (2018). Arts, religion and the environment: Exploring nature’s texture.  Amsterdam, Netherlands: Brill Rodopi.

Buell, L., & Schneider, R.J.  (Eds.). (2000). Thoreau's sense of place: Essays in American environmental writing (American land & life). Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press.

Burton, A. (2021). Trees in nineteenth-century English fiction the silvicultural novel. Abingdon, England, Routledge.

Carson, R. (1962). Silent spring. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Ehlers, E. & Krafft, T.  (Eds.). (2006). Earth system science in the Anthropocene: Emerging issues and problems. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Ghosh, A. (2006). The hungry tide. Toronto, Canada: Penguin Canada.

Ghosh, A. (2016). The great derangement: climate change and the unthinkable. Toronto, Canada: Penguin Canada.

Gibson, J.J.  (2014). The ecological approach to visual perception: Classic edition. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

Gladwin, D. (2018). Ecological exile, spatial injustice and environmental humanities. Abingdon, England: Routledge.

Gottieb, R.S. (Eds.). (2006). The oxford handbook of religion and ecology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Ives, J. D. (2004). Himalayan perceptions: Environmental change and the well-being of mountain peoples. Abingdon, England: Routledge.

Jenkins, W.J., Tucker, M. E., & Grim, J. (2017). Routledge handbook of religion and ecology. Abingdon, England: Routledge.

Jorgensen, D.  (2019). Recovering lost species in the modern age: Histories of longing and belonging. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Jørgensen, D., Jørgensen, F. A., & Pritchard, S. B. (Eds.). (2013). New natures: Joining environmental history with science and technology studies. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Lovelock, J.  (2000). Gaia: A new look at life on earth. Oxford University Press.

Marie, B., & Henderson, J. (2000). Protecting indigenous knowledge and heritage: A global challenge. Vancouver, Canada: British Columbia Press.

Nixon, R. (2011). Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Plomin, R., DeFries, J.C., & Fulker, D. W. (2006). Nature and nurture during infancy and early childhood. Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press.

Roothan, A. (2019). Indigenous, modern and postcolonial relations to nature
negotiating the environment. London, England: Routledge.

Ross, A., Sherman, R., Snodgrass, J.G., & Delcore, H.D.  (2010). Indigenous peoples and the collaborative stewardship of nature: Knowledge binds and institutional conflicts. London, UK: Routledge.

Sponsel, L. E. (2012). Spiritual ecology: A quiet revolution. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing; Abc-Clio.

Taylor, S. M. (2007). Green sisters: A spiritual ecology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Thom, V. D. (2016). Flight ways: Life and loss at the edge of extinction. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Tsing, A. (2015). The Mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Yü, D.S. & Maaker, E.D. (Eds.). (2021). Environmental humanities in the new Himalayas symbiotic indigeneity, commoning, sustainability. Abington, London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.Yü, D.S. (2001). Mindscaping the landscape of Tibet: place, memorability, ecoaesthetics. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.

Date: June 2021