This is the podcast for the Mellon Lecture Series "A Cultural Pre-History of Environmentalism" at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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.
All rights to the content of these podcasts remain the copyright of the original authors.
The image above is of Henry Nickson's painting "Eroded Landscape" (Cap Haitien, 2007).
For further information please see our website at http://aculturalpre-historyofenvironmentalism.weebly.com/.