This Connected Community is devoted to the innovative paradigm of the Environmental Humanities: it aims to explore the critical role of the humanities in a time of environmental crisis, generating socio-ecological awareness, raising informed critique of existing paradigms and systems, and sustaining social, cultural and ethical change to protect and nourish the diversity of life on our planet. Four European universities with different interdisciplinary perspectives, frameworks and experiences join to explore, compare and exchange pedagogical models and best practices, working toward a collective response to new global challenges.
Programme
This CC provides a platform where students, researchers, academic and administrative staff, as well as artists, civil society and non academic audiences join forces to develop and promote collaborative pedagogical and research initiatives. It means to develop a teaching-research environment promoting not only curriculum but also potential research development. EH students will be involved in research activities, projects and workshops, in collaboration with PhD students and researchers. The CC offers EH research-based strategies for the transformation of pedagogy, in line with EH research on ecological consciousness, environmental affect, inclusive worldmaking and critical reflection on public understandings of sustainability, ecology, disruption, and climate crisis. The CC emphasises research-oriented learning, co-production with students, and the development of experimental interdisciplinary formats, such as:
Workshops, visits and field-trips (ex. to the lagoon in Venice, the post-extractivist zones around Dresden, the historic automotive transport industry in Coventry alongside Warwickshire’s ancient woodlands—remnants of Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden, the seascapes around Lisbon and ocean history and conservation exhibitions in Portugal);
EUTOPIA Spring School on Ecolinguistics, Venice, May 15-16 2025
The EUTOPIA Connected Community on Environmental Humanities and Ca' Foscari's LAST Lab will host the "2025 EUTOPIA Spring School on Ecolinguistics", planned in Venice in May 15-16, 2025. The Spring School will offer a deeper understanding of the nexus between language, discourse, power, and sustainability transformations.
Activities will be organized in two main blocks: the first day (May 15, hybrid) will provide an introduction to the development and current trends in ecolinguistic research, as well as to qualitative and quantitative methods for ecological discourse analysis. The second day of the Spring school (May 16, in-person only) will provide participants with the opportunity to experience in an interactive way hands-on methods for collaborative analysis and re-storying of environmental texts and for corpus-based analysis on large amount of textual data.
The introductory class will be hold by Prof. Sune Vork Steffensen from the University of Southern Denmark. Sune is regional representative for Nordic Countries of the Intl. Ecolinguistics Association and is among the most important voices in ecolinguistic research in Europe. He will be joined by Prof. Daniele Brombal (UNIVE, Connected Community Co-lead), Dr. Sergio Conti (Roma Tre University, LAST Lab & NICHE) and PhD candidate Laura Locatelli (UNIVE & LAST Lab).
Detailed programme and poster for the event to follow.
EUTOPIA Spring School "Environmental Humanities as a Regenerative Process. Reconnecting Ethics, Knowledge, and Action", Venice, May 19-23, 2025
The EUTOPIA Connected Community on Environmental Humanities and LAST Lab will host the "2025 EUTOPIA Spring School on Environmental Humanities as a Regenerative Process. Reconnecting Ethics, Knowledge, and Action", planned in Venice in May 19-23, 2025 (in-person only).
Goals and expected outcomes
The goal of this Spring School is to explore the Environmental Humanities (EH) as a regenerative process, bearing significant potential for healing the self, our communities, and social-ecological systems. Participants will be guided through a co-creative redefinition of EH ethics, practices, and desirable goals, crystalizing such vision in the form of a co-designed charted of values. They will be then given the possibility of exploring first hand the potential of such vision(s) to imagine and effect social-ecological regeneration, based on an archetypal example located in the Venetian Lagoon.
When and where
- May 19-23, 2025
- Days 1, 2, 3, and 5 in Venice
- Day 4 site visit in the Lagoon.
Approach and methods
The format is co-creative, based on a Theory-U approach. T-U provides participants with a structured pathway to (a) unearth and enable their core motivations and emotional response(s) to the themes of the school; (b) crystalize shared visions; and (c) prototype ways to effect social-ecological change. Besides providing a structured process for co-creation, this approach is helpful in strengthening participants’ self-efficacy, by reinforcing the connection between their heart, brain, and hands, as well as generating a sense of community. While we all know that these aspects are key to regeneration, they are often overlooked in academic settings. This school tries to make up (at least in part) for this deficiency.
Detailed programme and poster for the event to follow.
Connected Community Past Activities
Hybrid Symposium "Humanities Perspectives on Energy Transition: Justice, Geographies, Literacies, Imaginaries ", November 13th 2024
The Technische Universität Dresden hosted the hybrid symposium "Humanities Perspectives on Energy Transition: Justice, Geographies, Literacies, Imaginaries ", on November 13th 2024.
Energy is more than the diesel in our cars, the electricity in our refrigerators, the lithium in our batteries. Energy shapes how we interact with the world. Its technologies, politics and materialities are deeply embedded in our histories, geographies, aesthetics, emotions, and visions of the good life. Energy systems are also cultural systems. In times of global heating, accelerated resource extraction, and environmental injustice, the task of transitioning towards more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable energy futures pertains to all aspects of cultural and scientific practice, and requires the perspectives and expertise of a wide variety of fields. This symposium will foreground the crucial role of the humanities and social sciences in engaging the complexities of energy transition and the legacies of petromodernity.
This event was hosted by the Chair of North American Literature and Future Studies at TU Dresden in collaboration with the EUTOPIA Connected Community in Environmental Humanities and the TUDiSC project Transformative Placemaking for Uncertain Futures. The event was in person and live-streamed via Zoom. Organizers: Anja Lind & Moritz Ingwersen. Further information in the poster below.
Summer Symposium "Confluence: Situating the Environmental Humanities", May 30th - July 1st 2024
The University of Warwick hosted Confluence: Situating the Environmental Humanities, a Summer Symposium, from May 30th to June 1st 2024. The Symposium shared interdisciplinary best practices, and explored and confronted critical issues in the field of Environmental Humanities. A thematic background for Confluence was a comparative discussion of environmental challenges faced in Venice, Coventry, Dresden and Lisbon, as cities across Europe confront different but related manifestations of the climate crisis. How do institutions, educators, and researchers in the Environmental Humanities, not only frame but actively map a way through some of the key socio-cultural, economic and political challenges we face in the transition to a decarbonised future? The programme includes field activities and site visits to engage with local community organisations, green groups and regional partners (including the Coventry Biennial, the Sherbourne River Project and Coventry for a Green New Deal).
Photo by L. De Capitani
Symposium
How to get involved?
Contacts
Lead: Prof. Shaul Bassi (bassi@unive.it)
Local Facilitator: Laura Cappellesso (eutopia@unive.it)
Connected Community Members
Lead: Shaul Bassi (UNIVE), Email: bassi@unive.it
Shaul Bassi is full professor of English literature and head of studies of the Master's Degree in Environmental Humanities. He has taught at Ca' Foscari University of Venice since 2000. His research, teaching and publications are divided between Shakespeare, environmental humanities, postcolonial theory and literature (India and Africa), and Jewish studies. He is the co-founder and former director of the international literary festival Incroci di civiltà and the former director of the International Center for the Humanities and Social Change at Ca' Foscari.
Daniele Brombal is Associate Professor at the Department of Asian and North African Studies of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where he leads the Laboratory on Area Studies for Sustainability Transformations (LAST) and is deputy head of studies of the MA Programme in Environmental Humanities. In the last 15 years, his work has been exploring dynamics of institutional change for sustainability in China and beyond. Daniele has published extensively on environmental politics, blending traditional policy-oriented research with participatory and co-creative practices. His current work locates at the intersection between political ecology and ecolinguistics. Besides his work in academia, Daniele is passionate about mountains and wilderness. Whenever possible, he seeks refuge in his hometown in the Dolomites with his life partner Angela, their daughter Leda Marie, and their dog Pepper.
Partner: Jonathan Skinner (UW), Email: j.e.skinner@warwick.ac.uk
Jonathan Skinner is Reader (Associate Professor) in English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick, where he directs the Centre for Ecopoetics. Best known for founding the journalecopoetics, Jonathan holds a PhD from the University at Buffalo Poetics Program and an MA in Translation Studies from UCL. Jonathan’s research across numerous published essays focuses on ecocritical approaches to contemporary and post-war poetry and poetics, alongside ongoing interest in garden theory and field recording and a developing interest in the energy humanities. He is also a published poet and field recordist, with a special interest in avian vocalisation, and active as an editor and translator. Jonathan’s teaching runs from the theoretical and literary (Question of the Animal) to the creative and practice-led (Ecopoetics, Small Press Publishing) including numerous PhD supervisions in ecopoetics and related areas.
Dr Graeme Macdonald is full Professor in the Dept. of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. He has a PhD in English Literature and Sociology from the University of Glasgow and an MA (Jt Hons Literature and Sociology) from Aberdeen. He gained a PGCHE at Warwick, where he is the convenor of the MA in Environmental Humanities degree. His teaching and research are in the field of Energy Humanities and Petrocultures. He is a longstanding member of the Petrocultures Research Group and the After Oil project. He was also a recent member of the Low-Carbon Scotland and Climaginaries research projects, with a particular interest in speculative narratives and creative practices of energy, environmental and climate futures.
Partner: Nick Lawrence (UW), Email: n.lawrence@warwick.ac.uk
. Nick Lawrence teaches on the MA in Environmental Humanities at the University of Warwick. His research and teaching interests include theorising recent world-literary debates under the sign of the Anthropocene; modernism and the poetics of world-ecology; ecology and labour in American literature and culture; eco-Marxism and critical theory; and theories of degrowth. These interests are reflected in three current studies: Sacrifice Zones: Neoliberal Culture and the Limits to Capitalist Nature, on the co-production of weird nature and weird culture in contemporary literary responses to capitalist crisis; World-Literature in the Anthropocene, a disciplinary field assessment; and Degrowth Imaginaries, a survey of cultural prefigurations of a world order beyond the present regime of open-ended capitalist accumulation, extractivism and ecocide. He gardens against the apocalypse outside Coventry in the UK.
Cristina Brito is Associate Professor at the History Department at NOVA FCSH in Lisbon, and a researcher at CHAM - Center for the Humanities, where she is also a member of the Board. She is the subdirector for research and scientific strategy at NOVA FCSH, Lisbon. Currently, she is the co-PI of the ERC Synergy Grant 4-OCEANS: Human History of Marine Life (2021-2027) and the PI of two EEA Grants Bilateral Funds Initiatives. She holds a PhD in History, a Masters in Ethology and a bachelor’s degree in biology – Marine Resources, Lisbon. She is interested in the history of the Anthropocene, human/non-human entanglements, and the Blue Humanities. Her new book - Humans and Aquatic Animals in Early Modern Africa and Americas - is now published by Amsterdam University Press.
Nina Vieira is an invited Assistant Researcher and Professor of NOVA FCSH, Lisbon. She is a sub-director and researcher at CHAM - Centre for the Humanities, as a team member of the ERC Synergy Grant 4-OCEANS. She holds a Doctorate in History from NOVA FCSH, a Masters in Marine Ecology and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. She participates in several research projects and networks, namely at the European Society for Environmental History and the Oceans Past Initiative. Her main research interests regard marine mammals exploitation in a large chronological frame, being specialised in whaling history both in the North and South Atlantic. Her work fits within the scope of Environmental History, Animal History, Blue Humanities and Marine Historical Ecology.
Partner: Isabel Gomes de Almeida (NOVA), Email: isalmeida@fcsh.unl.pt
Isabel Gomes de Almeida is an Assistant Professor at the History Department at NOVA FCSH, Lisbon, and a researcher of CHAM- Centre for the Humanities. She has a PhD in History - Ancient History, by Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (2015), a MA in History - specialization field in Ancient Civilizations of Asia and Middle East, and a BA in History, with a minor in Asian History. Her research revolves around History of Religions, namely in what concerns the syncretic processes in ancient Western Asian religious systems, and the construction processes of divine figures. Lately she has been developing a line of research on the significances of ancient southern Mesopotamia aquatic symbols and metaphors, by intertwining History of Religions and Environmental History, to enable a renewed examination on the human's relation with Nature, within this specific context.
Partner: Moritz Ingwersen (TUD), Email: moritz.ingwersen@tu-dresden.de
Moritz Ingwersen is Professor of North American Literature and Future Studies at TU Dresden where he also serves as a co-PI of the interdisciplinary research project “Transformative Placemaking for Uncertain Futures” affiliated with the TU Dresden Center for Disruption and Societal Change (TUDiSC). Building on a PhD in Cultural Studies from Trent University and an MA in English and Physics from the University of Cologne, his research and teaching focus on critical intersections of the environmental and energy humanities, transformative pedagogy, speculative fiction, science & technology studies, and North American literatures. He is a member of the board of editorial consultants for Science Fiction Studies and the co-editor of the book series Critical Futures (Transcript, 2023–).
Orit Halpern is a Lighthouse Professor and the Chair of Digital Cultures at Technische Universität Dresden. Her research is on histories of cybernetics, design, and artificial intelligence. Her most recent book with Robert Mitchell (MIT Press 2023) is titled the Smartness Mandate. It examines how we have come to believe that digital computing is essential to human survival, and how “smart” technologies and ideologies are remaking planetary futures. She is also the director of the Against Catastrophe, a laboratory bridging the arts, environmental sciences, media, and the social sciences to envision non-catastrophic futures. She is currently writing a book on extreme infrastructures and the history of experimentation at planetary scales in design, science, and engineering.
Shaul Bassi is full professor of English literature and head of studies of the Master's Degree in Environmental Humanities. He has taught at Ca' Foscari University of Venice since 2000. His research, teaching and publications are divided between Shakespeare, environmental humanities, postcolonial theory and literature (India and Africa), and Jewish studies. He is the co-founder and former director of the international literary festival Incroci di civiltà and the former director of the International Center for the Humanities and Social Change at Ca' Foscari.
Daniele Brombal is Associate Professor at the Department of Asian and North African Studies of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where he leads the Laboratory on Area Studies for Sustainability Transformations (LAST) and is deputy head of studies of the MA Programme in Environmental Humanities. In the last 15 years, his work has been exploring dynamics of institutional change for sustainability in China and beyond. Daniele has published extensively on environmental politics, blending traditional policy-oriented research with participatory and co-creative practices. His current work locates at the intersection between political ecology and ecolinguistics. Besides his work in academia, Daniele is passionate about mountains and wilderness. Whenever possible, he seeks refuge in his hometown in the Dolomites with his life partner Angela, their daughter Leda Marie, and their dog Pepper.
Jonathan Skinner is Reader (Associate Professor) in English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick, where he directs the Centre for Ecopoetics. Best known for founding the journal ecopoetics, Jonathan holds a PhD from the University at Buffalo Poetics Program and an MA in Translation Studies from UCL. Jonathan’s research across numerous published essays focuses on ecocritical approaches to contemporary and post-war poetry and poetics, alongside ongoing interest in garden theory and field recording and a developing interest in the energy humanities. He is also a published poet and field recordist, with a special interest in avian vocalisation, and active as an editor and translator. Jonathan’s teaching runs from the theoretical and literary (Question of the Animal) to the creative and practice-led (Ecopoetics, Small Press Publishing) including numerous PhD supervisions in ecopoetics and related areas.
Dr Graeme Macdonald is full Professor in the Dept. of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. He has a PhD in English Literature and Sociology from the University of Glasgow and an MA (Jt Hons Literature and Sociology) from Aberdeen. He gained a PGCHE at Warwick, where he is the convenor of the MA in Environmental Humanities degree. His teaching and research are in the field of Energy Humanities and Petrocultures. He is a longstanding member of the Petrocultures Research Group and the After Oil project. He was also a recent member of the Low-Carbon Scotland and Climaginaries research projects, with a particular interest in speculative narratives and creative practices of energy, environmental and climate futures.
Cristina Brito is Associate Professor at the History Department at NOVA FCSH in Lisbon, and a researcher at CHAM - Center for the Humanities, where she is also a member of the Board. She is the subdirector for research and scientific strategy at NOVA FCSH, Lisbon. Currently, she is the co-PI of the ERC Synergy Grant 4-OCEANS: Human History of Marine Life (2021-2027) and the PI of two EEA Grants Bilateral Funds Initiatives. She holds a PhD in History, a Masters in Ethology and a bachelor’s degree in biology – Marine Resources, Lisbon. She is interested in the history of the Anthropocene, human/non-human entanglements, and the Blue Humanities. Her new book - Humans and Aquatic Animals in Early Modern Africa and Americas - is now published by Amsterdam University Press.
Nina Vieira is an invited Assistant Researcher and Professor of NOVA FCSH, Lisbon. She is a sub-director and researcher at CHAM - Centre for the Humanities, as a team member of the ERC Synergy Grant 4-OCEANS. She holds a Doctorate in History from NOVA FCSH, a Masters in Marine Ecology and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. She participates in several research projects and networks, namely at the European Society for Environmental History and the Oceans Past Initiative. Her main research interests regard marine mammals exploitation in a large chronological frame, being specialised in whaling history both in the North and South Atlantic. Her work fits within the scope of Environmental History, Animal History, Blue Humanities and Marine Historical Ecology.
Isabel Gomes de Almeida is an Assistant Professor at the History Department at NOVA FCSH, Lisbon, and a researcher of CHAM- Centre for the Humanities. She has a PhD in History - Ancient History, by Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (2015), a MA in History - specialization field in Ancient Civilizations of Asia and Middle East, and a BA in History, with a minor in Asian History. Her research revolves around History of Religions, namely in what concerns the syncretic processes in ancient Western Asian religious systems, and the construction processes of divine figures. Lately she has been developing a line of research on the significances of ancient southern Mesopotamia aquatic symbols and metaphors, by intertwining History of Religions and Environmental History, to enable a renewed examination on the human's relation with Nature, within this specific context.
Moritz Ingwersen is Professor of North American Literature and Future Studies at TU Dresden where he also serves as a co-PI of the interdisciplinary research project “Transformative Placemaking for Uncertain Futures” affiliated with the TU Dresden Center for Disruption and Societal Change (TUDiSC). Building on a PhD in Cultural Studies from Trent University and an MA in English and Physics from the University of Cologne, his research and teaching focus on critical intersections of the environmental and energy humanities, transformative pedagogy, speculative fiction, science & technology studies, and North American literatures. He is a member of the board of editorial consultants for Science Fiction Studies and the co-editor of the book series Critical Futures (Transcript, 2023–).
Orit Halpern is a Lighthouse Professor and the Chair of Digital Cultures at Technische Universität Dresden. Her research is on histories of cybernetics, design, and artificial intelligence. Her most recent book with Robert Mitchell (MIT Press 2023) is titled the Smartness Mandate. It examines how we have come to believe that digital computing is essential to human survival, and how “smart” technologies and ideologies are remaking planetary futures. She is also the director of the Against Catastrophe, a laboratory bridging the arts, environmental sciences, media, and the social sciences to envision non-catastrophic futures. She is currently writing a book on extreme infrastructures and the history of experimentation at planetary scales in design, science, and engineering.
