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"
306 Royce Hall 4-6 PM
For further information, please contact Amanda Waldo at awaldo@ucla.edu.