Where do we do our work? The places of environmental humanities
To say that all work in the environmental humanities is concerned with place is an apparently banal, commonplace observation (pun intended). But when faced with a global ecological crisis that has specific, localised and heterogeneous manifestations, the conceptual integrity and utility of the notion of ‘place’ is far from evident. This is still more evidently the case when we consider the enduring coloniality of structures of power, and indeed of the dissemination of knowledge.
This masterclass will provide a forum for addressing these issues in relation to the research we carry out. We will seek to answer, or at least begin to answer, the following questions, among others: what places do we (un)consciously rely on in our work? What are the risks of exclusion attached to an ethics of conservation, and how can they be mitigated? What relation to efforts to decolonise humanities scholarship have to ideas of place?
In preparation for the masterclass, participants will read the following two short pieces:
- Sean Cubitt, ‘Decolonizing Ecomedia’, Cultural Politics 10:3 (2014), 275-286. .
- Val Plumwood, ‘Shadow Places and the Politics of Dwelling’, Australian Humanities Review 44 (2008), 139-150.
Participants can also add places relevant to your work to this Padlet – feel free to get creative and add images, videos, links, and make connections between your places and those of others. I’ve added a few already as an example.
(Dmitry Chulov via Getty Images)
