Deadline: December 27
Contact: Lisa Fink
Email: lafink@alaska.edu

Panel call for ASLE 2025: Collective Atmospheres, July 8-11, 2025 at the University of Maryland.

In Meredith Lyn Jeffers’ recent piece on public humanities, she argues that “the time has come to reimagine the humanities as an inherently public enterprise that provides an opportunity for collaborating with and understanding the experiences of others. The time has come to practice the humanities, and not just to study them” (551). Heeding this call, this roundtable brings together scholars and community practitioners who have been engaged with public environmental humanities work in the DC metro area and beyond. Panelists will briefly describe their public humanities projects, followed by a robust discussion on the role that public humanities can play in contributing to greater collectivity for responding to environmental injustices. What is the “work” of public humanities in the context of environmental racism, climate chaos, and other environmental injustices? Who does it and for whom? What forms does this work take, and what methodologies are used? The panel will also consider Fath Davis Ruffins’ (2022) elements for successful public humanities practices, including shared authority, active collaboration, mutual learning, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, and authentic service to the public, as well as Jeffers’ call for including undergraduates as necessary “agents of change” when practicing public humanities.

If you are interested in contributing to this discussion, please send a few sentences about your public environmental humanities work (with links if available), along with a short bio, to lafink@alaska.edu.

Posted on December 20, 2024