Deadline: 12/9/2022
Contact: Kent Linthicum
Email: kent.linthicum@nau.edu
Panel proposed at the 2023 ASLE + AESS Conference: “Reclaiming the Commons”
July 9-12, 2023 in Portland, Oregon
Ecocriticism and the environmental humanities have always been problem-oriented fields. In the field-defining The Ecocriticism Reader (1996), Cheryll Glotfelty notes “Our temperaments and talents have deposited [ecocritics] in literature departments, but, as environmental problems compound, work as usual seems unconscionably frivolous. If we’re not part of the solution, we’re part of the problem” (xx-xxi). Twenty-six years later, the environmental problems mentioned by Glotfelty have indeed compounded. The IPCC’s “Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C” (2018) states that to limit global warming to about 1.5 °C on average would require reducing net emissions by 45% by 2030 and by 100% by 2050. In such a climate, with such stakes, the humanities “as usual” is no longer tenable.
How can ecocriticism and the environmental humanities move beyond its traditional methods, products, and insights? With so few years remaining to reduce carbon emissions to net zero, how can the environmental humanities productively collaborate with other environmental fields? What is the role of the environmental humanities in conversations about activism, community change, and policy? While the environmental humanities are often bound by research outcomes typical to and incentivized by humanities departments, such as solo-authored articles, the monograph, and inward facing (as opposed to public facing) scholarship, the reality is that many environmental humanists are doing innovative, collaborative, and influential work. This panel will highlight some of this work, and give other environmental humanists ideas and pathways for their own research and teaching in this rapidly warming world.
Please submit your abstract for a 10-minute presentation (roughly 300 words) and a two-page c.v. by 9 December 2022 to be considered for the roundtable. Submissions and questions can be directed to Matt Henry (mhenry12@uwyo.edu), Kent Linthicum (kent.linthicum@nau.edu), and Matthew Schneider-Mayerson (mschneid@colby.edu).
Posted on October 10, 2022
