Climate Change Pedagogy: Literature, Arts, Interdisciplinarity, Action (Sponsored by the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment [ASLE])

47th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
March 17-20, 2016
Hartford, CT

Cultural theory, literature, and other arts offer invaluable opportunities for thinking critically about the different aesthetics, emotions, stories, voices, values, and ideologies important to understanding climate change. Often, however, students who want to see possibilities, not just problems--to feel empowered, not just enlightened--feel justifiably frustrated by apocalyptic narratives and, more generally, by critical analysis, which doesn't automatically help them envision practical action or feel the collaborative spirit often necessary to inspire and support it. This session explores the challenges of teaching climate change in the humanities, focusing especially on ways to teach arts, analysis, and action together. Participants might consider:
*Why we're teaching climate change; why students want to learn about it; what kinds of materials, assignments, and assessments best fit our objectives, given larger curricular frameworks or limitations (when, for example, a cultural studies or literature course might be a student's only climate change course).
*How literature and other arts contribute to conversations and inspire communication about climate change (aesthetics, affect, empathy, imagination, persuasion, etc.); how they inspire practical action.
*The role of the arts in a world with ecological limits.
*The interdisciplinarity necessary for teaching climate change; challenges of integrating materials from the humanities, sciences, and social sciences; cultural studies as an interdisciplinary framework.
*How interdisciplinary materials help bridge theory and praxis; particular disciplines' limitations.
*How to help students engage with expansive temporal and spatial scales.
*Useful pedagogical theories.

Format: seminar with pre-circulated materials (5-10 participants) or roundtable (3-4 participants). Please submit 300-500 word abstracts outlining your intentions for (1) a resource you'll share (e.g., reading list, syllabus, assignment, activity) and (2) a short pedagogical statement (e.g., analysis of this resource or other teaching practice, context, theoretical approach) on the NeMLA website by 9/30/15:

http://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/15800