About the Theme
This question invites us to consider “representation” in both its political meaning and its aesthetic meaning. “Nature” is represented in paintings, poems, scripture, music, dancing, novels, laws, regulations, equations, activisms, advertising campaigns.
This question asks how environments—and often their relations to human concerns—are represented across media, geographic and cultural contexts, and different historical moments.
It invites us to self-reflexively ask how humanistic practices—especially artistic, scholarly, and pedagogical ones—have been sites of resource use and accumulation, and how experimental texts and events across many media and embodied performances might disrupt and re-envision those ecological entanglements.
The question invites us to look at “nature” again, go over its history as a concept and field of aesthetic and philosophical knowledge, to learn, perhaps, how to see and feel it differently in a moment of unfolding climate catastrophe.
Upcoming Events
Theme Courses for 2024-25
In addition to serving as the theme for Humanities Connect and the Humanities Fellows Program, there are also courses addressing the theme. Some of these are open to any student, and some are not. While we hope this list is useful to students (and advisors) in crafting plans for 2024-25, we also think it’s exciting to be able to see where this question is being asked, and we hope that seeing that gives us a new understanding of who we are, what we do, what we might yet do together.
AFST201 Rumours of War Seminar (Jillean McCommons) [AFRICANA STUDIES AIHS, IFPE]
AMST391 Fossil Fueled (Nicole Sackley) [AMERICAN STUDIES]
ANTH290 Cultural Theory (Margaret Dorsey) [ANTHROPOLOGY]
ANTH290 Cultural Theory (Margaret Dorsey) [ANTHROPOLOGY] Prerequisites
ARCH310 Archaeology of Death (Elizabeth Baughn) [ARCHAEOLOGY]
ARTH211 Islamic Art (Dr. Agnieszka Szymańska) [ART HISTORY]
CLSC101 Classical Mythology (Erika Damer) [CLASSICAL STUDIES]
CLSC306 The Classical Tradition (Nicholas Baker) [CLASSICAL STUDIES]
CRWR312 Poetry Writing (Brian Henry) [ENGLISH]
DANC258 Writing from the Body: Words and Movement (Cheryl Pallant) [THEATRE & DANCE]
ECON230 Environmental Economics (Binish Rijal) [ECONOMICS] Prerequisites
ENGL299 Intro to Environmental Literature (Elizabeth Outka) [ENGLISH]
ENGL299 Representation of Nature (Nathan Snaza) [ENGLISH]
ENGL400 Victorian Experiments in Fiction (Elisabeth Gruner) [ENGLISH]
ENVR201 Introduction to Environmental Studies (Emily Boone, Peter Smallwood) [ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES]
FREN305 Writing in French through Literature and Culture (Sara Pappas) [LLC] Prerequisites
FREN326 Revolution in France (Sara Pappas) [LLC] Prerequisites
GEOG210 Planet Earth: People and Place (David Salisbury, Mary Finley-Brook) [GEOGRAPHY]
GEOG215 Geography of the James River Watershed (Todd Lookingbill) [GEOGRAPHY]
GEOG250 Planet Earth Wind Water Fire (Stephanie Spera) [GEOGRAPHY]
GEOG250 Whats Hot in the City? (Todd Lookingbill) ENDEAVOR
HIST292 How People Became the Problem (Geoffrey Traugh) [HISTORY]
HIST299 Fossil Fueled (Nicole Sackley) [HISTORY]
HIST299 U.S. Environmental History (Jillean McCommons) [HISTORY]
HS101 Global Health (Kathryn Jacobson, Nigel James) [HEALTH STUDIES]
IDST397 Humanities Fellows Seminar (Nathan Snaza and Julietta Singh) [Humanities Fellows]
LAIS476 Literary Journalism in Latin America (Mariela Méndez) [LALIS]
LAIS497 Hispanic Science Fiction (Karen De Melo, Ángel Otero-Blanco) [LALIS] Prerequisites
LDST210 Justice and Civil Society (Lauren Henley, Thad Williamson, Ekrem Mus) [LEADERSHIP] Prerequisites
LDST301 Native Peoples and the Supreme Court (David Wilkins) [LEADERSHIP]
LDST369 Culture & Resistance (Kristin Bezio) [LEADERSHIP]
LDST386 Leadership in a Diverse Society (Crystal Hoyt) [LEADERSHIP]
PLSC362 Environmental Law and Policy (Chris Miller) [POLITICAL SCIENCE] Prerequisites
PLSC379 Global Environmental Justice (Chris Miller) [POLITICAL SCIENCE]
PHIL269 Environmental Ethics (Alexander Anderson) [PHILOSOPHY] Prerequisites
RELG205 Leadership Ethics: Early China (Jane Geaney) [RELIGIOUS STUDIES]
RELG302 Nature Religion (Doug Winiarski) [RELIGIOUS STUDIES] Prerequisites
SUST101 Introduction to Sustainability (Rob Andrejewski; Daniel Hart) [SUSTAINABILITY]
SUST345/GEOG345 Global Sustainability: Society, Economy, Nature (David Salisbury) [SUSTAINABILITY] Prerequisites
THTR312 Politics, Culture, and Creative Expression (Patricia Herrera, Mariela Mendez) [THEATRE & DANCE] Departmental Approval
WGSS200 Intro to WGSS (Julietta Singh) [WGSS]
