The Environmental Humanities and Modern Languages Research

Session leader: Daniel Finch-Race (Ca’ Foscari, Venice)

This session blending environmental humanities and modern languages will focus on depictions of London from the 1870s–80s. Paintings and poems by the likes of Ada Cambridge and Claude Monet will provide a basis for reflecting on industrialisation’s physical and emotional impacts in a city with a transnational identity. The overall aim is to enhance understanding of our planet’s climate crisis in relation to environmental and human health.

Recommended reading:
· Bergthaller, Hannes, et al. 2014. ‘Mapping Common Ground: Ecocriticism, Environmental History, and the Environmental Humanities’, Environmental Humanities, 5, 261–76
· Heise, Ursula K. 2013. ‘Globality, Difference, and the International Turn in Ecocriticism’, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 128.3, 636–43
· Waters, Colin N., Jan Zalasiewicz, Colin Summerhayes, Anthony D. Barnosky, Clément Poirier, Agnieszka Gałuszka, Alejandro Cearreta, et al. 2016. ‘The Anthropocene Is Functionally and Stratigraphically Distinct from the Holocene’, Science, 6269, 137

This event is part of the Institute of Modern Languages Research’s Training programme, which provides free training on methods, skills, and current and emerging approaches to languages- and cultures-focused research. These sessions are open to researchers at all levels in the UK and beyond, but advance registration is essential. Further details of this session to be announced.