Environmental Humanities I – Environmental Humanities and Deep Time
The course focuses on how geological, climatological and other environmental processes affect the lifeworld’s of humans, animals and plants over time. The course aims to give the student an understanding of how environmental humanities has broadened the questions about deep time and the Anthropocene epoch. The students will gain knowledge and skills in problematizing human agency in relation to long-term material and cultural cause-and-effect processes.
Students will gain insights into the similarities and differences between natural and cultural history approaches to historiography and how this is connected to ongoing current sustainability challenges. The course offers an essential specialization in questions about how archaeology and other disciplines understand and work with time and different temporalities, especially with regard to environmental change. It covers traditional dating methods such as seriation, layer sequences and C14 dating, but the students also gain in-depth knowledge of different philosophies of time.
The students will, both in groups and individually, familiarize themselves with critical and creative ways of working with time. Through group exercises and assignments the students will identify and and formulate questions in relation to course content, and a short written text will be composed. This work is evaluated by fellow students.
Through its specialization, the course is useful for many professions that work with society's sustainability challenges. The content provides tools for assessing, managing and analyzing processes that have an impact over time and have effects for several generations.
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Course structure
Teaching format
Teaching can take the form of lectures/seminars/workshops, as well as study visits and excursions. Online teaching may occur. Some of the these teaching elements are compulsory and can be supplemented in case of absence, with written assignment.
Teaching is in English. For more detailed information please refer to the course description (link). The course description is available at least one month before start of the course.
Learning outcomes
For a pass result the student should be able to:
In terms of knowledge and understanding:
- Be familiar with different dating methods
- Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of how geological, climatological and environmental processes have affected the lifeworld’s of humans, animals and plants over time.
- Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of different methods to analyse change over time, and reflect on different philosophies of time
In terms of skills and abilities:
- Describe and assess complex phenomena, issues and situations based on an in-depth understanding of how environmental humanities have dealt with deep time issues.
- Analyse and draw conclusions about complex long-term cause-and-effect relationships.
In terms of judgement and approach:
- Critically analyse, discuss and problematise humans and the role of humans in the Anthropocene epoch in relation to sustainability challenges.
- Critically analyse similarities and differences between natural and cultural historical approaches to historiography and how this is connected to ongoing sustainability challenges.
Assessment
The courses are examined through written assignments before seminars and seminars and written assignments at home.
