Scott Pincikowski
(Hood College, Frederick, MD)
“Environmental Humanities 101:
Solving the Problems of Climate Change with the Environmental Humanities”
May 22, 2024, 10:15-11:45am, P1 (Philosophicum)
What are the environmental humanities? What role do they play in solving environmental issues? This lecture explores the problem of climate change through the lens of the environmental humanities. The talk will investigate American cultural attitudes towards the environment and how these attitudes impact the response to the climate crisis. In addition, we will investigate how different modes of cultural expression, such as literature, film, music, and art, suggest new ways for thinking about climate change and afford opportunities for imagining a more optimistic future. To pursue such an investigation, this lecture will introduce key concepts to the environmental humanities such as NatureCulture, the Anthropocene, and post-humanism. Ultimately, this talk will focus on the role that cross pollinating the natural sciences with the humanities will play in affecting the cultural paradigm shift from the consumerism of late capitalism to the sustainability of a green society that is willing to adapt to the global climate crisis.
Dr. Pincikowski is environmental humanist, professor of German, chair of the Department of Global Languages and Cultures, and student of Environmental Biology at Hood College. His research focus has been on medieval German culture and literature, and now explores how different cultures perceive nature and the environment. He is the author of Bodies of Pain: Suffering in the Works of Hartmann von Aue and co-editor of End-Times in Medieval German Literature: Sin, Evil, and the Apocalypse. He is currently working on a chapter on tree nationalism in German culture for his book project on memory and the German Middle Ages. He was Fulbright Visiting Professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences in at the University of Innsbruck, Austria in 2014 and Visiting Professor of German at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012.
You can download the poster for the event here.