Literature, Culture, and Environment Colloquium
The Literature, Culture & Environment colloquium is a forum for graduate students and faculty across departments to discuss new research and criticism in the environmental humanities. Our name, “Literature, Culture & Environment,” reflects the range of disciplines enlisted in environmental humanities without losing our literary focus.
The colloquium includes:
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A monthly reading group for new research selected by colloquium participants independent of period, geographic region, or subfield.
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Speaking engagements for external faculty working chiefly in literature or history to speak at the colloquium 1-2x per semester.
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Cross-departmental social events.
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As-needed meetings to workshop dissertation and book chapters, article drafts, and conference papers.
Although we are housed in the English department, we encourage participation from students and faculty in other programs to complement our literary emphasis. An interdisciplinary approach is the most appropriate response to a planetary crisis that requires coordination across race, class, and geographic region as well as between traditionally independent areas of expertise. Nevertheless, we recognize that unless explicitly identified, literary study is easily lost in existing venues for the study of climate, where more conventionally utilitarian approaches to topics like sustainable development and environmental engineering have tended to take center stage. The LC&E colloquium is meant to provide a salutary countermeasure to these approaches while engaging a range of disciplines as important intellectual and political partners.
Please email the colloquium facilitator listed on the English and Comparative Literature department website with questions or to join our listserv. All are welcome.