Environmental Humanities

We are in the midst of a global environmental crisis of unprecedented scale. Scientists and academics from various disciplines have been researching our current environmental problems and coming up with solutions for decades, and yet little seems to get done. Why is this? This is a complicated question, but an important part of the answer is that environmental research often doesn’t get effectively “translated” into understandable, moving messages for the wider public. We need better environmental communicators, people capable of turning important research into relatable, inspirational content that will lead to real change in the real world.

The UC Merced Environmental Humanities major and minor lay the foundation for becoming an environmental communicator. The “toolkit” you’ll develop in this program—including storytelling, creativity, critical thinking, and audience sensitivity —are applicable to producing inspirational engaging content for our society’s most pressing environmental and social justice issues. These skills are not only necessary for creating a better world but are also rare and valuable skills that employers today are looking for.

This program, centered on the study and analysis of literary, artistic, and creative works about environmental topics drawn from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, has a strong base in literature—where the term “literature” is taken to mean any cultural production that can be “read”—while also preparing students to read and understand environmental research from a wide variety of fields and to produce creative environmental works of their own. Special attention is paid to works that center indigenous ways of knowing, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), black ecology, BIPOC perspectives, and postcolonial and decolonizing frameworks.

The Environmental Humanities program responds to an urgent need to create clear and inspiring environmental communicators. The major and minor equip students to be science writers, non-for-profit leaders, public relations and communications staff for environmental agencies, environmental lawyers, political advisors and politicians, interpretive rangers, environmental consultants and business workers, novelists, screenwriters, and songwriters who tell ecological stories. Graduates of this urgent and careeroriented program will be professionals who understand environmental science and environmental injustice and can tell compelling stories about the research and data that urges action.

Environmental Humanities Program Learning Outcomes

After completing this program, Environmental Humanities majors will be able to:

1. Use written and oral communication to clearly explain both the scientific and social aspects of environmental issues to various stakeholders, with acute sensitivity to audience and an understanding of the principles of effective communication.
2. Synthesize and articulate extant research on the realities of climate change and biodiversity loss, the principles of ecology, and scientific methods.
3. Synthesize and articulate extant research on the legal and economic factors that contribute to environmental injustice, including the ways racism, income inequality, and geography contribute to the environmental circumstances in which people find themselves.
4. Conduct research on global and local environmental issues.
5. Work efficiently and effectively both independently and in a group, with the ability to adapt quickly to changing circumstances.
6. Create and lead a caring and constructive team while attending to potentially traumatic issues.

Programs

• Environmental Humanities, B.A.

• Environmental Humanities Minor