Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0277 - Planet on Fire: Critical Perspectives on Art and Ecology

The desire to save our planet from imminent destruction is shared by growing numbers of people all over the world. Yet debates about climate change, environmental disaster, mass extinction, and possible solutions to them continue to be framed by ideas and discourses that have their roots in capitalist, imperialist, Western, Euro-American or Eurocentric, and patriarchal worldviews. This course examines critical and creative approaches to sustainability and extinction that challenge these frames. Through analysis of works (through exhibition documentation, catalogs, artists' books, photobooks, online archives) by contemporary artists, complemented by advanced readings in literature, philosophy, environmental humanities, and social science, we will look at histories, practices, thought systems, and imagined worlds that offer radical new possibilities for imagining what Anna Tsing calls "the promise of cohabitation," or life on earth. Our syllabus will feature work by artists working across mediums and disciplines, centering postcolonial, decolonial, Indigenous, Black, queer, and feminist perspectives. KEYWORDS:Art, Decoloniality, Sustainability, Environment, Justice

Environments and Change The content of this course deals with issues of Race and Power Students are expected to spend a minimum of 6-8 hours of work outside of class time per week