S (Cult): Climate Crisis as a Challenge for the Humanities

This seminar addresses how the climate crisis poses a profound challenge to knowledge, responsibility, and justice within American Cultural Studies. Based on foundational texts in the reader Climate Crisis as a Challenge for the Humanities (ed. Karin Esders, De Gruyter, 2026), the course examines how dominant and counter-hegemonic discourses situate the climate crisis as historically produced and shaped by structural inequality. In doing so, we will address how climatic transformations intersect with colonial legacies, so-called petro-politics, and racial capitalism. The course familiarizes students with key theoretical frameworks in the environmental humanities, focusing centrally on marginalized voices, including from Black, Indigenous, feminist, and decolonial approaches. Additionally, we will analyze artistic interventions and aesthetic strategies across various media—from climate cinema to videogames and narrative media. 

This seminar begins in the first week of the semester.

Wed (2) BSS/0E41/U