Rethinking Sustainability

A new project connecting six universities and three community partners, Rethinking Sustainability: Next-Generation Environmental Humanities considers how “next-generation environmental humanities” can contribute to efforts to identify and mitigate the uneven impact of anthropogenic climate change and resulting inequalities associated with the proposed epoch of the Anthropocene. 

This project connects six universities (Concordia, University of Toronto, York University, Trent University, University of Albera, University of California, Los Angeles, and Queen Mary University of London) and two community partners (Les Amis du Champ des Possibles in Montreal and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London).  

This project moves beyond the silos that have previously limited the impact of work in environmental studies to a transdisciplinary, postdisciplinary, “next-generation” approach (including communication studies, literature, human geography, art history, science studies, postcolonial studies, and sexuality studies) that is both public facing and poised to join the social sciences in contributing to global environmental assessments on key sustainability issues. This project represents a pivotal moment in environmental humanities where a substantive dialogue is currently underway across disciplinary boundaries meant to ‘thicken’ critical responses to the proposed epoch of the Anthropocene. 

The team is currently planning a network building workshop for Fall 2023.