{"id":651,"date":"2012-04-30T16:32:16","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T16:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncanning.net\/?p=651"},"modified":"2012-04-30T16:32:16","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T16:32:16","slug":"t-s-eliot-spiderman-and-the-ugly-apples-sustainability-in-the-humanities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johncanning.net\/wp\/?p=651","title":{"rendered":"T S Eliot, Spiderman and the ugly apples: sustainability in the humanities"},"content":{"rendered":"

A report on \"Nature and the natural in the humanities: Teaching for environmental sustainability\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the organiser it is predictable that I will be biased but the LLAS-organised, HEA-supported workshop on environmental sustainability and the humanities was an excellent event which far too few people attended.<\/p>\n

Peter Vujakovic<\/a> spoke about Christ Church Canterbury University\u2019s Bioversity Project<\/a>. Although the campus is modern it is located on a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A sense of place and a connection with history was very much at the heart of Peter\u2019s talk. One of the highlights is the planting of an orchard with local Kentish varieties including Pride of Kent cooking apples, apparently considered too ugly to sell in supermarkets (I can\u2019t find a picture of one online, even in this otherwise illustrated leaflet<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The place theme continued with Alun Morgan\u2019s<\/a> talk on sacred places. Sacred places can be of any scale from a tree to an entire landscape. Alun\u2019s sharing of a personal sacred space from his childhood, aided by OS maps and Ariel photographs led to thoughts about my own sacred places.<\/p>\n

Adrian Rainbow<\/a> provoked an interesting discussion about whether science is reductionist and whether storytelling offers a way forward. He quoted from Greg Garrard that we need \u201c\u2026ideas, feelings and values more than we need a scientific breakthrough\u201d. In a second literature paper Elizabeth Harris <\/a>spoke about how she has engaged urban students with sustainability issues through the study of T S Eliot\u2019s the Waste Land. <\/em>\u00a0Elizabeth argued that locating sustainability in the rural (e.g. through the study of the Romantics) can serve to exclude students from more urban backgrounds.<\/p>\n

The key thing I\u2019ll take from Arran Stibbe<\/a>\u2019s discussion on discourse analysis was his comment that with exception of hot sunny days most weather is defined as \u2018poor\u2019 and in negative tones. After the workshop I tried to gauge Arran\u2019s reaction on the opposite platform of Birmingham University station as we were warned to take extra care on the station platform \u201c\u2026due the poor weather conditions\u201d Rain is poor weather, not wet weather.<\/p>\n

Paul Reid-Bowen<\/a> set up his talk though talking about the \u201cpost-everything\u201d discourse and the human evolutionary ability to manage anxiety \u2013 however this attitude is maladaptive when we reach overshoot. His ecological philosophy course focuses on reconceptualising and rethinking economy, nature life, ethics and what is valuable in the world.<\/p>\n

Andrew Stables<\/a> drew on the work on Kant discussing whether sustainability could be said to be a moral principle and universal ethical law.<\/p>\n

A couple of good quotes from his paper:<\/p>\n

In effect, it is unsustainability far more than sustainability that prompts human action. Furthermore, we are often most strongly prompted when the illusion of sustainability\u00a0 is shatter by the reality of unsustainability.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 it can be argued that the arts, humanities and critical social sciences have a disillusioning role. They serve to perpetually disabuse humanity of its na\u00efve, often vainglorious commitments, to remind us of the limits of our ambitions, even of our ambition for sustainability\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bertrand Guillaume<\/a> teaches humanities to engineering students at Universite de technologie de Troyes. Engineering students need insights which go beyond the technical and he draws on philosophy, ethics, poetry and graphic novels in his teaching, including the Peter Parker (Spiderman) quote \"with great power comes great responsibility\".\u00a0 Sustainability has changed the nature of ethics\u2014traditionally ethics has not engaged with reciprocity to future generations and non-humans.<\/p>\n

I hope to be able to organise a similar workshop next year. The opportunities for the humanities are tremendous. We need to get more people involved.<\/p>\n\n\n