Selene Kalra is an Environmental Studies exchange student from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom who found her passion in the Jazz program in UCSB Music Department.
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Environmental Humanities
Ian Kellett, a UC Santa Barbara professor co-leads the Coastal Media Project. It’s a nine-week, 12-credit intensive summer course focused on environmental media production and documentary studies, offered through UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center. It combines a passion for film with environmentalism as students adventure through nature, telling meaningful stories.
The book, “Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design” by Canadian author Charles Montgomery was recently selected to be the UC Santa Barbara’s Reads Annual Program book of the year. Montgomery came to the UCSB campus to speak about the book and the underlying themes of how our happiness begins with a happy, livable, and well designed community. UCSB Reads Manager, Alex Regan, also shared her thoughts on the book and its timely anecdotes.
Two UC Santa Barbara undergraduate students created an art exhibition about climate change from the ground up—with no previous art experience. Fourth-year student Lukas Kraak and third-year student Noah Weiss were part of an Environmental Leadership Incubator (ELI) year-long course in which they were able to turn their idea into reality. Their exhibition is located on the first floor of the UCSB Library.
UC Santa Barbara English professor Kenneth Hiltner was recently named a 2022 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award. As a professor of Environmental Humanities, Hiltner uses his popular Ecocriticism and climate crisis courses to educate students and the general public about environmental issues. In a recent interview, Hiltner discussed the evolution of his academic career, the human component of global climate change, and his recent award recognition.
“Toxic Seas,” a create-in event hosted earlier this month by UCSB’s Literature and the Environment Research Center, tackled ocean dumping through a creative humanities lens. Students read excerpts from Silent Spring, thinking of ways to raise awareness through mediums like poetry.
In a recent event hosted by the Latin American and Iberian Studies program, Brazilian politician and environmentalist Marina Silva discussed the social and environmental struggles facing the Amazon rainforest and their consequences to indigenous populations, and the world’s climate. She explained her opinion on the root cause of the problem, as well as how humans should move forward toward sustainability.
Matthew Limb, History of Art and Architecture graduate student at UCSB, was awarded The Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in 2020. In a recent interview, Limb spoke about this fellowship and his dissertation, “'Living on the Edge': Ceramics and the Environment in the American West, 1961-2000,” which focuses on the overlap of craft production with the environmental movement within the United States.
Marco Caracciolo is an author and associate professor of English and literary theory at Ghent University in Belgium. Together with UCSB’s Sustainability and the New Human research focus group he discussed his current book project, Contemporary Fiction and Climate Uncertainty at a virtual event hosted by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
Each of us can take meaningful steps to lower our carbon footprint and help the planet, Humanities and Fine Arts faculty members told a UC Santa Barbara audience at HFA Speaks: An Earth Day Agenda. English professor Ken Hiltner and Film and Media Studies professor Alenda Chang shared their vast knowledge and interdisciplinary insights with students to honor Earth Day.
Environmental sustainability professor from the University of Michigan, Kyle Whyte, spoke to a virtual UCSB audience about climate justice and the importance of including of Indigenous peoples in the fight against climate change. This event was presented by the Walter H. Capps Center.
HFA conducted an interview with this year’s recipient of the Dean’s Prize Teaching award, Julio Vega. Vega, a PhD candidate teaching assistant in the Classics department, discusses his passion for the classics, his teaching techniques, and his work with the UCSB-Howard University Initiative.
In celebration of Earth Day and the 2020 UCSB Reads selection, author Elizabeth Rush spoke about her book, Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, to a live virtual audience. She explained that coastal communities in the United States are at risk due to rising sea levels and “retreating” from coastal communities is essential to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Small, individual acts of environmental consciousness ─ while worthwhile for the planet ─ are nothing compared to the massive policy change needed to solve the climate crisis, Northwestern University religion and culture professor Sarah McFarland Taylor told a UCSB audience earlier this month. The Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life hosted Taylor, who discussed her book Ecopiety: Green Media and the Dilemma of Environmental Virtue.
UC Santa Barbara English professor Ken Hiltner sat down to discuss NXTerra, an online archive with tools for educators to teach climate change.
"Green Games" is a class offered in the Film and Media Studies department that mixes environmental studies, media studies, and game design into one hands on course. For this session, the class is joined by visiting professor of architecture Janette Kim of California College of the Arts, who demonstrates her board game "Bartertown," which illustrates how climate change affects society.
The job of an environmental journalists is to take the scientific language of research studies and clarify it in a concise manner for the general public. It is their responsibility to inform the public on the current state of the environment.
In a recent interview, Kayla Curtis-Evans shared what drew her to pursue this field and what she plans to achieve in the future.
The United Nations has warned that there will catastrophic consequences if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced by 2030. Kinari Webb, founder the nonprofit Health in Harmony emphasized the importance of taking action before it becomes to late, at a talk sponsored by the Walter Capps Center last week. “We have 11 years to figure this out on our planet. What we do now matters forever,” Webb said.
President Trump’s policies have stirred a lot of criticism from both the public and government officials. Many disagreed with his so-called “travel-ban” policy, his “zero tolerance” immigration policy and his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords. Visiting Yale legal scholar and former advisor to the Dept. of State Harold Koh offered some legal grounds for optimism, explaining why these policies won’t last for long.
When UC Santa Barbara put out a climate report in 2014, professor Ken Hiltner was in complete awe at the enormity of the carbon footprint that academic conferences left behind, amounting to about 55 million pounds of carbon dioxide. With a joint appointment in Environmental Studies and English Literature, Hiltner was ideally suited take action. He spoke in a recent interview about his Nearly Carbon Neutral Guide to academic conferences and the intersection of humanities and the environment.