ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES TOPICAL SEMINAR

The course is part of the trans-disciplinary, place-based activities for the Master’s Degree in Environmental Humanities (EH).

The main goal is to guide students in experimenting with co-creative methods to regenerate socioecological relationships.
It takes the lagoon of Venice as an archetypal example of present day socio-ecological struggles, uncertainties, and opportunities to care for.

Commitment to engage with others (be they humans and more-than-human entities), by using with your brain, heart, and hands.

The seminar will be organized following a Theory-U approach. Theory-U is a change management and facilitation method, inspired by the tenets of Systems Thinking.
Participants will be guided by means of facilitated sessions through the following 4 stages:
I. Convening. Creating a safe and nurturing space of expression and co-defining core values and goals of regeneration.
II. Observing. Enabling participants' capacity to look at regeneration both as a socio-political and a physical/biochemical process. Such processes will be discussed with specific reference to the Venetian lagoon.
During this stage, a site visit will be held in a island of the lagoon, to ground our work in a specific place and its tangible, lived realities.
III. Reflecting. Making sense of lessons learnt and emotional responses triggered during the Observing stage, thus laying the ground for creative work (i.e., phase IV).
IV. Acting. Designing regenerative projects and initiatives for the Venetian lagoon (and beyond), focusing on 4 main lines of work: Research; Education; Arts & Communication; and Governance.

Pearson, K.R. et al. (2018). Arts-Based Methods for Transformative Engagement. A Toolkit. Wageningen (NL): SUSPLACE. https://doi.org/10.18174/441523 .

Other mandatory and optional readings will be communicated on the Moodle page one month prior to start of classes.

- Technical summary of proposed regenerative projects/initiatives
- Creative, art-based materials for outreach and communication

Facilitated sessions.
Field visit.
Lectures.

English

This course is a platform of interaction, open to activists and practitioners committed to the regeneration of the Venetian lagoon.

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Natural capital and environmental quality" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development