Topics vary from semester to semester and have included The Power of Music and Poetry in the Theater; Modern Drama and Theater, 1940 to the Present; Theaters, Tricksters, and Cultural Exchange; Art as Social Action; and The Invisible World (Process Seminar).

Scientists, politicians, activists, and policy-makers struggle to sensitize global citizens to the threat of climate change. Within this nexus, artists, humanists, and cultural critics work to articulate and propel the role of the arts and humanities in climate advocacy and in the re-imagining the systems of the world. How do differerent art forms and media —literature, visual art, performance, film, architecture, and more — activate a multi sensory understanding of the ecological? How are humanistic methods transforming and transformed by engagements with climate science? How do so-called “human” agents reckon with a “more-than-human” perspective on the world? How has the question of climate become politicized in a partisan landscape and in the context of growing authoritarianism? We will consider these and other questions throughout this graduate seminar, integrating methods such as aesthetic analysis, social contextualization, archival research, community engagement, art-making, and curatorial experiments throughout the Bay Area. Conceived in relation to the campus-wide Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative, we will welcome several visiting scholars and artists to our seminar. The seminar will also include a field trip to one of the UC Field Stations. Final essays and projects will be developed in relation to the skill sets, partnerships, and disciplinary goals of enrolled students.

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