Putting the Environmental Humanities to Work

What can the environmental humanities contribute to debates on climate adaptation beyond critique and analysis? The Penn Animation as Research Lab (PARLab) explores this question through research-based animation, visual storytelling, intercultural dialogue, and creative collaboration. Its ongoing Project Poldergeist series uses animated films to examine the cultural dimensions of sea-level rise and climate adaptation in the Netherlands and other coastal regions.

The “On Environment” series is organized by the Chair of Environmental Humanities at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. “Environment” is a broad conceptual idea with a history and many meanings. Today, the term is used everywhere. We are closely connected to our surroundings and live in an environment that is shaped to varying degrees by humans.

In this series of lectures, scholars from various disciplines explore the concept, offering a perspective on what it might mean to think environmentally.