Climate change is complicated. So are the things we’re doing about it. How might the arts help us to address that complexity?
As educators and researchers in a university, how do we embed sustainability themes across our activities? As people on a planet, how do we talk and think about topics that can often be emotionally overwhelming, or so fascinatingly intricate we could just learn about them forever and ever?
This workshop will be a space to explore strategies for addressing the uncertainties and complexities around sustainability (especially climate change and biodiversity) within pedagogy, public engagement activities, and advocacy and activism. This event will have a particular focus on the arts: how might science fiction, art, music, games, and other creative practice help us to resolve recurring challenges around climate action, for instance creating spaces where participants can express eco-anxiety without relinquishing hope and agency? At the same time, how might we better appreciate the likely limits of arts-led approaches, and not ask them to do things which they are unlikely to be able to achieve?
We’ll be highlighting two recent publications, focusing on their arts and creative practice elements, and links to curriculum development:
- MAH Sustainable Educator Toolkit
- Digital Humanities Climate Coalition toolkit
We’ll also be launching two new publications:
- Special issue of the journal Vector: Futures
- Arts Methodologies for Climate Uncertainty
The event is jointly hosted by the Sussex Humanities Lab and the Institute for Development Studies PASTRES project.
It features collaborations with the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme and the British Science Fiction Association.
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