Continuing Education

Extreme weather, food shortages and ecosystem collapse have become dominant forces that are shaping the 21st century. Science can help us understand the cause and effect of the climate crisis, but only through culture can we reckon with its meaning for humanity. This course will examine how various artists, thinkers and designers have tried to understand climate change since its discovery more than 100 years ago, and how they have struggled with this staggeringly complex problem. Central topics will include: Utopia and dystopia imagining, the invention of Nature, colonialism, the built environment and climate organizing. Writers, artists and thinkers to be discussed include Amitav Ghosh, Octavia Butler, Tommy Orange, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Timothy Morton, Walter Hood, Michael Van Valkenburgh, Olafur Eliasson, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Paisley Smith and Virginia Hanusik.
NOTE: This course is held on campus at SVA.