Continuing Education

What do gender and sexuality have to do with the environment? Quite a lot. Not only do ways of understanding gender and sexuality help us better understand the natural world and vice versa, but also the same systems of gender and sexuality-based oppression are inextricably linked with ideologies that have led to environmental degradation and the climate crisis. In this course we will investigate the history of gender, sexuality and the environment through classical art, writing and cultural artifacts that have shaped cultural and political perceptions and ideas. We will then explore contemporary queer and ecological theory to look at how they can inform each other, as well as artists who are challenging and rethinking gender, sexuality and the environment. Writers, artists and thinkers to be discussed include Virginia Hanusik, Walt Whitman, Timothy Morton, Kay Walkingstick, Frederick Church, Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis, Hugh Ryan, Tad Delay, as well as the Institute of Queer Ecology. This is a course for anyone thinking about the climate crisis, and those interested in art and writing about gender, queerness, ecology and the connections among them.
Note: This course is held on campus at SVA.