Syllabi and other Ecopedagogical Goodies
Across the world, many programs are beginning to engage Ecomedia in their classes. Below you’ll find a sample of class titles, some syllabi, and also course module ideas. Additionally, an increasing number of environmental studies, environmental literature, an environmental communications courses are integrating aspects of ecomedia studies into their curriculum.
Please send suggested additions or edits to ecomediastudies@gmail.com.
ASLE Syllabi Database for courses in the environmental humanities and sciences
ASLE 2011 Ecomedia Seminar (led by Salma Monani, Gettysburg College)
Classroom in the Wild: Alaska (2013) & Chesapeake Bay (2014) [American University Center for Environmental Filmmaking]
Contemporary Film and the Environment and Contested Nature: Film and Ecological Conflict [Alexa Weik von Mossner, Klagenfurt University, Austria]
Cultures of Climate Change [Stephanie LeMenager, University of Oregon]
Ecocinema: Documenting Modern Culture [Jennifer Bean, University of Washington]
Ecocinema [Carter Soles, Director of Film Studies Minor, SUNY-Brockport]
Ecocriticism and the Problem of Affect [Graduate Seminar, Nicole Seymour, Cal State Fullerton]
EcoGenres Syllabus [Nicole Seymour, University of Arkansas-Little Rock]
Ecologies of Disasters: Un-natural Catastrophes in American History, Culture and Film [Alexa Weik von Mossner and Christof Mauch, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany]
Eco-Media [Andrew Hageman, English Department, Luther College]
EcoMedia: Environmental Media from Film to Smartphones [Leila Nadir, SUNY-Rochester]
Ecopolitics and the Cinema and Course Blog: E2MC [Adrian Ivakhiv, University of Vermont]
Ecomedia focus for special topics classes Film and Literature and Studies in Film [Robin L. Murray, English Department, Eastern Illinois University]
Environmental Aesthetics [Ted Toadvine, University of Oregon]
Environmental Anxiety in Japanese Film [Study Abroad course held in Tokyo, Shane Miller, St. John’s University]
Environmental Communication Courses [Collected by the International Environmental Communication Association]
Environmental Communication: Research Into Practice [Online Summer course for scholars developed by the IECA]
Environmental Ethics Syllabi [A select list of related syllabi collected by the International Society for Environmental Ethics]
Environmental Film [Sarah J Ray, Humboldt State University (formerly of University of Alaska-South East)]
Environmental Film [Salma Monani, Gettysburg College: for primarily non-film undergraduate majors of Environmental Studies]
Environmental Journalism, Science Communications, and New Media [John Christensen, Institute of Environment and Sustainability, UCLA]
Environmental Media [Kent State University]
Environmental Photography [College of the Atlantic]
Film, Media, and the Environment [Stephen Rust, Cinema Studies Program, University of Oregon]
Films for the Future [FILM 265, Oregon State University, Stephen Rust]
Films of the Natural and Human Environment [Environmental Media and Communications Program, University of California Santa Barbara]
From Disney to Avatar: Nature & Spirituality in Popular Culture [Bron Taylor, University of Florida]
Green Film [Helen Hughes, University of Surrey, UK]
Introduction to the Environment Through Film [Pamela Scheffler, University of Hawai’i]
Media and the Environment [Antonio Lopez, Prescott College, Sustainability Education]
Media and the Environment [Nicole Starosielski, New York University’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication: taught as upper level undergraduate class; and as graduate class]
Media and the Environment [Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden]
Media, Culture, and the Environment [Andy Opel, Florida State University]
Media Ecologies and Cultural Politics; also Ecology~Film~Philosophy [Adrian Ivakhiv, Environmental Studies, University of Vermont}.
Media Ecology/Ecomedia [Sid Dobrin, University of Florida]
Media and Environment module [Pietari Kaapa, Media Management, University of Stirling, UK]
Nature, Environment, and Animals in Film and Theory [Stacy Alaimo, University of Texas, Arlington]
Nature in Thought and Image: The Ecological Imagination from Romanticism to the Present [University of Chicago Summer Seminar in German Studies]
Social Media for Environmental Communication [Nichols School of the Environment, Duke University]
Sustainable Media [Nina Huntemann, Suffolk University, UK]
Taming the Beast: Nature, Gender, and Technology in Film [Stephen Rust, University of Oregon: taught Summer 2011 as upper-division undergraduate class through the Women’s and Gender Studies Dept]
Wildlife and Natural History Films [Gwendolyn Morgan, LeMoyne College: taught online]
Sampling of programs where media and environment intersect
Center for Environmental Filmmaking, American University, Washington, DC. Center for Environmental Filmmaking is an integral part of the School of Communication, and the Center’s leaders are all SOC faculty. We train students to produce films and new media that focus attention on wildlife and the environment and the need to protect them.
Environment and Culture Concentration at The University of Vermont’s Environmental Program. Within this concentration, students may choose courses that focus on the creative arts such as writing, studio art, or media applications; explorations in environmental ethics, religion, and philosophy; or environmental education, advocacy, and activism.
Environment and Media Studies module [BA Honors Program, University of Brighton, UK]
Environmental Humanities Initiative. Oregon State University.
Environmental Humanities Major. Stonybrook College.
Environmental Humanities Program. Sterling College. Encourages students to integrate applied and visual arts, cultural studies, writing and literature to help develop and articulate meaningful relationships with the natural world. Students in Environmental Humanities work alongside faculty advisors and expert practitioners as they balance creative expression, interpretation and analysis through creative processes using an almost limitless range of media.
Environmental Humanities Program. University of Utah.
Environmental Media Initiative, University of California Santa Barbara Carsey-Wolf Center. The EMI brings together environmental scientists with film and media scholars drawn from the humanities, arts, and social sciences to collaborate on teaching, research, and public programming. The EMI explores all of the ways media and the environment influence, structure, and inhabit each other: the environment in media, media in the environment.
Media and Environment Laboratory, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Media and Environment Laboratory at the College of Agriculture Luiz de Queiroz, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil investigates and analyses the controversial realities of Brazilian engagement with social and ecological change. Currently headed by Professor Antonio Almeida.
Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University: Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) is the curricular home of studio arts, photography, filmmaking, film studies, environmental studies, video art and performance, and critical theory. The department is unique in the way it fosters dialogue among makers, critics, and theorists. Its faculty comprises individuals working and teaching in all of these modes.
Visual Culture at UW-Madison Interdisciplinary programs at M.A and Ph.D level that encourage various foci of study that encourage collaboration between arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences
