Sustainability in the Arts and Humanities
So, how do people within the Arts and Humanities
view their role?...
The Arts and Humanities encompass perhaps the most creative but also
culture-critical disciplines within academia. For this reason, I asked a number
of scholars within the Arts and Humanities about their perspectives on
sustainability, how they defined the term and what they thought our disciplines
might contribute to the debate. I asked them the following questions:
Q: What does the term ‘sustainability’ mean to you?
Q. How do you perceive the responsibilities of your
discipline in grappling with sustainability?
Q: How can we help to improve understanding of these
challenges, through interrogation of the cultural record and analysis of
processes of cultural change?
The responses to these questions have been brought together within the
‘Discipline-specific Perspectives on Sustainability’ pdf
There are several other sources that you should look at.
In March 2012, the University of New Hampshire held their ‘Sustainability
Unbound’ seminar series that brought together top academics (including
module contributor Jeff Titon) from within the Arts and Humanities to consider
the subject – their seminar were filmed and have been made available on the
seminar series website –
this one is definitely worth a visit.
A recent collaboration between The Ashden Trust and Open
University Culture and Climate Change brought together artists,
producers, journalists and academics from a variety of disciplines to map the
role that culture had to play in climate change. You can access the discussion
in two formats, click on either tab for the links:
Please spend time looking at these now and then return to the chapter.