Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Event to debate the future of the environment
The free event, ‘What place for the environment in the arts and humanities? Culture, heritage and history’, takes place on Wednesday 7 June, from 11am to 5pm at the University’s Broadcasting Place building on Woodhouse Lane.
Organised by Dr Shane Ewen and Dr Heather Shore in the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities at Leeds Beckett, with partners from local cultural and heritage organisations, the day aims to encourage new and creative ways of engaging the public in issues of environmental concern, including examining local and global histories.
Dr Shane Ewen explained: “We want to stress the contribution that the arts and humanities can make to increasing public awareness about climate change through education and public outreach activities. The environmental humanities is a relatively new and interdisciplinary field of research that seeks to understand the ways that humans have contributed to climate change, but also to better understand how environmental crises affect human societies in different, often unequal, ways.
“It seeks to understand the evolution of human cultures and societies through their relationships with non-human species (ranging from microbes and plants to animals), natural and technological processes (including the internet and the mass media), resources (such as fossil fuels and water), cities and even material objects. The environmental humanities is also interested in sharing practical solutions to environmental crises through art, literature, heritage and media productions. The event will devote time to identifying ways in which this can be achieved.”
Speakers throughout the day include staff and doctoral students in Leeds Beckett’s School of Cultural Studies and Humanities, who will discuss a variety of related interests including: anti-smoke campaigns in Britain, health tourism, digital environmental history, and the role of heritage in improving environmental education. They will be joined by Professor Bill Luckin, from the University of Bolton, whose 1986 book, Pollution and Control: A Social History of the Thames in the Nineteenth Century, was pivotal in shaping the subsequent development of environmental history in Britain.
A limited number of places are available. To attend, please send an email to Shane Ewen.
Dr Ewen added: “This workshop is the first in what will hopefully become a series of events that bring together researchers, curators and cultural practitioners in Leeds and Yorkshire to devise creative ways of raising public awareness about environmental change generally, and climate change in particular. If anyone wants to get involved with this initiative, please do contact me by email.”
The event is sponsored by the Leeds Beckett University’s Centre for Culture and the Arts. It takes place two days after the United Nations’ World Environment Day and a week before the UK’s first ever National Clean Air Day, which is raising awareness about the ongoing health risks of smoke pollution in our local communities.