Course Resources Archive

Environmental History is the study of the history of the interaction between human cultures and the natural environment. Working from this definition, the module adopts a broad and wide ranging perspective and draws on a varied set of case studies in order to demonstrate that humanity has always interacted with the environment and will continue to do so. These case studies will be based in wider themes such as past and pre-historic catastrophic impacts of human cultures upon the natural world, and the varying effects of agricultural systems, industrialisation and urbanisation.

We will also explore the development of modern environmental thought and social movements. Focussing on western intellectual engagement, we will locate the roots of modern environmentalism in the sixteenth century philosophers and the eighteenth and nineteenth century Romantics. 

i. Knowledge and understanding
On successful completion of the module the student should be able to:
a) Demonstrate a critically-informed understanding of the broad timeframe of human impact on the natural environment
b) Have developed a critical awareness of the variable nature of that impact relative to changing social, cultural and economic processes
c) Engage with and critique the debates surrounding the nature of the human impact on the natural environment
d) Demonstrate a developing critical analysis of the nature, intellectual underpinnings and range of the reaction to the supposed detrimental consequences of the human impact on the natural environment

ii. Skills
On successful completion of the module the student should be able to:
a) Demonstrate further development of group-presentation skills
b) Show development of the ability to think reflectively and engage with a series of broad-based and wide ranging case studies and to summarise that thinking in a succinct fashion

Staff / student contact: 20% (lectures, seminars, tutorials)
Student directed learning: 80%

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.