Environmental Studies

This course explores the intersections of death, politics, and the environment across literature, philosophy, political theory, and cultural studies. Students will examine how societies reckon with mortality, how death shapes political life, and how ecological crises reframe our relationship with extinction and regeneration. The course also engages with the paradoxical possibilities of death, both as loss and as a condition of renewal, especially in the face of climate change and environmental degradation. Combining seminar-style discussion with occasional short lectures to situate texts historically and theoretically, students will be encouraged to make connections between classical traditions, modern political theory, and contemporary ecological challenges. Special emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary dialogue across literature, philosophy, and environmental humanities.