Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This discussion focuses on strategies for teaching sustainability courses within the humanities emphasizing intersectionality. The presenter shares her experiences teaching within a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics) program at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton. The speaker discusses texts that connect the arts to STEM disciplines through sustainability, including Jonathan Fetter-Vorm’s graphic novel Trinity, Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, and Natasha Trethewey’s Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. These texts’ examinations of environmental, political, and social crises such as climate change, nuclear warfare, emerging technology, and natural disasters encourage students to consider sustainability issues in multiple contexts and STEM disciplines within broader ethical concerns. Students consider how gender, nationality, race, and class intersect and are represented in altered landscapes. The presenter will also invite participants to consider further ways in which substantiality can encourage intersectional pedagogy and research.