ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE EHI

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CONCEPT PAPER
Environmental Humanities (EH) Initiative
Approach Conceptual Framework Prepared by Prof
Chan Ngai Weng Co-ordinator of EH School of
Humanities Universiti Sains Malaysia Email
nwchan_at_usm.my
2 March 2009
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RESEARCH CLUSTER ON ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES
(EH)

• Humanities in EH here refers to all fields
  that are not science or science-based
• School of Humanities is championing this
  cluster Philosophy, History, Geography,
  Literature, Languages, Literacy Translation,
  Islamic Studies, etc
• Other non-science Schools in USM Social
  Science, Communications, Fine Arts, HBP,
  Education, Management, Computer, etc
• EH is Interdisciplinary Transdiciplinary.

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INTERDISCIPLINARY

• Research/studies/projects that involve several
  unrelated academic disciplines in a way that
  forces them to cross subject boundaries to create
  new knowledge and theory and solve a common
  research goal
• Unrelated means that they have contrasting
  research paradigms e.g. the differences between
  qualitative and quantitative approaches or
  between analytical and interpretative approaches
  that bring together disciplines from the
  humanities and the natural sciences
• Different fields work together towards a common
  objective
• Healthy, collaborative research have always been
  a major key to success in any research/work
  gives more accurate comprehensive results
• Interdisciplinary research is necessary rapid
  development of global telecommunication networks
  and media, resulting in a global trend to network
  collaborate across traditional boundaries of
  sector, geography, discipline, and religion .

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INTER-DISCIPLINARY AREAS LINKED TO EH

• Perspective of community towards environment and
  its relation to their beliefs and practices
  (Geography, Religious studies, sociology, Ethics,
  etc)
• Perspective of local community towards global
  issues (eg. global warming) and how it impacts
  peoples lives (Management, Communications,
  Geography, Law, Religion, Education, etc)
• Building design and planning (traditional
  architecture) in local literature, culture and
  beliefs (HBP, literature, sociology, cultural
  studies, religion, computer, etc)
• Local wisdom on sustainability (Cultural studies,
  management, history, development studies,
  philosophy, etc).

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EH as an Inter-disciplinary Approach to
Sustainable Development

• Gain an understanding of ways to balance social
  and economic needs with environmental realities
• Learn how to use resources imaginatively for
  sustainable development
• Create greater awareness of the role of values in
  issue formulation and policy making
• Develop basic literacy in the natural and social
  sciences and the humanities as they contribute to
  an understanding of environmental affairs
• Critically analyze environmental problems
  identify, research, and evaluate environmental
  problems .

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TRANSDISCIPLINARY

• Research/studies/projects that both integrate
  academic researchers from different unrelated
  disciplines and non-academic participants, such
  as land managers and the public, to research a
  common goal and create new knowledge and theory
• Transdisciplinarity combines interdisciplinarity
  with a participatory approach
• Different fields work together to create a new
  field/sub-field
• Globalisation - environmental, social, economic
  and cultural crisises are no longer 'other
  people's problems' and 'out of site and out of
  mind'.
• The world has increased in Complexity EH is
  needed to engage with the incredibly complex
  nature of the crises facing humanity (e.g.
  Climate change, poverty and conflict are
  interwoven, and caused by thousands of different
  actions at one leveland on another spawned from
  a way of thinking that has dominated humanity
  globally. To deal with these issues effectively,
  research need to join and transcend current
  disciplines rather than be formed within each of
  them separately).

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EH AS A TRANS-DISCIPLINARY NEW AREA

• Transdisciplinary - a study which runs across
  traditional subject boundaries such as between
  arts and science
• EH is essentially transdisciplinary since it is
  concerned with the interplay between environment
  and humans

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Literature on Environmental Humanities

• Environmental problems facing humanity in the
  21st Century are largely human-created (e.g.
  global warming, acidification of rain, pollution,
  loss of biodiversity, species extinction, urban
  heat island, haze, photochemical smog, flood and
  drought, etc.)
• Weakness/fallacy of the structural approach -
  employing science and technical solutions to
  solve human created problems while ignoring the
  root causes. This approach is ineffective as
  science does not hold all answers to all
  humanitys problems
• The EH approach since environmental problems
  have their root causes in human society, clearly
  the most appropriate and effective way to address
  them is not through science but through tackling
  the human causes via the humanities. This is
  where the study of Environmental Humanities and
  EH is most vital and relevant in now.
• Classical works of environmental studies - all in
  EH Abbey (1968), Carson (1962), Hardin (1966),
  Leopold (1949), Odum (1953) and Thoreau (1854).
• History - civilization collapse primarily caused
  by inability to address human causes with
  solutions in EH (Punting, 1991 Diamond, 2005
  Flenly Bahn, 2003 Gill, 2000).
• Relevance of EH - provide effective solutions to
  environmental disasters. Vannevar Bush (1945) in
  Science the Endless Frontier It would be folly
  to set up a program under which research in the
  natural sciences and medicine was expanded at the
  cost of the social sciences, humanities, and
  other studies so essential to national
  well-being

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EH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• Sustainable Development (SD) is now 3 decades
  old. SD is a human phenomenon and is highly
  relevant in the study of EH. Hence, EH relates to
  investigating environmental/sustainability issues
  from the perspective of the humanities.
• EH - a humanities perspective on environmental
  areas of scholarship and research. EH is a
  response to both Transdisciplinary and
  disciplinary demands both from within and outside
  Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
  (http//www.usm.my 12/11/08).
• Fields of expertise in EH - typically include
  social, cultural, ethical, historical,
  geographical, communication, and literary
  perspective (though not necessarily limited to
  these). In the PPIK, USM, the million dollar
  question is whether we possess all of the above
  fields/sub-fields of studies (http//www.hum.usm.m
  y 12/11/08).
• Capitalising on EH 1st meeting on EH shows
  majority agree to push for it. EH is relevant to
  PPIK and the timing is perfect given USMs APEX
  status USMs sustainability initiatives on
  Healthy Campus, University in a Garden, USM
  Corporate Sections initiatives on sustainability
  http//www.chancellory.usm.my/bpk/ 12/11/08.
• APEX Sustainability Strategic Plan of USM - it is
  timely imperative to include PPIKs EH into the
  overall APEX plan. EH would be a niche area for
  PPIK USM and staff at PPIK would need to work out
  the ideas, concepts and framework towards an EH
  vision at the Platform for Social Transformation
  (SOCTRANS) at PPIK.

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• Operationalising EH Initially in PPIK, followed
  by a focussed collaboration (with other social
  scientists) that can bring various disciplines
  and energy to a common platform (i.e. SOCTRANS)
  TODAY WE ARE AT THIS JUNCTURE!
• Collaborations with the sciences - social
  scientists should work only amongst themselves in
  the EH because this would inhibit our vision and
  scholarship, but gradually, overtime, be able to
  develop collaborations with the sciences in
  addressing environmental concerns. TOMORROW!
• SOCTRANS Platform - USMs commitment to fostering
  and developing the social sciences and humanities
  is the establishment of the social transformation
  platform and the adoption of education for
  sustainable development (EfSD) modelled on the
  four pillars of education based on the
  constructivist paradigm of learning (Source
  USMs Transformation Plan).

EH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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EH AS A NICHE AREA OF RESEARCH TEACHING

• Niche Area of USM in 5 years - with the EH a
  recognized niche area with enough experts in USM,
  a EH degree can be offered first at the
  undergraduate level and then later at the
  postgraduate level.
• Beginning 5th year EH Undergraduate Degree -
  Currently, USM offers bachelor degrees in
  Environmental Technology and in Environmental
  Engineering. Hence, the EH degree program
  complements the other degrees focusing on
  environmental issues from the scientific and
  technical perspectives.

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Beginning of 7th Year Masters PhD in EH

• Post-graduates are exposed to and taught a deeper
  understanding of environmental issues from a
  broad-based humanities perspective, making them
  more marketable.
• Caters to an expanding need for EH experts in a
  wide variety of fields such as government,
  private sector/business, education, industry,
  law, public policy, NGO and community planning,
  to name a few.
• Postgraduates in EH are expected to be able to
  handle issues such as environmental impact
  assessment, social impact assessment,
  sustainability, environmental policy, business
  and the environment, environmental law,
  government policy and environment, media and
  environment, NGOs/NPOs and environment, and
  sustainable universities.
• These graduates would be armed with a broad-based
  understanding of social, cultural, ethical,
  historical, communication, and literary
  perspectives relating to the environment.
• EH postgraduates have a deep understanding on how
  the humanities perspectives intersect with and
  influence public policy, scientific, legal,
  industrial, and corporate concerns on the
  environment.
• The EH postgraduate programme also emphasizes
  interdisciplinary and international concerns.
  Specific areas of studies in EH include (but are
  not limited to) the following Environmental
  Education, Ecological Literacy, Environmental
  History, Environmental Management, Environmental
  Journalism, Media the Environment,
  Environmental Literacy Criticism, Environmental
  Philosophy Ethics, Environmental Photography,
  Environmental Poetry, Religion Environment,
  Social Ecology Population, etc.

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• Current Environmental Humanities Initiatives
  (EHs) Elsewhere
• Bucknell University (BU)
• BU is actively developing EH.
• EH in BU includes environmental literary study,
  environmental philosophy, and environmental
  history, as they overlap with fields such as
  ecology, ethnohistory, cultural studies, and even
  neuroscience.
• Taking it further, researchers at BU studies
  Empathy, a quality focused on in
  neurophenomenology, as an example of a concern of
  EH whereby .ways in which narratives and
  cultural structures can encourage empathy between
  humans and other beings (and indeed non-being) to
  reflect both traditional and postmodern views of
  subjectivity as really formed intersubjectively,
  including the cosmos at large in that engagement
  (http//www.bucknell.edu/x32283.xml 6/11/08).
• As a flavour of the wide spectrum of EHs, some of
  the current EH initiatives at BU are (i) A
  planned focus year on the Susquehanna River in
  08-09 (ii) Research by Prof. Katherine Faull
  into an 18th-century intercultural community of
  American Indians and European Moravian Christians
  at the confluence of the Susquehanna near
  Sunbury (iii) An on-line rivertowns history
  project (iv) Cooperation with other area
  universities and SEDA-Cog on the proposal for a
  river heritage district and (v) Developing more
  curriculum in Environmental Humanities across
  departments at Bucknell and through the
  Environmental Center.

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• University of Californias Davis Humanities
  Institute (DHI)
• an interdisciplinary research center that
  fosters intellectual collaborations and
  facilitates access to research resources for
  faculty and graduate students who are actively
  engaged in research and teaching in the
  humanities, the arts, cultural studies, and the
  humanistically-oriented social sciences
  (http//dhi.ucdavis.edu/).
• Collaboration - advocates for the humanities
  within the UC Davis community, works with funding
  agencies to secure individual/programmatic
  resources.
• EH Challenges in DHI, EH is a relevant and
  important field of study as the 21st century
  offers many challenges defined by the collision
  of industrial, ecological, and cultural systems,
  whereby issues, problems and challenges created
  by the collision is best handled by expertise of
  humanities scholars in analyzing and addressing
  them. Increasingly, the kinds of environmental
  problems arising (often hybrid problems) will
  need the human touch in handling and not via the
  application of scientific knowledge, techniques
  and solutions.
• DHIs Environmental Humanities Research Cluster
  - designed to foster environmental-humanities
  research, support graduate students and
  postdoctoral scholars, and collaborate with
  affected communities. DHIs EH research cluster
  has been named a supercluster as it has grown
  into a multi-disciplinary research group studying
  complex envirocultural problems communities
  affected by environmental challenges.
  http//environmentalhumanities.ucdavis.edu

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University of Utah also offers an Environmental
Humanities Graduate Programme under its College
of Humanities (http//hum.utah.edu/eh/ 6/11/08).
The Masters degree in Environmental Humanities is
a 2-year post baccalaureate degree that is
designed to accommodate interdisciplinary demand
and interest in a humanities perspective on
environmental areas of scholarship. Antioch
University, New England (ANE) offers a Doctoral
Programme in Environmental Studies, ES PhD
(http//www.antiochne.edu/es/phd/humanities.cfm
6/11/08). Essentially, the environmental
humanities integrate a broad range of humanistic
approaches through an environmental lens,
including history, the literary arts, the visual
arts, humanistic geography, and cultural
diversity. At ANE, EH is viewed as a wellspring
of wisdom whereby the humanities can be both a
sanctuary from crisis and a means to strengthen
the environment. In Australia, the Castle Rock
Institute (CRI) Environmental Humanities program
(http//www.castle-rock.org/australia.htm
6/11/08) takes four Humanities subjects, viz.
Religious Studies, Literature, Philosophy, and
Studio Art, and focuses them on the question of
how the significance of being human both affects,
and is affected by, the natural world.
Essentially, EH studies follow an integrated
curriculum exploring the human dimension of
environmental issues.
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• The School of Humanities (PPIK) USM and
  Environmental Humanities
• The study of humanities - is all about humans
  (and human society) and how they interact with
  their environment, both natural as well as
  cultural.
• Focus on humans society, culture, civilization,
  language, history, geography, etc.
• Human culture - creative expressions in music,
  philosophy, religion and the like.
• Interdisciplinary - As humans cut across almost
  all fields, the humanities are inherently
  interdisciplinary although mostly focused in fine
  and liberal arts.
• Skills - strong skills in literacy, cultural
  awareness, and the creative arts.
• Fields - The humanities encompass studies in
  literature, philosophy, social science,
  geography, languages, history (including art
  history), religion, music, paintings, sculptures,
  books, and other works of art.
• Religion - development of major religions and
  philosophies.
• Modern Era Humanities - Not withstanding the
  traditional fields in the humanities, the modern
  era has seen the humanities transform into
  high-tech areas as many researches in humanities
  now integrate the study and use of technology
  (e.g. computers, cell phones, PDAs, GPS, Digital
  Humanities, etc). Even in art, there is now
  digital art. Consequently, the development of EHs
  is inevitable.
• Environmental Humanities - deals with a wide
  range of contemporary environmental problems
  resulting from the interactions between humans
  and nature. One of EHs primary objective is to
  aid understanding that environmental problems are
  multi-causal phenomena, and to develop skills in
  humans necessary for effective environmental
  citizenship and leadership.

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• THE FOUR VISIONS OF PPIK
• Focuses on human development - expansion and
  establishment in upgrading ethics, esthetic
  appreciation and the meaning of life and life in
  diversity, either in form of relationship among
  humanity, among nature or the relationship with
  the God.
• Axle based on ethics and esthetics - which gives
  meaning to the humanity and its relationship with
  the area diversification and the application of
  Science and Technology.
• Redevelopment of the humanity - in relation to
  the knowledge and multi-disciplinary experience
  based on relationship with human and God.
• The development and establishment of humanity
  from ethics and esthetics point of view in
  multi-disciplinary knowledge network in order to
  give meanings to life and survival.

Clearly, all these four visions are closely
related to EH. In PPIK, the fields of studies are
in Geography, History, English, Literature,
Philosophy and Civilization, Islamic Studies, and
Malay Language and Translation.
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• GEOGRAPHY
• A field closely related to EH. Geo (earth) and
  graphy (study) means study of the earth, or the
  study of the inter-relationships between nature
  and society.
• Four Traditions in Geography - Human-environment
  tradition Regional tradition Spatial tradition
  and Earth-Science tradition.
• Human-environment tradition (this was originally
  called Man-Environment Tradition but later
  changed to become more gender friendly). This is
  the tradition that marked geography as the first
  academic discipline to concern itself with the
  quality of the natural environment and how humans
  affect and change it
• Geographical Analysis - how humans can be as much
  of a force shaping landscapes as natural forces,
  evaluating humans as "disturbing agents." This
  human-environment approach in geography was
  firmly established long before anyone else
  worried much about what/how/why humans careless
  activities might cost planet earth.
• Hazard Geography studies the effect of
  nature/environment on human society, and how
  humans can adapt and free themselves from such
  influences
• Geographers EH - well qualified and well
  equipped to take on the EH in PPIK. Many are
  already researching issues concerned with the
  physical and cultural environment, environmental
  change and effects on nature/biodiversity,
  environmental hazards, environment and gender,
  and a wide spectrum of environment related issues.

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• DEMOGRAPHY EH
• Some geographers are demographers they predict
  that in the first half of the 21st century the
  worlds population will be bigger,
  slower-growing, older and more urban than the
  population at the end of the 20th century (Cohen,
  2005).
• Effects of population growth urbanization on
  poverty alleviation and environmental
  sustainability in MDGs - Demographers explore how
  demographic trends can both enhance and hinder
  progress in meeting development objectives.
  Specifically, we'll examine the impact of
  population growth and urbanization on poverty
  alleviation and environmental sustainability.

EARTH-SCIENCE REGIONAL TRADITIONS "Land
use/land cover changes and its impact on
biodiversity" - looking at changes in land use
activities and their impact on the environment
(both physical and cultural).
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• HISTORY
• Environmental history - History is one of the
  largest sections in PPIK. The study of
  environmental history is an important area in
  history.
• Classic Environmental Works - Arguably, the
  relevance of history in EH is exemplified by the
  many classic works in EH such as Abbey (1968),
  Carson (1962), Hardin (1966), Leopold (1949),
  Odum (1953) and Thoreau (1854).
• Civilizational Collapse - History tells us that
  the most profound effect of environmental
  disasters is civilization collapse (Punting,
  1991 Diamond, 2005 Fluently and Bahn, 2003 and
  Gill, 2000) due to inability to address
  human/EH causes.
• Relevance - the study of history is highly
  relevant in EH as humans should learn from their
  past mistakes and avoid repeating them.
  Understanding how humans interact with the
  environment in the past, including both the
  positive and negative effects, would be extremely
  useful for the present and future of humanity.
• Learning to avoid environmental disasters - In
  the light of serious environmental problems
  threatening humanity (e.g. global warming and
  environmental pollution), historical studies on
  EH help find solutions to environmental
  disasters.
• Other EH perspectives - Within the history
  section, there are experts in the area of the
  Hindu and Malay perspectives of the environment.

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• ENGLISH
• Expertise - The English Section in PPIK has
  expertise in English Literature and English
  Language studies, including Colonial/Post-Colonial
  Literature, British/American Literature,
  Childrens Literature/Folklore and Malaysian
  Literature.
• Environmental Literacy - a niche area. Other
  niche areas are Stylistics, Critical Discourse
  Analysis, Linguistics/Lexical Studies, Discourse
  Analysis, Sociolinguistics and Multilingualism in
  Society, all can be related to the environment.
• Environmental Literature - literature related to
  the environment, poetry about the environment,
  and the effect of the environment on
  sociolinguistics and multilingualism in society
  can all contribute towards EH. Of most relevance
  to EH in English and Literature is the study of
  environmental literary study.
• Communication skills and the environment - The
  development of communication skills must consider
  the environment in which the skills will be used
  when graduates leave the university. An important
  environment is the workplace.
• Sociolinguistics - the branch of linguistics that
  analyzes the effects of social and cultural
  factors (cultural environment) within a speech
  community upon its language patterns (e.g.
  sociolinguistics of minority languages and
  indigenous peoples).
• Other sub-fields related to EH?

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• Malay Language and Translation Section
• Can be linked to EH - In Malay Linguistics, there
  are experts on Historical Linguistics,
  Sociolinguistics, Morphology, Syntax, Phonology,
  Semantics and Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics etc.
  Many of these specialized areas of studies have
  connections with the environment and can easily
  be linked to EH.
• Translation EH - Arguably, it may be difficult
  to link the sub-field of translation to the
  environment. But accurate translation of Malay
  texts (particularly those involving the
  environment) into English or vice versa is of
  vital importance as a source of information to
  other researchers using those texts.
• Interpretation studies EH - Community
  Interpretation could be closely linked to aspects
  of the environment.
• Other areas linked to EH - There may be many
  areas that translators can explore in terms
  contributing to EH.

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• LITERATURE
• Close links with EH a field of study that can
  contribute towards EH in PPIK. Literary studies
  in Malay poems, classical texts, historical
  literature, fiction and drama and Islamic
  Literature all have strong connections with the
  environment, whether it is contemporary or
  historical.
• Asian, African, European and American Literature
  - continents and regions with vastly different
  environments.
• Myriad ways to link literature to EH - For
  example, poems and classical texts have been
  written about the environment (e.g. Shannon
  Ahmads (1972) No harvest but a Thorn (Ranjau
  Sepanjang Jalan) is as much about the peasantry
  and poverty as it is about the harsh
  environment).
• Other linkages with EH?

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• PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION
• A unique field of study only in USM - is one of
  the niche areas in PPIK USM whereby few
  universities in the country possess.
• Environmental Ethics - Although the stated
  expertise is in the Philosophy of Mysticism,
  Aristotle and Islamic Civilization Study, the
  study of philosophy encompasses ethics, an
  important aspect of EH (e.g. environmental
  ethics).
• Environmental Philosophy (EP) - In philosophy,
  the closest to EH is environmental philosophy
  (EP), that is concerned with the natural
  environment and humans' place within it (Belshaw,
  2001). EP includes the study of environmental
  ethics, environmental aesthetics, ecofeminism and
  environmental theology (http//www.environmentalph
  ilosophy.org/ 13/11/08).
• In relating to EH, environmental philosophers
  study the following issues (i) How to value the
  environment (ii) Moral status of animals and
  plants (iii) The value of endangered species
  (iv) Environmentalism and Deep Ecology (v)
  Aesthetic value of nature (vi) The philosophy of
  environmental/nature restoration and (vii) Links
  between the environment/nature and future
  generations.
• Christian and Chinese perspectives of the
  environment - experts in the area of the
  Christian and Chinese perspectives of the
  environment.
• Philosophy of mother nature/earth (gaia) in local
  religions/ cultures

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• ISLAMIC STUDIES
• Expertise Islamic studies in PPIK are focused
  on Hadith and Muamalat studies.
• Hadith are oral traditions relating to the words
  and deeds of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and
  Hadith collections are regarded as important
  tools for determining the Sunnah, or Muslim way
  of life (Musa, 2008).
• The relationship with Islam and the environment
  is of course very clear (Izzi Dien, 1990). Within
  the Islamic Studies section, there are experts in
  the area of the Islamic perspectives of the
  environment.
• Muamalat is the Islamic banking practice via
  observing the rules and regulations of Islam. It
  is envisaged that both Hadith and Muamalat
  experts can contribute towards the development of
  EH in PPIK.
• Comparative study of religion the environment
  Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism,
  Shintoism etc

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EXPERTISE ON EH FROM OTHER SCHOOLS CENTRES IN
USM

• SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
• SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
• SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
• SCHOOL OF ARTS
• SCHOOL OF HOUSING, BUILDING PLANNING
• SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
• SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
• SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCES
• SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
• OTHER CENTRES OF EXPERTISE

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ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE (EHI)

• THE TIME OF DREAMING THINKING IS OVER
• LETS MAKE THIS VISION A REALITY BY ACTUALISING
  IT
• JOIN US LETS MAKE ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES A
  RESEARCH CLUSTER IN USM
• THANK YOU