Module: EH7002-30 Interdisciplinary Methods for the Environmental Humanities

Level: 7

Credit Value: 30

Module Tutor: Kate Rigby

Module Tutor Contact Details: k.rigby@bathspa.ac.uk

1.Brief description and aims of module

This module provides training in interdisciplinary research methods for the Environmental Humanities. It aims to foster the scholarly skills associated with good research practice and to develop appropriate methods for independent research and research dissemination at level 7. Although many of these skills are generic, the materials and methods will be studied in the context of the concerns of the Environmental Humanities. The module will also help to prepare students for further postgraduate study at MPhil and PhD level.

2.Outline syllabus

This module provides training in the innovative interdisciplinary research methods that have been developed in the Environmental Humanities to address multi-faceted socio-environmental challenges, such as biodiversity loss, climate change, resource depletion, pollution, and disaster mitigation. In addition, it involves activities intended to refresh and extend high-level generic humanities research skills of developing a self-directed research topic, sourcing and evaluating appropriate research materials, engaging ethically with the work of other researchers, and thinking and communicating critically, creatively and self-reflexively.

3.Teaching and learning activities

The module will be taught through a combination of tutorials addressing generic humanities research skills, and workshops centred around case studies of interdisciplinary research methods in the Environmental Humanities, led by experts in each area of study. These areas might include climate studies; hazard and disaster studies; extinction studies; cross-cultural sustainability studies; ‘hydrocitizenship’ studies (i.e. the study of people’s relations with seas and waterways); and/or multi-species studies (i.e. the investigation of people’s economic, imaginative, affective etc relations with a particular species or set of species over time). Some of these case studies might entail short non-residential excursion affording the opportunity of close encounters with free-living species or landscape features (e.g. on the Newton Park campus, or to the Severn estuary in Bristol).

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work
• Description: 15 minute class presentation on research project proposal
• % Weighting: 20%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Course Work
• Description: Detailed proposal for a self-chosen research project
• % Weighting: 80%