UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

The environmental humanities (also known as ecological humanities) is a new multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary field of research addressed to the socio-cultural dimensions of today’s pressing environmental problems, such as resource depletion, toxic pollution, anthropogenic climate change, escalating extinctions, the emergence and spread of new pathogens, and the many forms of environmental injustice with which these problems are entangled.

Fostering dialogue and debate across the disciplinary divides that separate the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences, the environmental humanities examine in particular the cultural assumptions, attitudes, meanings, and values that both inform, and are in turn informed by, prevailing patterns of human interaction with other living beings and our shared physical environs, in order to contribute to transformative change in research agendas and the wider society.

The work of MESH is organised in three overarching research themes:

In the video below, commissioned by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, MESH Director, Professor Kate Rigby, provides a brief introduction to the field of Environmental Humanities and the work of MESH.