Fall 2025
ENG 246: "Cosmocriticism and Celestial Entanglements from Copernicus to Cavendish" - Dr. Tiffany Werth
This course examines how historical celestial aspirations, from Copernicus to the heliocentric revolution and imagined lunar voyages, shape contemporary attitudes toward space exploration. Recent Presidential proclamations to “plant the stars and stripes on Mars” revitalize a long history of celestial imaginings within western culture. Yet conventional nationalist rhetoric seldom examines the cultural attitudes that help grow such ambitions. This study heeds medievalist Carl Phelphstead’s call for “cosmocriticsm,” to examine how attitudes toward heaven shape those on earth. Its methodology draws upon recent schools of thought under the
rubric of posthumanist theory that seeks to respond to the entangled relations of systems, bodies, and species. Its archive will be early modern literary texts, visual culture, and astronomical instruments and observatories to connect past imaginings of the heavens with modern space ethics. Participants in the seminar may have opportunities to join two related research events, a symposium on the early modern sky sponsored by the UCLA Clark Library (Feb 26) and a Newberry Library / Adler Planetarium workshop (April 26). This class will cover seminal literary texts from the 16th and 17th century historical fields lists.
Winter 2026
ENL 238: Special Topics in Literary Theory - "Narrative Ecology" - Tobias Menely
“Every place,” Tim Ingold observes, “is a knot of stories.” Narratives, Eleanor Hayman writes, “emerge from and are co-dependent with ecological processes.” Humans, according to Sylvia Wynter, are “a storytelling species” who have come to tell a powerful story that denies “the storytelling origins” of our identities.
This seminar will explore theories of narrative in the Environmental Humanities. How should we understand the ecological implications of key concepts of narrative theory, such as equilibrium, sequence, change, closure, and causality? What are the stakes of conceptualizing nonhumans as narrative agents—or even narrative-makers? What are the implications of defining narrative as a definitively human form of meaning-making or even as an underlying form of all knowledge? How do narratives represent non-linear change and emergent phenomena in complex socio-ecological systems? Is climate fiction a form of “cultural geoengineering”? In a time of planetary change, do we need new stories? How can literary studies broaden its terrain of study by recognizing non-textual forms of “storywork,” including oral storytelling? How might the “planetary” be incorporated into theories of world literature? If we ascribe a “world-making” power to narrative, what is the role of listener or reader, the critic or theorist?
SOC295: "Environment, Governance, Risk" - Dr. Thomas Beamish
What is the environment? What is governance? What is at risk?
This quarter, we will explore the complex relationship between the environment, governance, and risk. The environment is a contested notion that typically emphasizes the physical and ecological aspects of our world, presenting them as solid and factual—in contrast to the abstract realms of human thought, ethical ideals, and even divinity. Governance signifies the methods and authority that establish institutions like governments, the economy, bureaucratic organization, and other socially organized and hierarchical structures that shape social relations and dynamics.
Therefore, governance encompasses both formal processes and the informal social relationships and expectations that shape how we are governed and how we govern ourselves. Finally, risk, particularly in social and behavioral sciences, often refers to situations where something of collective importance—be it human life, property, or deeply held values—is perceived to be threatened, adding an uncertain aspect to its future. In environmental discussions, risk typically suggests a potential for either harmful or catastrophic outcomes, highlighting our vulnerability. This intertwining of environment, governance, and risk therefore exposes vital questions that will be central to our exploration: Why is our way of life degrading the environment so dramatically, placing us all at significant risk? When we talk about "managing the environment,” "managing risks,” or engaging in effective “environmental governance,” what do we mean? Why is the threat of environmental disorganization unfairly distributed and so challenging to address? Lastly, how might our governance systems tackle these persistent social and ecological challenges?
*Note: Our readings and discussions will particularly focus on climate change and inequality, which we will introduce on the first day of the seminar.
Spring 2026
EVH 200: "Core Seminar in Environmental Humanities" - Liz Miller (English) & Louis Warren (History)
ENL233: "Racial and Colonial Geographies" - Hsuan Hsu
This course will consider how particular modes of understanding, producing, and relating to space have been mobilized to sustain, reshape, and/or generate alternatives to racial and colonial capitalism. In addition to discussing recent research in critical infrastructure studies, Black feminist geography, settler colonial studies, Indigenous studies, critical ethnic studies, and environmental humanities, we will study a range of literary works that stage the making and unmaking of racial and colonial geographies through detailed renderings of lived, embodied experience. In addition to covering a range of methodologies and theoretical conversations, our readings will focus on examples drawn from American literature and culture.