Michelle Foa and Laura McKinney are both associate professors at Tulane. They are currently developing a minor on environmental humanities. (Photos by Arielle Penntes)
Two Tulane University School of Liberal Arts professors received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, (NEH), to help develop an environmental humanities major.
The grant will allow Michelle Foa and Laura McKinney, Environmental Studies Program (EVST), to create an interdisciplinary curriculum that is environmentally focused and will provide meaningful experiences for students and opportunities for community engagement.
We hope that this minor will allow Tulane students to examine more deeply the relationship between people and the environment. It will also showcase the value of the humanities as well as interpretive social sciences in better understanding this relationship. Foa is an associate professor of Art History and a member the Environmental Studies faculty advisory board.
Tulane currently offers an environmental studies major. But the environmental humanities minor will have a different focus and design. It will include a series innovative, team-taught courses that combine humanities faculty in literature, art history, history, and related fields with colleagues from the schools of Science and Engineering and Architecture. Experiential learning will be a constant feature of all courses.
The NEHs Humanities Connections program offers a $35,000 planning grant. This grant aims at expanding the role of humanities in undergraduate education at four- and two-year institutions. It supports innovative curricular approaches that encourage collaboration between humanities faculty and counterparts in social and natural sciences.
Foa stated that the new program will highlight to students the importance of the humanities in addressing environmental challenges and the necessity of looking at complex topics from multiple perspectives. Through the integration of experiential learning and place-based learning, it will encourage students to connect what they have learned in class with the world around them.
McKinney, associate professor of sociology, is the director of the Environmental Studies Program. “The environmental challenges that we face at the global and local levels require knowledge from different disciplines, perspectives, and voices,” McKinney said. We are excited about building relationships across campus and building coalitions with community stakeholders in order to plan meaningful learning opportunities that address environmental history and sustainability both locally and globally.
McKinney and Foa are responsible for the planning phase. They will develop the curriculum, recruit Tulane faculty and partner with local nonprofits like FARMacia and Green Light New Orleans. This partnership focuses on climate change and sustainability.
McKinney indicated that the minor is a good fit for the NEH initiative. Foa and McKinney expect widespread interest from students and faculty.
Foa stated that they look forward to working closely together with students, faculty, and community partners over this year to create a program that reflects students’ passion for engaging with one the most pressing issues of our times.”
