Course description
In keeping with the aims of the UNESCO Chair on Water Heritage and Sustainable Development and the approach to Environmental Humanities of The NEW INSTITUTE CENTRE for Environmental Humanities (NICHE) at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, this course introduces students to the concepts of sustainability, heritage, and water from the transdisciplinary perspective of historical geoanthropology. Geoanthropology – the emergent field informing the research of the Max Planck Partner Group ‘The Water City’ in Venice in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena – studies the dynamic interrelations between nature and society by drawing on various established and emerging fields, such as hydrosociology, political epistemology, and Earth system science. The course integrates this innovative theoretical approach with multiple historical case studies centered around Venice and its lagoon.
The theoretical dimension of the course consists in repositioning the concepts of sustainability, heritage, and water from the perspective of theoretical and environmental humanities. First, the course considers sustainability within the Anthropocene paradigm, according to which humans are situated agents in a destabilised planetary ecosystem. This paradigm emphasises that a reorientation towards sustainable existence must involve considerations of the social and political functions of science, production, and technology. Second, building on these premises, the course approaches heritage—the sedimentation of material, cultural, and epistemic flows—from the perspective of critical biopolitics, which examines the material conditions of the political categories related to the preservation of life. The decision of which sedimentations are worth preserving for current and future generations involves answering underlying biopolitical and ideological questions: Which kind of life is considered valuable and worth saving? What is the role of culture and its dynamics (including habits, values, ideals, esthetics) in shaping ecosystems? Finally, the course approaches water and its circulation as a key element in global metabolic networks. From the perspective of hydro-sociology, water emerges as both a material resource vital to, for example, sustenance and transportation, as well as a cultural sign with historical meanings.
As the history of science is particularly well placed to study the links between the past (represented by history) and the future (represented by science and technology), the analysis of historical case studies of the Venetian Republic from a geoanthropological perspective provides ideal grounds for the application of the theoretical framework. Each of the course’s three main sections will be accompanied by examples from Venice’s rich history of water management to further explore the topics discussed. First, to consider how decision-making affects future generations, the course will look at the wide-scale planning and actions of the Republic of Venice for the preservation of the lagoon. Examples include Cornaro and Sabbadino’s sixteenth-century dispute over the urban expansion of Venice, historical projects for diverging rivers outside the lagoon, and the modern-day MOSE enterprise. Second, the role of culture dynamics in shaping the ecosystems will be discussed through a series of small-scale land reclamation and preservation endeavors in the Venetian mainland, such as river cleaning of sediments, construction of water drainage canals, and rice growing. Finally, the material and cultural value of water will be examined in relation to the Veneto villa by considering its physical role in water management and the hydro-cultural ideals expressed in its fresco programs.

Syllabus – Weekly Breakdown of Classes and Readings

WEEK 1. Introduction, Prof. Pietro Daniel Omodeo (2 lessons). A basic introduction to the Anthropocene scholarship and the main themes to be treated in the course.

WEEKS 2–3. Dr. Justas Patkauskas (3 lessons).
This section of the course situates the problem of water management within the framework of critical environmental humanities. Instead of approaching water management as a technocratic issue, the classes consider water as a fundamental component of society’s material base, as a historical abstraction embedded in specific knowledge economies, and as a question of power relations.
Readings:
Gudeman, Stephen. (2022). “Community and Economy: Economy’s Base.” In J. G. Carrier (Ed.), A Handbook of Economic Anthropology (3rd ed.) (pp. 45–55). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Linton, Jamie. (2010). “Chapter 1. Fixing the Flow: The Things We Make of Water.” What Is Water? The History of a Modern Abstraction. UBC Press.
Swyngedouw, Erik. (2004). “Chapter 2. The City in a Glass of Water: Circulating Water, Circulating Power.” Social Power and the Urbanization of Water. Oxford University Press.

WEEKS 3–4.  Dr. Meital Shai (3 lessons).
Venetian water heritage: Geographic and historical milestones of Venice and the Veneto; Venetian cartography; broad concerns of the historic Venetian Republic regarding the preservation and protection of the lagoon and the thriving city within it; the architecture of Venice as a city shaped by water.
Readings:
Schulz, Juergen. (1970). “The Printed Plans and Panoramic Views of Venice (1486–1797).” Saggi e Memorie di storia dell’arte, 7 , excerpt, pp. 13–15, 17–21.
Porzionato, Monica “Assemblages in the Venetian Lagoon: Humans, Water and Multiple Historical Flows”, Shima, 15 (2021): 121–136.
Howard, Deborah. (2013). “Venetian Architecture,” in Eric R. Dursteler (Ed.), A Companion to Venetian History, 1400–1797. Brill, pp. 743–754

WEEKS 5-6. Dr. Justas Patkauskas (3 lessons)
This section approaches development as the intersection of production, reproduction, and the environment. Starting with the dichotomy between wealth and the commons, the classes focus on water knowledge in relation to industrialisation and on the effects of industrial production on global metabolism.
Readings:
Marx, Karl. “Critique of the Gotha Program.”
Malm, Andreas. (2013). “The Origins of Fossil Capital: From Water to Steam in the British Cotton Industry.” Historical Materialism 21.1: 15–68.
Saito, Kohei. (2023). “Marx’s Theory of Metabolism in the Age of Global Ecological Crisis.” Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism. Cambridge University Press.

WEEK 6 Prof. Pietro Daniel Omodeo (1 lesson)
Brief student presentations of their case study materials: water object, research question, and bibliography.

WEEK 7 Prof. Pietro Daniel Omodeo (1 lesson)
Introduction to the themes of the second half of the course

WEEKS 7–8. Dr. Meital Shai (3 lessons).
The Venetian mainland: historical case studies of small-scale challenges of water management, examining the conflicts that typically arose with such endeavors, and the factors that influenced decision-making in favor of one party or another.
Readings:
Ciriacono Salvatore, “Chapter 2: Irrigation and Land Drainage in the Venetian Republic during the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, in Building on Water: Venice, Holland and the Construction of the European Landscape in Early Modern Times (Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, 2006), 62-100.
Scuro, Rachele. (2024). “Water-Power in Pre-industrial Veneto. Management and Transformation of Hydraulic Energy through the Archives of the Venetian Magistrate of the ‘Provveditori sopra i Beni Inculti’.” Journal of Energy History, 13/2: 1–16.

WEEK 9–10. Dr. Justas Patkauskas (3 lessons).
This set of classes engages with sustainability from the planetary perspective suggested by the Anthropocene. The classes begin with the idea of humanity as a geological agent and consider different historical approaches to the concept of planet and environmental knowledge regimes.
Readings:
Crutzen, Paul J. (2016). “Geology of Mankind.” In Paul J. Crutzen: A Pioneer on Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Change in the Anthropocene (pp. 211–215). Springer International Publishing.
Malm, Andreas, and Alf Hornborg. (2014). “The Geology of Mankind? A Critique of the Anthropocene Narrative.” The Anthropocene Review 1, no. 1: 62–69.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. (2009). “The Climate of History: Four Theses.” Critical Inquiry 35, no. 2: 197–222.
Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste. (2015). “Losing the Earth Knowingly: Six Environmental Grammars around 1800.” The Anthropocene and the Global Environmental Crisis. Routledge, 70–83..

WEEK 10–11. Part 3, Dr. Meital Shai (3 lessons).
A historical inquiry into the realm of the Veneto villa, to the role water plays inside it, and in its environment, also intended in the wider scale of the politics of the Republic; the villa’s physical traits as a control centre for its surrounding agricultural landscape; the hydrological ideals guiding villa life in the symbolism of the villas’ fresco decorations.
Readings:
Ackerman J. S., Palladio’s Villas, Institute of Fine Arts J. J. Augustin, 1967, pp. 1-3, 8-17.
Fischer Sören, “The Allegorical Landscape. Alvise Cornaro and His Self-Promotion by the Landscape Paintings in the Odeo Cornaro in Padua”, Kunstgeschichte. Open Peer Reviewed Journal (2013): 1–11.
Shai Meital, “Chapter 2.3: The Local Microcosm of Villa Badoer and Villa Grimani Molin”, in The Cosmos at Home. The Fresco Cycle of Villa Grimani Molin at Fratta Polesine (Turin: Zamorani, 2019), 158–164.

WEEK 12. Conclusion, Prof. Pietro Daniel Omodeo (2 lessons).

Learning Outcomes
The course will provide students with a conceptual framework and vocabulary in line with the values and goals set in the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The students will be able to evaluate and discuss issues of sustainability from an Earth System Science perspective while developing local cultural and historical sensibility. The course will foster the capacity to understand questions of heritage in relation to broader concerns about the preservation of distinct forms of life. The students will learn to identify global connectivity on the basis of a fundamental resource—water. The course will develop a situated understanding of the cultural and scientific history of Venice in view of the ecological challenges faced by the Water City within the lagoon and in its mainland territories. In general terms, the students will be introduced to the educational, scientific, and cultural mission of UNESCO and the Chair for Water Heritage and Sustainable Development.

Teaching and Evaluation Methods
25% – participation
25% – initial project presentation (Task 1 and 2)
50% – final project presentation (Task 3)

STUDENT PROJECT
Task 1. Select a water-related object as your case study and communicate it to the professors. Water-related objects can include energy infrastructures (dams, water mills), agriculture infrastructures (irrigation, farming), urban infrastructures (sewage, ports), natural objects (rivers, lakes), cultural practices (festivals, rituals), and the like. The choice of the water-related object must be communicated to the professors, either through email or in person.
Deadline: October 13
Task 2. Propose a research question for your selected case study and present a short bibliography of academic sources. The research question should communicate the problem or issue guiding your approach to the case study. The bibliography should contain five academic sources that you will use to prepare for your final project presentation. The brief presentation should last up to 5 minutes.
Due Date: October 23
Task 3. Present your case study. The presentation should answer the research question that you posed based on your selected academic sources. The presentation should last approximately 10–15 minutes.
Due Date: December Exam Session

Bibliography
See above, included in the Syllabus.

Last updated: December 16, 2025