Course description
This team-taught course offers an introduction to the environmental humanities through film. The environmental humanities consider the environmental crisis a planetary condition that requires an interdisciplinary approach based on an alliance between the natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities. Using the popular medium of film across a variety of genres (documentary, feature film, animation) examined from a non-technical point of view, the team will invite students to examine explicit and implicit environmental themes in various titles, discussing the related topics of environmental conflicts, neoliberalism, multispecies alliances, the physics of climate change, landscape and memory, bio(cultural)diversity, ethnobotany, translation and adaptation. Screenings will be organized and students will be required to have watched the film under scrutiny before class. No prior background in the subjects touched during the course is required.

Learning outcomes
Basic understanding of the functioning of the climate system, familiarity with the terminology adopted in current climate research, confidence in the discussion of climate change facts

Evaluation methods
10% attendance and participation
20% oral presentation in class: summary of a week’s film/assigned reading presented by the student(s) via 5 min presentation;
30% midterm project: group discussion (3-5 persons) on the selected topic covered during the classes, presented in form of up to 5 min video recording (Zoom, Meet).
40% final project: an environmental analysis of a film chosen by the student, to be presented in the class (10-15 mins presentation with following open discussion).