Syracuse Sun

Green Teaching Summit attendees gathered beside the lake at Minnowbrook Conference Center in the Adirondacks.

Can religion, philosophy, history, English, and writing help tackle issues of climate change, environment, and ecology? Absolutely, says Mike Goode, professor of English and outgoing William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities. Through his Tolley professorship, a role designed to support enhancement of the pedagogical experience and to boost effectiveness in the classroom, he aimed to show how humanities subjects are vital to helping society understand and respond to today’s complex ecological challenges. Here are just four ways humanists are engaged in research relating to climate:

A. More Than Just a Map: While maps depict selected data about a place, humanists play a key role in translating and communicating what maps say about power, representation, and climate urgency—crucial insights for leaders making decisions about resource allocation and policy implementation.

B. Losing Languages: Climate change doesn’t just affect the physical world; it affects human culture too. When climate change causes people to leave their homeland, they often also lose their language. Through the study of language endangerment, humanists examine the causes, processes, and consequences of languages becoming extinct and work on ways to preserve them.

C. Religion and Ecology: Religion scholars might explore the environmental consequences of festivals and pilgrimages that draw millions of people to a concentrated area. Research on sacred texts can delve into how these texts shape environmental consciousness in different faith traditions, highlighting political issues and raising doctrinal concerns.

D. Human-Animal Entanglement: Bestiaries or works about mythical animals can spark discussions about human-animal entanglements in different countries and contexts.

A main component of Goode’s professorship was highlighting opportunities for faculty and staff across campus to share resources to help students respond to the implications of the climate crisis and think ecologically.

Inspired by a collaboration with the Syracuse University Art Museum where Goode teamed up with staff and students to explore how objects and artworks could be utilized as resources to teach about ecology and climate, he wanted others at the University to forge partnerships elevating their own research around ecology. In May, he convened a team of faculty from numerous humanities disciplines at the Green Teaching Summit at University’s Minnowbrook Conference Center in the Adirondacks. The three-day conference provided space for scholars to discover shared interests set in an ecologically vulnerable location.

Arts & Sciences Communications (A&S) sat down with Goode to discuss his motivation for the summit.

Why is now such a critical time for humanists to focus on ecology?

“When doing my English Ph.D. in the early 1990s,” Goode recalls one professor declaring that “every humanities course would soon need to engage with histories of colonialism.” He sees a similar turning point now where “every one of our courses will need to engage with ecology” within less than a decade.

What was your inspiration for this summit?

Goode aimed for “a humanities-focused event with faculty from various environmental disciplines,” including newly hired tenure-track humanities faculty along with staff who could highlight campus resources.

What do you hope faculty take away from this experience?

Goode had three goals:

1. Connect those already teaching these areas.

2. Highlight campus resources related to ecology.

3. Bridge generations between new hires and senior faculty teaching these areas.

What are benefits from summits like this? Was setting important?

Feedback indicated attendees were thrilled meeting others teaching similar topics they hadn’t met before. The Adirondacks setting likely contributed urgency given its ecological vulnerability tied historically through Native American displacement.

As you wrap up your two-year Tolley professorship this summer what legacy do you hope remains?

Goode hopes “a dedicated environmental humanities chair” is created emphasizing that “climate change is our shared future,” urging every faculty member needs instructional positioning grappling it moving forward energizing newest humanities faculty toward this project more in their own teaching.

For more on Green Teaching Summit visit College Arts & Sciences website.