City/Nature: Urban Environmental Humanities is a three-week institute where professors, graduate students, and scholars from all over the country explore how the humanities can make an impact in the age of climate change.
UW professors Thaisa Way, Richard Watts, and Ken Yocom designed the institute, which resembled a summer camp, involving picnics, city tours, and communal dinners. Both the campers and counselors were some of the most esteemed scholars, professors, and thinkers in the their respective fields.
On July 5, University of California Santa Barbara professor Eric Prieto presented on “Informal Urbanism and the Hard Question of the Anthropocene,” addressing the growth of slums in the modern era.
The following day Stephanie LeMenager, a University of Oregon professor, presented on how forms of literature can address climate denial in “The Humanities in the Era of Climate Change.”