Environment, Culture & Communication (Dumfries Campus)

Course Abstracts

Core Courses

Reading the Environment: New and Old World Romanticisms (Semester 1)
Convenor: Dr David Borthwick

This course addresses the origins of modern environmental attitudes as they emerge out of the Romantic movements of the C18–C19 in both Britain and the USA.  The course examines the ways in which environmental thought from this period contributes positively and negatively to modern Western environmental attitudes.  Writers from Wordsworth and Clare to Thoreau and Emerson will be examined in addition to artists of the period.  These texts will be used to investigate the emergence of an influential environmental consciousness from the C18 onwards.

 Environmental Communication (Semester 1)*
Convenor: Dr Stuart Hanscomb

Environmental Communication is concerned with the application of some foundational principles and practices of communication to environmental issues. It questions, for example, how environmental groups, scientists, communities, anti-environmental groups, corporations, and public officials are able to make use of the psychology of persuasion, semiotics, and mass media in the delivery of environmental messages. Students will learn to make critical assessments of these messages, primarily in terms of their effectiveness in reaching particular audiences.

 Writing the Environment: Modern and Contemporary Nature Writing (Semester 2)
Convenor: Dr David Borthwick

The course looks at varied depictions of the environment in modern and contemporary texts, examining contemporary attitudes towards climate change and environmental degradation in, for example, Ian McEwan’s satire of sustainable energy, Solar and Cormac McCarthy’s apocalyptic narrative The Road.  Further emphasis will include the contemporary cult of ‘the wild places’ in work by Robert Macfarlane, Kathleen Jamie and in Thoreavian narratives such as John Krakaeur’s Into the Wild.  In addition, seminars on contemporary environmental activism as well as mainstream media reportage of environmental issues and disasters will be analysed and placed in context.  Assessment will be by essay and exam, with an additional poster presentation based upon students’ responses to a personal journey in a location of their choosing.

 Environmental Politics and Society (Semester 2)*
Convenor: Dr Benjamin Franks

One of the main ways in which environmental programmes have wider social impact is through their implementation as law. This course examines whether there is an identifiable green politics and, if there is, what constitutes its core concepts and with which alternative political movements (liberalism, conservatism, socialism, fascism or anarchism) it has most in common. The course provides a practical guide to the mechanics of policy formation and implementation, and then considers alternative methods by which ecological principles can have wider social impacts.

Dissertation (Semester 3: April - September)

The dissertation provides an opportunity to gain valuable independent research experience. A supervisor will be allocated based on the student’s topic of interest and a suitable area of research will be agreed upon, ensuring that the intended learning outcomes of the course are addressed. In the process, the foundations will be laid for potential further research at PhD level.  Students must produce a research proposal of c. 2500 words (20%) and a final dissertation (80%) of c. 15, 000 words.  Students will be expected to demonstrate the ability to undertake a substantial, focused piece of research using appropriate methodology.

*Students must take both Reading and Writing the Environment, but may take either Environmental Communication or Environmental Politics and Society, or both.

Elective Courses

Environment, Technology and Society (Semester 1)
Convenor: Prof Sean Johnston

Technology has great power to affect the environment and human activities within it.  This course explores the inter-relationships between technology, society and the environment, how a technological orientation affects environmental problems and solutions and how social forces wield an influence over both.  This course introduces theories explaining the linkages between technology and society with illustrations via environmental case studies, and explores the implications for environmental policies and actions.

Environmental Ethics and Behavioural Change (Semester 2)
Convenors: Dr Benjamin Franks, Dr Stuart Hanscomb and Prof Sean Johnston

This course, surveying ethical questions relevant to postgraduate studies in environmental studies and management, addresses fundamental principles of ethics.  It applies this foundational knowledge to two questions: firstly, establishing a taxonomy of philosophical attitudes towards the environment held by different groups within society; secondly, asking how these attitudes condition judgements and actions concerning the environment. The intention is to provide essential background for an environmentally-oriented discipline; to motivate enthusiasm for the wider subject of environmental management; to sensitise students to the ethical dimensions of their subject and its professional practice; and, not least, to enable them to justify to their eventual clients the importance and appropriateness of their activities. The course presumes no prior exposure to ethical questions.

Environmental History (Semester 2)
Convenor: Prof Sean Johnston

Human understandings of, and interactions with, their environments have ranged from outright exploitation of resources for immediate needs, to theologically and metaphysically informed stances that promote other considerations.  From Arcadian visions of the ideal natural past to utopian outlooks for a managed planet, this history continues to underpin human interactions with the wider environment.  This course explores changing social practices and cultural expressions that continue to influence contemporary environmental engagement.  The course addresses three general questions: how have we engaged with our environment in the past, how do current activities relate to the past, and what are we capable of doing in the future, based on past evidence?