Course Catalogue

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Critical Sustainability introduces students to environmental practice and policy in Scotland and beyond. It provides students with a critical history of the concept of sustainability and equips students with an interdisciplinary and place-based toolkit to engage critically with real-world scenarios through a detailed analysis of case studies. This course thinks about the adaptation and development of "Net Zero Nation" and related frameworks in the arts, media, creative, and cultural sectors. We also explore the adaptation and mobility of humanities-based approaches to thinking about sustainability beyond the cultural and creative sectors. Students are introduced to a range of environmental humanities methodologies that speak to the growing increase of the so-called Green Sector, while also remaining critical of how greenwashing has developed across the public and private sectors.

The first half of the course is dedicated to introducing students to a) the history of sustainability in Scotland and b) the methodologies and tools of the environmental humanities. The second half of the course provides specific case studies drawn from the arts, governmental, and creative sector, looking at how specific organizations, policy makers, and/or creative practitioners have adapted, responded to, or implemented sustainability practices.  

10 x 2-hour seminars

This is one of the MSc options in Communications and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Standard entry to Masters at College level

None

None

 The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ 1x 500-word policy critique-40% 

■ Creative and/or Research Project Final project, 2500-3000 words-60% 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available: 

■ There are no alternatives to the assessments, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.  

This course aims to:

■ Introduce students to interdisciplinary and place-based methodologies and approaches in the environmental humanities

■ Critically examine the emergence of a Green Economy

■ Explore the connection between existing environmental policy and how it impacts the creative and/or cultural sectors

■ Explore how the creative and/or cultural sectors impact on environmental policy

■ Provide students with real world experience translating into theoretical knowledge into work experience through a set of guided case studies

■ Underline the importance of humanities approaches to the environment in approaching questions of sustainability, transition, and/or Net Zero policies

■ Evaluate and critique climate and environmental policy and practice through humanities methodologies

■ Distinguish different methodological approaches to sustainability drawn from the environmental humanities

■ Identify environmental strategies and approaches relevant to public, private, and third sector organizations

■ Construct an individual research or creative project that explores questions of sustainability

■ Understand and analyse the role that the arts and humanities can play in advancing NetZero agendas across industries and sectors