Our programme is not motivated by a narrowly defined research question or agenda. Rather, we seek to create a space for exchange between IKS scholars, exploring the fundamental challenges that environmental and sustainability issues pose to the humanities. These include:

• Ontological: the collapse of traditional dichotomies between nature and culture, human and non-human.
• Epistemological: new ways of knowing the world; new approaches to temporality and scale; novel fields of study, including non-human animals, plants, microorganisms and oceans, and their interdependence with human technologies.
• Methodological: the imperative for interdisciplinarity.
• Conceptual: critical contextualisation of terms such as the Anthropocene, sustainability and green transformation.
• Ethical: revision of values and attitudes such as care, respect, justice, responsibility, hope and optimism.
• Political: addressing political interests and power regimes from the perspective of social inequality, environmental activism, (post-)colonialism and posthumanism, as well as reflection on our interventions in these debates.

The first year of the programme will focus on the theme of affective natures, seeking to provide academic as well as experiential encounters with environmental issues suited to disclosing issues of affectivity and affective significance.

Which perspectives, methods and approaches characterise the programmes research?

The research programme builds on and develops the work of the Centre for Environmental Humanities (CEH), which has been part of IKS since 2016 and has allowed the Institute to develop substantial expertise and capacity in this relatively new field.
Overall, the environmental humanities grapple with questions of what it means to live in a world of transformed environments, and they take seriously the challenge that, as environmental change continues at a rapid pace, new ways of thinking about the pasts, presents and futures of the worlds around us are more important than ever.

IKS scholars engage with environmental humanities in a variety of ways, but two principal strands can be distinguished:

1. Hermeneutical approaches, primarily within philosophy, history of ideas and theology.
2. Empirical approaches, primarily within anthropology, global studies, history and archaeology.

Examples of current approaches in this field at IKS include, but are not limited to, more-than-human/multi-species studies, political ecology, critical and ecological history, policy analysis, eco-phenomenology, sensorial and embodied knowledges, environmental justice, participatory methods, and philosophy and theology of nature.

Our programme explicitly seeks to think across and mobilise these diverse traditions in a complementary fashion.

How does the research contribute to society?

There is now widespread recognition that environmental crises will not be solved by technological solutions alone, but will require new narratives, social practices and institutions. Here, the humanities offer distinct and essential insights, for example, by showing how:

• historical perspectives can open new visions for present action
• research on conflicts and debates can help stakeholders bridge differences
• attention to aesthetics can help us craft just and green lifeways
• research on other world regions can foster transnational alliances
• consideration of ethical and moral dimensions can offer new insights about social dilemmas, responsibility and senses of self in the midst of ecological damage.

Our programme showcases the power of the humanities to foster novel conversations and collaborations that contribute to urgent needs for socio-ecological sustainability.