The doctoral program – UM(WELT)DENKEN

The Environmental Humanities

In line with Ulrich Beck’s paradigm of a “reflexive modernity,” the environmental damages caused by humans have moved beyond our control. After exceeding the natural limits posed by our planet’s self-sustaining systems, we urgently need a critical analysis of the transformations that emerged as consequences of human interactions with the environment.

Our international doctorate program, Rethinking Environment, understands ecological problems as a narrow definition of the changes we are now facing: the impact of unbalanced relationships on human societies and cultures is equally immense. By working with rather than against the natural and technological sciences, our doctorate program emphasizes the epistemic, social, cultural, and political relevance of the humanities and social sciences as indispensable parts of the knowledge production that the Environmental Humanities can offer.

Within movements such as Fridays for Future, local initiatives, and cultural events, many believe that creating a sustainable future requires a revision of the ways we think about humanity’s relationship to other species and the environment. This position includes awareness about economic divides and social hierarchies, which facilitate, speed up, and increase the vulnerability of the global poor, who call for environmental justice as the responsibility of wealthy nations. These complex issues are core concerns in the humanities and social sciences. Analyzing human thought, new perspectives, and inspiring adaptation processes are among the most important competencies that our doctorate program offers.

In line with the program’s academic motto, transformation, we aim to inspire compartmentalized academic scholarship with the new topics and approaches of interdisciplinary research. At the same time, our work within this framework is oriented toward transdisciplinary paradigms. Rethinking Environment cooperates with partners from non-profit organizations, museums, and the public sector to learn from each other and actively contribute to a more sustainable environment through new forms of cooperation and knowledge production.

Teaching

Rethinking Environment is a cooperation between two distinguished academic centers: the Environmental Science Center, WZU, at Augsburg University, and the Rachel Carson Center at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. At the WZU, the Environmental Humanities are one important dimension in a larger inter- and transdisciplinary network with a strong base in the natural sciences, and the Rachel Carson Center is an internationally renowned center dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of environment and society.

Our advisory team brings together experts from both academic environments. Together they represent disciplines like Economics and Business Administration, Environmental Ethics, Ethnology, Environmental History, History of Technology, Human Geography, Literary and Cultural Studies, and Philosophy of Nature — but also Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Health Sciences.

The program’s extensive and multifaceted inter- and transdisciplinary approach relies on innovative teaching methods and intensive learning formats. Beyond weekly seminars and once-a-year conferences, our teaching philosophy is built on various workshop formats, field trips, and working groups involving dynamic groups of visiting scholars and artists.

It is a logical consequence of the program’s unusually broad and multifaceted inter- and transdisciplinary approach that it relies on innovative teaching methods and intensive formats. Instead of offering weekly seminars and once-a-year conferences, our teaching philosophy is built on various workshop formats, field trips, and working groups that involve a changing group of visiting scholars and also artists.

Guest Lecturers

Learning

The international doctorate program is made up of twenty Ph.D. students who represent a mix from Bavarian backgrounds and the experience that comes with being a native from Canada, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Pakistan, or Tajikistan. Each student in this diverse group is supported by an advisory team that consists of three experts from both universities. This allows them to profit from the distinct academic environments and their respective networks.

As an invaluable asset, the doctorate program and its courses take place in Augsburg and Munich. While working in these cities creates two research groups with distinct academic profiles, the in-depth learning formats and cross-regional research groups enable new constellations and regular meetings. Traveling between these two very different yet equally inspiring Bavarian cities is part of the learning experience: the commute enables a regular change of perspective and adds to the transformative dimension of the program.

Rethinking Environment is only possible by actively combining local and global knowledges. This endeavor cannot be successful in a linguistic monoculture. We rely on English for communication in the first semesters, but our international students are encouraged and supported in learning German in order to amplify their participation in academic debates. Our Ph.D. students are trained to actively recognize the multilingual reality of their group and to acknowledge the multicultural and power-related dimensions of environmental issues.

Program Structure

We learn from experts in our own field but also by finding access to disciplines that rely on different vocabularies, methods, and approaches. To make this learning process more productive, we have to create a shared vocabulary and understand each other’s academic lingua franca. For this reason, the first two semesters are dedicated to creating a common knowledge basis. In the second and third years, the emphasis is on workshop formats, some of which are mandatory and pertinent to all, while others seek to serve the specific needs of the Ph.D. students. The last year, in particular, offers opportunities to work closely with our transdisciplinary partners.

You can find more information about our structure in our organizational chart.