With apologies for cross-posting
Dear
supporters of the Rescue!History network,
Some current news and a
request(point 3) below for how some of you might like to directly help us (and
even get paid something small in return!)
1) The Rescue!History e-book, (
Mark Levene, Rob, Johnson, Penny Roberts eds.) 'History at the End of the
World ? History, Climate Change and the Possibility of Closure' (Humanities
E-books, Penrith), consisting of 15 provocative 'think-pieces' about
human selves, the human past and climate change, is nearing completion and will
be out in the New Year. We'll keep you posted of developments but we hope you
will want to join with us in publicising and disseminating it as widely as
possible. Watch this space.
2) We're still looking for blogs and
publications for the Rescue!History resource page. We're expecting some more
additions shortly and have just included now, Prof Colin Richmond's 'A
Life's Task', specially composed for the Rescue!History site and a great little
read about the real social, economic (and hence environmental) sigificance of
the Henrician Reformation. Thanks Colin. http://rescue-history-from-climate-change.org/PDFs/a_lifes_task.pdf If others of you have got pieces of your own, published or unpublished,
which you'd like included on the page, please get in touch with
me or
Marianne at [log in to unmask]
3) the most
important bit: please read if you can!
Rescue!History has been
commissioned (that sounds a bit grand, 'contracted' might be closer the mark!)
to produce a model course syllabus by the HEA History Subject Centre. (Higher
Education Academy, for those of you who don't know, is the outfit which supports
academic teaching in the UK, the History subject centre including Archaeology
and Classics).
Our schedule is from now to the end of June 2010. The
brief is to produce a prototype undergraduate syllabus (i.e.
material for a semester course)and explanatory supporting material specifically
geared to history and related disciplines. The subject of the syllabus is
(of course) the relationship between the human past and the present reality of
anthropogenic climate change. And to cut to the chase, what I'm looking for is
academics, teachers and also students to feed in ideas, or more exactly discrete
components for this exercise. I have a small grant to make this happen.
So,
depending on ideas offered, I may be able to provide some small packets
of £sd for anybody who can work them up into a coherent seminar (and or) lecture
components for the syllabus.
Rather than going into depth here, may I
suggest that anybody who has an interest might get in touch with me
direct? I am, however, including below some nebulous ideas (from the HEA
application: see far below ) as to the sort of isssues we might want to develop
in this project. What I'm interested in, as a general rule is not heavily
'scientific' or even necessarily 'environmental' material in the strict sense of
the word but rather ideas with might engage with the issue of ourselves and the
biosphere; human social, economic, political, cultural and religious behaviour
across time and space (quite literally from the very ancient to the
present). To help get the gist of what this might entail I also enclose
details of the already up and running 12 part, collectively-formulated
'In
the Face of Humanity' course at Southampton, which (though
not
history-specific) might give some clues as to possible directions. All
that said, what I'm most interested in here, is running with some of YOUR ideas
and where appropriate, paying you for the joy of developing them.
Thanks
for your time, and best wishes to you all,
Mark
(Mark
Levene)
- Rescue!History
http://rescue-history-from-climate-change.org/indexClassic.php
-----------------------
Some of the very provisional ideas which
inform this proposed syllabus
'Past Actions: Present Woes: Rethinking
History in the Light of
Anthropogenic Climate Change and Seeking its
Assistance as a Guide to Human Survival'.
(A Model University Syllabus for
History and Related Subjects)
(again entirely provisional
title).
Description of project
To create a model syllabus for
historians and other students of the past to engage with issues of anthropogenic
climate change through the medium of history and related disciplines.
Syllabus to be developed by a small team associated with the Rescue!History
network.
a. Aims and objectives
-to create a broader awareness
among humanities' students of our
dependence on the biosphere
- to provide
student awareness of the connect between anthropogenic climate change and the
totality of practices, economics, technologies and socio-cultural
behaviour which have brought it about
- to put this into historical (and
pre-historical) context
- to consider what human experience across time and
place can teach us about responding to environmental and other challenges
-
to offer the past as a resource for practical and ethical action in an era of
acute crisis
b. Area of teaching and learning to be
developed/researched
- the relationship between human
activity and environmental impact
- whether the impact should be seen in
terms of the long duree (including back into pre-history) or abrupt
(near-contemporary) rupture
- the degree to which modernity and more
specifically post-1970
globalisation ('the great acceleration': J. R.
McNeill) is the key cause of current global warming
- examples of where
society has coped or collapsed under environmental or human-made crisis (and the
relationship between these elements)
- the evolution of fossil fuel
dependency and its consequences as we
reach or surpass 'peak oil'
- the
'structure' of human state, society, economy and international
relations in
an era of crisis, and whether such structures and their related institutions are
capable of dealing with climate change and its knock-on effects
- The degree
to which resilience and sustainability at local and regional levels are the
product, historically and contemporaneously, of top-down policy-making or are
indicative of counter-cultural or grass-roots aspects of the human
condition
- The role of culture, religion and spirituality as signposts to
hope and practical action in times of fear and despair
- Case histories of
what can happen, for good or ill, when polities or societies 'fail', 'break
down' or 'collapse'
- The scientific history of climate change
analysis.
Methodology
The proposed syllabus brings together
materials from a wide range of
disciplines both within and without the
immediate subject area. Hence, there is no specific discipline-centred
methodology. It also has to be said that much of the current knowledge on
climate change is also consequent on very current data or reports. By
contrast, historical analysis of the changes being brought about remains in its
infancy. This is not to repudiate the notion of methodology; rather to propose
than in constructing a new and in some respects entirely novel (even at
this stage unique) syllabus there is
an element of feeling one's way towards
the right content, balance and overall assessment, on the basis of available
signposts and even intuitive thought. Thus, instead of seeking a discrete and
predetermined frame of reference what this exercise instead proposes is to bring
together researchers, teachers and students from a variety of disciplines,
both within History subject centre, and also from elsewhere (including where
appropriate beyond the Humanities), to contribute to and participate in the
forging of a model course on the causes and consequences of climate change but
with a view not to it being set in stone, but rather as a launching pad
for teachers to develop their own lateral or alternative ways of dealing with
the subject.
Transferability
This project will produce a
product (syllabus) which will have wide
application and usefulness in a
variety of frameworks
For teachers
- it will provide scope for greater
use of materials and information from a wide range of disciplines
- encourage
them to cover a wider temporal and spatial approach to their subject
-
consider their subject both more globally and more locally
For students,
it will enable them to
- think with greater reference to scientific facts,
methodologies and
arguments
- organise their knowledge and understanding
of history in a wider and deeper context
- arm them with the ability to
interrogate different state policy and
societal responses to climate
change
- feel their way to appropriate, ethically-based routes to dealing
with sustained crisis
- encourage them to use their learning to develop
practical action on
climate change, including reduction of their carbon
emissions and greater self-sufficiency