By creating new alliances between the arts, humanities, and the environmental sciences, the Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative offers educational, research, and outreach programs that will help humankind make the difficult turn toward a more sustainable life on Earth. Our times present challenges that are unprecedented in their complexity, danger, and scale. At the same time, they present correspondingly important opportunities. Meeting these challenges and opportunities will require new ideas and new forms of intellectual and cultural leadership based on a scientific understanding of Earth’s environmental and ecological systems, and grounded in a deep understanding of the sources of human wisdom and values.
The Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative has missions in collaboration, graduate education, and undergraduate education. We collaborate with faculty and programs across the university to host speaking events and an annual regional graduate student conference that enable students and faculty members to respond creatively and effectively to the world’s emergency call for new or better ideas about how we might live wisely, justly, and sustainably. We offer a graduate degree (MA) in Environmental Arts and Humanities, and we encourage students in other programs to participate by taking EAH as a minor field and/or taking our classes. We also offer undergraduate courses that satisfy OSU's general education requirements and offer interdisciplinary perspectives on environmental issues.
The goal of the Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative is to focus the attention of students and faculty members on the cultural, moral, historical, spiritual, creative, and communication dimensions of environmental issues, to prepare them for good, wise work in such positions as environmental NGO’s, government and land agencies, advocacy groups, corporations, green business, journalism, conservation and stewardship, formal and informal education, and other environmental positions that require strong, creative communication and reasoning skill sets and humanistic understanding.