Ecological Crisis: Science, Film, and Fiction

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Focus on the science and representation of the ecological crisis in fiction (multimedia), film and science communication, including trade books and documentaries.
• How specific representation forms are used to make sense of wider historical, social, political, economic and technological transformations related to ecological crisis
• Current key debates in how we understand ecological crisis and its communication
• Key questions raised by critical concepts, including: (settler) colonialism and the environment; ecological science and policy; climate change diplomacy; how "nature" and the environment are represented across cultures and how that impacts the representation of anthropogenic climate change; what tools can be used to analyse written and visual case studies, including film, social media, fiction and nonfiction works of literature, video games and grahic novels.
• How critical, cultural and scholarly material contributes to the ways we think about reprensentations of the ecological crisis
• How to research and develop an appropriate topic on the representation of the ecological crisis using sources from criticism, theory and cultural history
• Specific issues raised by topics including: how to use STS and decolonial methods and theory to unpack and read the representation of ecological crisis across fiction, film and science communication, the ethics and politics of representation, and how to move across representation scale from global to local.

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Describe and evaluate the state of research and scholarship on the representation of ecological crisis
• Identify lines of enquiry about the relationship between ecological crisis and cultural change
• Apply appropriate critical and historical approaches to different forms of representation of ecological crisis
• Identify and develop a topic for further research which might form the basis of an MA dissertation

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Identify and outline the main debates in a given field
• Demonstrate the capacity for self-directed problem-solving and independent work within a strict time-frame
• Draw upon a range of relevant primary and secondary sources to explore specific cultural and historical questions

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Synthesize and integrate the analysis of primary sources and secondary texts in a coherent written argument
• Identify and analyse the shifting historical frameworks through which the ecological crisis is understood
• Critically evaluate both primary source materials and arguments in secondary texts
• Conceptualize historical and cultural issues in new ways as a result of close textual analysis

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Situate STS and decolonial theories within their respective intellectual and historical contexts
• Plan and write essays on the topic of the representation of ecological crisis across media

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.