CHICAGO, IL – This fall, Columbia College Chicago will launch the third year of Critical Encounters, the school’s campus-wide learning initiative, with a multi-layered examination of the relationships and tensions between humankind and the natural world.
Human|Nature will consider how factors such as the culture, wealth, geography and history of societies have influenced humanity’s stewardship, exploitation, understanding and artistic representation of the natural environment.
Through both public programming and classroom initiatives, Columbia faculty, staff and students, as well as the general public will investigate how past actions have resulted in local and global environmental crises and weigh potential solutions.
“Human|Nature will survey how societies either choose to collectively protect their shared resources or retreat from cooperation and the impact these decisions have had on humanity and human rights,” explains Dr. Kevin Fuller, Columbia’s 2008-9 Critical Encounters Faculty Fellow. “The theme will also gauge the impact of the natural world on human development by considering how nature has shaped the shared human experience as well as exploring the degree to which individual values, qualities and desires are either naturally imbued or socially nurtured.”
Fuller, associate chair and professor of biology in Columbia’s department of science and mathematics, has been working with a team of academics across the college’s liberal education, arts and media disciplines to develop the layers of inquiry that comprise Human|Nature. The team will continue to work together to create educational opportunities for both students and the general public.
“Human|Nature is a very timely and a very rich theme,” says Provost and Senior Vice President Steven Kapelke. “We are not only addressing ‘green’ issues, although clearly this is a significant component of Human|Nature. The core paradigms of Western society have been shaped by a historically contentious relationship between humans and the natural world. Linking with the previous and current Critical Encounters themes of HIV/AIDS and Poverty & Privilege, Human|Nature should significantly deepen our exploration of many of our most ‘cherished’ social constructions.”
Critical Encounters is a college-wide initiative intended to synchronize conversations between the school and the community in an ongoing dialogue around a central, socially and culturally relevant issue, each academic year. The purpose of Critical Encounters is to further enhance Columbia College’s commitment to civic engagement by inviting students, faculty and staff to explore and reflect upon the chosen issue so that we better understand the impact of that issue in relation to our role as artists, communicators, and media makers, and as those who shape public perception and author the culture of our times. More information at www.colum.edu/criticalencounters.
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