OSL Research Group: Sustainable Humanities

Sustainability is one of the central keywords of the current age. The concept is so ubiquitous in virtually all areas of life – a Google search yields close to three and a half billion hits for the term – that it is hard to imagine that not so long ago we could do without it. As Jeremy L. Caradonna has argued, the success of the concept of sustainability indicates that we might now living through the world’s third major socio-economic transformation, after the agricultural and industrial revolutions.

But the concept’s popularity also raises many questions and concerns. The environmentalist Bill McKibben has argued that sustainability constitutes a “buzzless buzzword” that above all serves to delay the steps necessary for a drastic transformation of the economy. In even more forceful terms, Leerom Medovoi has characterized sustainability discourse as a progressive version of neoliberalism. Even if such radical assessments are not shared across the board, it should be acknowledged that sustainability studies at present tends to be dominated by economic and techno-scientific disciplines.

As Stephanie Lemenager and Stephanie Foote have suggested, however, the humanities have an important role to play in ongoing debates about sustainability. To begin, humanities scholars may contribute to the creation of what Lawrence Buell has called “environmental memory” by pointing to historical responses to modernity preceding the coinage of the word sustainability in the 1970s. Further, by analyzing narrative templates in fiction and culture, humanists might help to develop alternative scenarios for the future that are less predetermined or vulnerable to co-option by groups with vested interests in the fossil economy. Lemenager and Foote call for a new humanities paradigm – the Sustainable Humanities – which might prioritize this two-fold objective. Other recent proposals – such as those for “deep” (Rigby) or “critical” (Ferreira) sustainability studies – point in a similar direction, thus confirming the need for a reorientation of humanities scholarship at the present juncture.

The aim of this research group is to facilitate conversations on the role of the humanities – and particularly literary scholarship – in the emergent interdisciplinary field of sustainability studies. At the same time, the group will consider what makes the humanities sustainable in times of structural defunding for disciplines that appear less directly relevant to the economy. To this end, we will bring together literary scholars with an interest in sustainability based in the Netherlands and Belgium. The group will also engage with scholars working in other fields, both locally and internationally, as well as writers, artists and advocacy groups focusing on alternative futures for the planet.

Coordinator:

Michael Boyden (Radboud University, michael.boyden@ru.nl)

Upcoming activities:

  • Ravenstein Winter School on Sustainability and Literature, University of Amsterdam, January 2024, organized by Michael Boyden, Jeff Diamanti, and Doro Wiese
  • Keynote lecture by Ben De Bruyn at EASLCE, 17-20 June 2024
  • Panel on agricultural imaginaries at NeMLA organized by Molly MacVeagh, March 7-10, 2024
  • “From Narratives and Scenarios to Climate Action,” workshop at the Lorentz Center, Leiden, Spring 2024, co-organized by Michael Boyden

Current members:

  • Michael Boyden (Radboud University Nijmegen)
  • Teun Joshua Brandt (University of Groningen)
  • Ben De Bruyn (UCLouvain)
  • Jeff Diamanti (University of Amsterdam)
  • Kennedy Dragt (UCLouvain)
  • Kári Driscoll (Utrecht University)
  • Marco Formisano (Ghent University)
  • Doro Wiese (Radboud University Nijmegen)