A New Eco-Track in MAIAS: Core Objectives

The MAIAS eco-track offers students the opportunity to specialize in the environmentally oriented study of Anglophone literatures and cultures. By gaining 30 of the program’s 120 credit points in five eco-focused modules/classes, students engage with ecological questions through an innovative interdisciplinary framework that combines inter- and transcultural studies, ecocriticism, and the Environmental Humanities.

The track explores how our understanding of environmental issues has been shaped not only by scientific knowledge but also by cultural narratives and diverse forms of representation – both factual and fictional. Drawing on the interdisciplinary perspectives of environmental literary and cultural studies, eco-track classes…

• investigate the important role that literature, film, comics, and other forms of visual culture have played in articulating, critically debating, and transforming ideas about environments and human-nonhuman relationships, thereby contributing significantly to the formation of environmental histories;
• analyze factual and fictional texts that have participated in developing key concepts such as “nature,” “culture,” and “the human,” thereby examining how their meanings vary across different knowledge systems;
• explore the multicultural and multispecies character of many societies, shaped by the influence of (conflicting) Western scientific and philosophical traditions as well as a range of non-Western and Indigenous epistemologies;
• identify the diverse ways of understanding human relationships with the more-than-human world and the ethical questions that arise from them.
  

By integrating ecological perspectives into the study of Anglophone cultures, the eco-track strengthens MAIAS’s focus on intercultural understanding while highlighting socio-ecological relations as a crucial dimension of cultural history and production.

The modules

MAIAS students who choose the eco-track are required to select courses with an ecocritical or environmental humanities focus in the following five modules:

Module area A:           A 2 eco; A 4 eco
Module area C:           C 1 eco; C 3 eco
Module area D:           D 1 eco

Students in the eco-track may also pursue thesis projects on topics within the field of ecocriticism.

Completion of the eco-track will be indicated on the degree certificate as “Area of Specialization: Literature, Culture, and the Environment.”

Professional and academic relevance

Students who choose the eco-track gain analytical, intercultural, and communication skills that are increasingly valuable in fields addressing environmental challenges. Their training in environmental humanities and literary and cultural analysis prepares them for careers in areas such as environmental communication, publishing and journalism, in cultural institutions, NGOs, and public policy. Graduates may work in organizations focused on sustainability, environmental education, or cultural mediation, where the ability to interpret complex environmental issues across scientific, cultural, and social contexts is essential. The eco-track also provides a strong foundation for further academic research in environmental humanities, ecocriticism, and related interdisciplinary fields.