Ken Hiltner
Welcome!
I am a professor of the environmental humanities at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), where I am the faculty Co-chair of the Chancellor’s Sustainability Committee, Chair of UCSB’s Sustainable Transportation Committee, and Director of the T. A. Barron Environmental Leadership Program. I was also the founding Director of both UCSB’s Literature and the Environment Center and the Environmental Humanities Initiative. Prior to becoming a professor, for two decades I made my living as a furniture maker.
The primary purpose of this website is to house a variety of materials supporting my courses, which focus on literature, thought, and culture from an environmental perspective. All deal with the climate crisis.
In addition to UCSB, I’ve taught at Harvard, where I received my Ph.D., and at Princeton, where he served for a year as the Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and Humanities at Princeton University’s Environmental Institute (PEI).
My Courses
Every year, I teach a sequence of three large lectures: Eng 22 in the Fall, Eng 23 in the Winter, and Eng 24 in the Spring. As each of these courses has an enrollment of 860-student lectures, I teach over 2500 students per year. Here are course descriptions for all three:
The Climate Crisis, Part II: Local and Global Perspectives
(English 24, a.k.a. Climate Crisis 101, Part II)
Eng 24 introduces students to a variety of perspectives on the climate crisis. In order to do so, each year more than twenty scholars and activists speak to the class about their work on the crisis. Hence, Eng 24 is an unusual class. Unlike a conventional lecture, where a single instructor speaks to the class, students in Eng 24 learn from a range of exceptionally knowledgeable individuals. Eng 24 also has a significant personal component. Indeed, if you really want to jump in and do something about the climate crisis but are not quite sure where to start, Eng 24 is designed to not only offer the examples of people who are making a difference in a variety of interesting ways, but also introduce local initiatives, such as the Eco Vista project. Eng 24 also introduces a variety of UCSB professors and the courses that they teach addressing the climate crisis, as well as a range of UCSB environmental programs.
Here are a few of our recent speakers- Bill McKibben has been called “probably the nation’s leading environmentalist” by The Boston Globe.
- Kim Stanley Robinson, a New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards, is the most respected cli-fi (climate fiction) novelist writing today.
- Sarah Ray is a professor of Environmental Sciences, Studies, and Policy, as well as the author of A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet.
- Ram Veerabhadran is a climate scientist, who, because of his close affiliation with Pope Francis, was influential in the creation of Laudato Si, the Pope’s encyclical on climate change.
- Sister True Dedication is a monastic at the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism in southwest France and co-author of Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet.
- A number of UCSB students who are dedicated climate activists.
The Climate Crisis, Part I: What It Is and What Each of Us Can Do About It
(English 23, a.k.a. Climate Crisis 101, Part I)
In one sense, the climate crisis is being caused by a rise in atmospheric CO2 and other so-called greenhouse gases. Science can address this cause. However, approached in another way altogether, this crisis is being caused by a range of troubling human activities that require the release of these gases, such as our obsessions with endless consumer goods, cars, certain food, lavish houses, fast fashion, air travel, and a broad range of additional lifestyle choices. The natural sciences may be able to tell us how these activities are changing our climate, but not why we are engaging in them. That is a job for the humanities and social sciences. In this course, we will see anthropogenic (i.e. human-caused) climate change for what it is and address it as such: a human problem brought about by human actions. In other words, we will be exploring why we do what we do, even when these actions are disastrous for our planet and our species (and most other species on the planet).
What do students think of this course? All of the student evals for Eng 23 for last year (2020-21) are published to this website.
Introduction to Literature and the Environment
(English 22, a.k.a. Ecocriticism 101)
This course is a sweeping survey of Western literature and culture from an environmental perspective. In much the same way that feminist critics are interested in literary representations of gender and women, ecological literary and cultural critics (or simply “ecocritics”) explore how our relationship to nature is imagined. As with changing perceptions of gender, such literary representations are not only generated by particular cultures, they play a significant role in generating those cultures. Thus, if we wish to understand contemporary America’s attitude toward the environment, its literary history is an excellent place to start. While authors such as Thoreau and Wordsworth may first come to mind in this context, literary responses to environmental concerns are often as old as the issues themselves. Deforestation, air pollution, endangered species, wetland loss, animal rights, and rampant consumerism have all been appearing as controversial issues in Western literature for hundreds – and in some cases thousands – of years.
Research
My most recent book is Writing a New Environmental Era: Moving Forward to Nature (Routledge, 2019). Here is an excerpt. Additional books include What Else is Pastoral? Renaissance Literature and the Environment (Cornell UP, 2011), Milton and Ecology (Cambridge UP, 2003), Environmental Criticism for the Twenty-First Century, co-edited by Ken Hiltner (Routledge, 2011), Renaissance Ecology: Imagining Eden in Milton’s England, edited by Ken Hiltner (Duquesne, 2008), Ecocriticism: The Essential Reader, edited by Ken Hiltner (Routledge, 2014), and an online edition of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.
Nearly Carbon-Neutral (NCN) Conferences
Over one half of UCSB’s carbon footprint comes from faculty and staff flying to conferences, talks, and meetings. Similarly, a half or more of the personal carbon footprint for many scholars comes from conference air travel. In response to this striking problem, since 2016, I have been developing and experimenting with a nearly carbon-neutral (NCN) conference model that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by a factor of a hundred. See the Overview / Practical Guide for details.
Environmental Humanities Initiative
I am the inaugural and current Director of UCSB’s Environmental Humanities Initiative (EHI). UCSB is home to more than 70 faculty members who not only teach over 200 unique courses addressing issues in the environmental humanities, but have also written dozens of books and hundreds of articles. The goal of the EHI is to foster and consolidate this exciting and diverse work.
Literature and the Environment Center
A national leader in the study of Literature and the Environment (also known as ecocriticism and “green” criticism), UCSB is unique in that a range of faculty members offer seamless, strong coverage in ecocritical coursework from the medieval period through the 21st century. The inaugural Director of the Literature and the Environment Center from 2007-11, I again directed the program from 2014-16.
Why are there images of cities on this website?
Landscapes have fascinated me since childhood – perhaps because, growing up on a farm, many of my days were spent out in the landscape. Like many people, I found myself drawn to landscape art that seemed to epitomize nature, such as the striking wilderness photography of Ansel Adams.
However, over the years I have come to realize that, environmentally, the landscapes that are often the most interesting (and sometimes most beautiful) are inhabited ones. Over half the planet’s population now lives in cities; by midcentury it will be nearly three quarters. This is a good thing, as the carbon footprint of city-dwellers is generally significantly smaller than those in suburban or rural areas. Why? Fewer cars and smaller living spaces for a start. For more on this fascinating topic, check out “Green Manhattan” by David Owen or the chapter in Edward Glaeser’s Triumph of the City entitled “Is There Anything Greener Than Blacktop?”
Copyright 2006-22 by Ken Hiltner