The Environmental Studies Workshop is a collaborative cluster designed to provide a forum for graduate students and scholars who work on the environmental social sciences and humanities, broadly conceived. As environmental challenges become some of the central issues of our times, this workshop seeks to bring together diverse and innovative modes of inquiry to understand the history, present conditions, and future of this planet and its living beings.

Over the course of the year, we will discuss works that focus on local, regional, global, and planetary systems as they relate to history, species relations, religion and ethics, law and policy, economic development, political economy, the built environment, urban design, literature, art and film, and resource management. The workshop seeks to bring critical, cross-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary inquiry to contemporary environmental problems within academia. 

We welcome a wide variety of formats, including original historical studies, economic models, lab and field findings, engineering designs, ethics inquiries, literary works, polling projects, curated museum exhibits, films, performances, and works of visual art, among others. We offer participants a platform to present works in progress of all kinds, and provide a forum for discussion in biweekly sessions open to the community.

The Environmental Studies Workshop meets every other week on Friday from 12-1:30pm CT* (*subject to adjustments). As of now, we intend to hold our sessions in-person, but we welcome presenters who wish to present online, and remote accessibility still remains a priority.

To present at the workshop, submit an abstract by emailing sachaet@uchicago.edu or carmine@uchicago.edu. We welcome original papers, chapters, films, works of art, and exhibits by students and faculty at The University of Chicago, and by visiting scholars, both in-person and online. If you’d like to present your work in the academic year 2022/23, please send in your submissions by Sunday, October 2nd, 2022. Our workshop is broadly inclusive in terms of periodicity, discipline, methodology, and geography. To attend the workshop, sign up to our mailing list to get updates on locations and events. Everyone is welcome!

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