Even though scholars in Humanities are ideally situated to take up the challenge of fostering environmental literacy in the classroom, until quite recently, little practical attention has been paid in the field to such concerns as the welfare of future generations, preservation, and conservation. Despite the growing visibility of environmental rhetoric and ecological literacy as viable fields for research in the humanities, for the most part we are still catching up regarding these concerns with our colleagues in sciences and social sciences who have a longer tradition of utility embedded in their disciplinary ideals. While scholars of environmental rhetoric such as Jamie Killingsworth have pointed to interest in sustainability as an emerging and growing area of inquiry, others have been less generous. For instance, Glen Love states, “Given the fact that most of us in the profession of English would be offended at not being considered environmentally conscious and ecologically aware, how are we to account for our general failure to apply any sense of this awareness to our daily work?” Additionally, Derek Owens argues that all of Humanities, "needs to recognize as a field that sustainability is not only equal in importance to race, class, and gender but also entails many of the concerns associated with those rubrics.” In this course we will explore scholarship in rhetoric and literacy studies that is answering the challenge to open space in transdisciplinary conversations on the environment as we look to a sustainable future.

• Killingsworth & Palmer (1992). Ecospeak: Rhetoric and Environmental Politics in America
• Cronon (1996). Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature
• Donehower, Hogg & Schell (2007). Rural Literacies
• Dobrin, & Morey (2009). Ecosee: Image, Rhetoric, Nature
• Goggin (2013). Environmental Rhetoric and Ecologies of Place
• Abbey (1975). The Monkey Wrench Gang