Epistemology - Axis 1

As an all-encompassing scientific object, the environmental question calls for collective, interdisciplinary reflection on the complexity of the causes and issues at stake, as well as on the challenges posed by the climate emergency (e.g. damage to biodiversity, rising sea levels, migrations, greenhouse gases or global warming), land and ocean pollution and deforestation, while recognizing all the implications, whether economic, legal, political and geopolitical, anthropological, sociological, psychological, biological, technological, and other) of these transformations.

The field of environmental humanities therefore aims to encompass all these issues with a view to develop a theoretical and epistemological reflection that is decompartmentalized and freed from a Western scientific tradition that will easily draw a line to separate humans from non-humans. Beyond this, the aim is also to promote and disseminate accumulated knowledge, and to explore new languages by bringing together the academic field and the realms of art, including literature, photography, painting and plastic arts, cinema, choreography, and architecture and design, among others.

Finally, this confrontation/exploration between knowledge and the arts has a practical, civic and citizen-focused goal: it aims to amplify the voices of climate activists within the public sphere, to provide additional clarity in light of complex environmental issues, to alleviate disorientation and clarify issues, and to combat climate skepticism, among other things.