Jill Gatlin (New England Conservatory)

Sponsored by the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE)

Performance pedagogy, project-based learning, integrative learning, service learning, and other teaching models all enable students to transform classroom-based arts and humanities learning into performance and action. This roundtable explores these pedagogical approaches in environmental justice (EJ)-themed arts and humanities courses. Participants might consider theoretical and curricular frameworks for approaching:

-EJ project-based or performance pedagogy and NeMLA’s 2023 conference theme of resilience.

-The humanities as a space for understanding aesthetics, emotions, stories, voices, ideologies, audiences, and community considerations important to EJ performance and activism.

-EJ literature as inspiration for artistic/performance practice at arts schools and conservatories.

-Merging performance or project-based learning, creative experimentation, and activism (e.g., Climate Change Theatre Action, The ClimateMusic Project)

-Opportunities for EJ humanities projects and performances to address real-world problems, have community impact, and engage the public.

-Environmentally sustainable and equitable performance; the arts, humanities, and arts institutions in a world with ecological limits and unevenly distributed environmental resources and hazards.

-Diversity, equity, and inclusion concerns for collaborators and audiences in project-based or performance pedagogy.

-Relationships between project-based or performance pedagogy, students’ ecological anxiety, and students’ socioecological positions of privilege and disadvantage; socioeconomically and emotionally sustainable activism.

-Assessment of EJ performance pedagogy, project-based learning, integrative learning, or service learning in relation to curricular requirements or limitations.

Please submit a 300-500-word abstract on the NeMLA website by 9/30/22, outlining your intentions for (1) a teaching resource you’ll share (e.g., reading list, syllabus, assignment, or activity) and (2) a short pedagogical statement (i.e., analysis of this resource, context, and theoretical approach).

This roundtable, sponsored by ASLE, investigates ways to enable students to transform classroom-based learning in the arts and humanities into performance and action in environmental justice-themed courses through performance pedagogy, project-based learning, integrative learning, and service learning models.