College of Arts and Letters
Department of English
Environmental Narrative, Graduate Certificate
Overview
In addition to University Requirements:
- Complete individual plan requirements.
| Minimum Units for Completion |
18 |
| Research |
Individualized research is required.
|
| Some online/blended coursework |
Required |
Purpose Statement
(Scope) This certificate aims to broaden understanding of climate-change and environmental issues through narrative writing. The Environmental Narrative Certificate is an interdisciplinary degree program that combines science and literature courses with a breadth of specialized courses from across the university.
(Content, Skills, Learning Experiences) The Environmental Narrative Certificate program provides cross-disciplinary training to prepare students to write narratives about environmental science. Students gain this knowledge through their individual fieldwork research and coursework in literature, climate science writing, environmental communication, political science and environmental science. The Environmental Narrative Certificate rigorous training in narrative and environmental science prepares graduates for successful careers in environmental writing as creators of texts that rely on literary techniques, such as novels, memoirs, long form journalism, and science writing. Our graduates can successfully communicate across multiple disciplines to develop scientifically and politically sound narratives to enlighten audiences to the wide range of environmental issues that currently challenge our society. The Environmental Narrative Certificate trains students how to develop character, plot, scene, and other literary techniques to captivate the imagination of readers and propel the understanding and urgency of climate science to a broad audience. The research skills gained by Environmental Narrative students help them continue to expand their knowledge long after they graduate from the program. This training and experience helps our graduates assume leadership roles in Environmental Writing, Sustainability Writing, and Climate Science-writing positions.
This program is designed for students with strong preparation in English, Communication, Sustainability Studies, Political Science, and Environmental Science. Moreover, we aim to reach out to diverse students, and we want to become a flagship certificate for recruiting and graduating Native American students from the broader southwest region.
Student Learning Outcomes
This eighteen-credit certificate program trains students to write literary fiction and nonfiction that incorporates scientific inquiry and place-based narratives in order to publish work that speaks to a wide audience interested in ecology, sustainability, and climate change and solutions. Students may work in a wide range of genres, including realism, speculative fiction, nature writing, long form nonfiction, and lyric, braided, and poetic forms. As the market, audience, and necessity for ecological writing grow, these students will be prepared to apply their experience and their narrative skills.
This certificate will prepare students to:
- Read and respond thoughtfully and thoroughly to work by their colleagues in order to hone the critical, intellectual, and analytical skills that are crucial to success in a broad range of literary, artistic, cultural and professional fields.
- Refine skills in drafting, revising and editing in a primary literary genre with the goal of producing a polished creative manuscript of marketable quality.
- Learn the theoretical foundations and research methods in advanced literary studies, and gain expertise in specific genres, periods, and topics in the field, namely environmental-literary criticism and traditions beyond settler/Euro-American notions of place, wilderness, and ecology.
- Write about the environmental forces that shape their work with better-informed scientific research and rationale.
- Develop a professional presentation of an excerpt to the community in a public reading.
More Information