Art for a Changing World: Conversations on Art and Climate Change through an Intersectional Lens
Lisa Bloom, Scholar-in-Residence
Gender and Women's Studies
Applications for Spring 2024 are closed for this project.
Building upon the ideas presented in my recent book, Climate Change and the New Polar Aesthetics: Artists Reimagine the Arctic and Antarctic, published by Duke University Press (2022), we will delve into new avenues of research and writing. This fall, we aim to explore the vital role of artist-activists, curators, and scholars in focusing on contemporary art that connects debates on science and the environment with gender, sexuality, race, and the relations of the human to the nonhuman. Our project will involve conducting interviews with prominent scholars, curators, and artists who are leading the way in addressing climate change within the field of contemporary art, visual culture, experimental film, and art history. We will examine the intersections of feminist and environmentalist art, engaging with new scholarship that brings together issues often kept apart in climate change debates, such as the fate of indigenous communities, resurgent nationalisms, globalizing capitalism, as well as questions of gender, race, and persistent postcolonial relations.
The primary motivation behind this project is to address the important work being done on this topic, despite the relative dearth of attention that climate change receives within museums and galleries, particularly in the United States, where cultural resistance and prevalent climate denial hinder progress in this area. Many museums, influenced by trustees and corporate sponsors connected to the fossil fuel industry, have been reluctant to exhibit critical work focused on the environment and climate change. As a result, art and art history has been slow to embrace this topic, leaving other disciplines and multidisciplinary departments such as the environmental humanities, literature, film studies, geography, sociology and anthropology to take the lead. I am particularly interested in candidates majoring in the humanities or social sciences, who are passionate about the arts, climate change, and social justice.
Role: As a member of our research team, you will be responsible for digitizing and cataloging the interviews as well as incorporating scholarly analysis and commentary alongside the interviews. As research apprentices, students will be involved in directed primary and secondary research in the UCB library and online databases, utilizing interlibrary loan services as needed. Through this experience, students will develop their research and critical reading skills, gain knowledge about the growing field of environmental humanities and its relation to gender and women’s studies, and deepen their understanding of ecological art and film.
Qualifications: This position is a great opportunity for students concerned about the threat posed by the global climate crisis and interested in the interdisciplinary field of environmental humanities in relation to contemporary art and film. Qualifications for this project are open to students with different specializations and research interests, including but not limited to gender and women’s studies, environmental humanities, environmental studies, geography, anthropology, literature, art, art history, and film.
Preparation and Involvement: To equip you for the project, you will be asked to engage in reading materials on the topic, including my recent book on Climate Change and the New Polar Aesthetics: Artists Reimagine the Arctic and Antarctic. This preparatory step will provide you with the context needed to contribute effectively.
Hours: to be negotiated
Off-Campus Research Site: Hybrid format. We will meet on zoom when I am traveling.
Related website: http://bbrg.berkeley.edu/scholar/lisa-bloom-0
Related website: http://lisaebloom.com/