Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Thinking: Natural Places as Heritage
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Convention is an international organization that recognizes exceptional natural places in the world, characterized by their outstanding biodiversity, ecosystems, geology and natural phenomena. The Convention has provided international recognition to around 3,500,000 km 2 in over 250 marine and terrestrial sites across more than 95 countries protecting a valuable sample of our natural heritage. As such, a consideration of natural places as heritage incorporates a diverse repertoire of marine ecosystems, biodiversity, forest conservation and climate change. The convention includes many heritage sites such as the Serengeti National Park (Tanzania), Galápagos Islands (Ecuador), Yellowstone National Park (U.S.A.) and the Great Barrier Reef (Australia) and are often a last refuge for species threatened with extinction, such as the mountain gorilla, giant panda and orangutan. Moreover, almost half of the 46 natural World Heritage sites where glaciers are currently found are threatened by rising temperatures and could see their glaciers disappear by 2100. These include several iconic landscapes such as Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina (containing some of the largest glaciers on Earth), Te Wahipounamu, South West New Zealand (which contains three quarters of New Zealand’s glaciers), and Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro National Park (home to Africa’s highest peak). We will critically engage with these sites, while considering what they offer to us with regard to sustainable heritage practice and how this practice impacts the environment.
The course will have a strong focus on group discussions with a mixture of lectures, presentations, documentaries and small group projects. Through classroom discussion and written work, you will develop the ability to articulate clear, well-supported, and persuasive arguments on the nature of heritage in its environmental context. By the end of the course you will be familiar with the world of UNESCO World Natural Heritage and the very important work it does with regard to the conservation of the environment.
Course Schedule
Program Date: February 25 - April 1, 2023
Students will meet online on Saturdays, time 2:00pm - 3:30pm (Eastern Standard Time). Class time will be a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning.
Academic Director
Fay Stevens
Fay Stevens is an archaeologist and award-winning lecturer and researcher. She has worked in archaeological projects in Armenia, Europe and the UK and has travelled on academic research including Syria, Jordan, USA and Japan. She specializes in the philosophy of phenomenology in archaeology and was part of a ground-breaking project at UCL developing phenomenological research methods and thinking in landscape archaeology. This includes research into the ritual deposition of material cultures into watery locales, and the development of new courses around sustainability and water including ‘Rivers and Tides. A Biography of the River Thames, London’ for the University of Notre Dame, London Faculty. Fay is a contributing speaker to the University of Notre Dame interactive series ‘Global Dialogues: The Worsening Water Crisis’ and the University of Notre Dame London Research Faculty Seminars including ‘Liquid States: A Closer Look at Sustainably and Sacred Water’ (2022). She is a trained archaeological illustrator with a developed practice in conceptual drawing. This has led to an AHRC funded project held at an arboretum in Somerset, UK (2015) which produced a series of tree drawings that have been exhibited (solo and group exhibitions) and published. Her residency with Joya Air Arte+Ecologica (2017) produced a series of tree-based drawing works that focused on hydrology and migration and a film work and writings on wind. Her research around the ritual of water and on the praxis of walking has so far led to conference presentations and publications as well as experimental soundworks, artworks and conceptual writings.