As climate catastrophes intensify, why do literary and cultural studies scholars so often separate aesthetic study from political change? This is the question posed by Caroline Levine, David and Kathleen Ryan Professor of Humanities, in her new book The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press, October 2023).  Levine argues that large-scale, practical environmental activism should actually be integral to humanists’ work.  

Join us in-person or via Zoom for a Chats in the Stacks book talk where Levine will discuss this work, and her argument that humanists have both the tools and the responsibility to mobilize political power to tackle climate change and avert the worst impacts of global warming. Bridging the gap between academic and practical work, Levine offers a series of questions and exercises intended to guide readers into political action and provide a useful handbook for prospective activist-scholars. 

This book talk is hosted by Olin Library. Light refreshments will be served.