{"id":26858,"date":"2026-01-29T16:29:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?post_type=story&p=26858"},"modified":"2026-01-30T12:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:26:11","slug":"of-humans-crocodiles-and-mangroves-faculty-launch-environmental-humanities-program","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/01\/29\/of-humans-crocodiles-and-mangroves-faculty-launch-environmental-humanities-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Of humans, crocodiles, and mangroves: Faculty launch Environmental Humanities program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Clark recently celebrated the launch of its new Environmental Humanities<\/a> program with faculty presentations on their current research, which spans the fields of language, literature, culture, history, sociopolitics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Affiliated with the School of Climate, Environment, and Society<\/a>, the program officially launched last fall with a slate of interdisciplinary classes offered by faculty in the departments of English; History; Language, Literature, and Culture; Sustainability and Social Justice; and Visual and Performing Arts. Christina Gerhardt, the Henry J. Leir Endowed Chair in Foreign Languages and Cultures in Language, Literature, and Culture, and English Professor Stephen Levin are the co-founders and co-directors of Environmental Humanities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Jan. 28, they introduced two of the program\u2019s five affiliated faculty: Odile Ferly<\/a>, associate professor of language, literature, and culture, and Nana Kesse<\/a>, assistant professor of history (pictured above). They gave a preview of the wide-ranging topics available to students interested in studying and concentrating in the environmental humanities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Odile
Odile Ferly, associate professor of language, literature, and culture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ferly\u2019s study of Caribbean literature centers on mangrove ecosystems, which she described as metaphorically and environmentally significant to the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe mangrove is very important \u2014 it\u2019s a breeding ground, it’s a hurricane barrier \u2014 but people in the Caribbean don\u2019t really take care of that ecosystem well enough,\u201d Ferly said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cI saw the mangrove as a representation of female tradition that was also forgotten and neglected in Caribbean literature for a long time, until the 1990s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kesse studies the histories of water and the environment, slavery and the slave trade, as well as the social and cultural history of West Africa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n