Course description
This course introduces students to the environmental humanities from the vantage point of Venice. This cross-disciplinary and rapidly expanding field explores the role that humanistic knowledge—interacting with the natural and social sciences—can play in interpreting and transforming a world challenged by a planetary environmental crisis.
Venice, one of the hotspots of climate change, is a globally renowned city that is both unique and emblematic of the challenges faced by many coastal regions worldwide. We will read Venice as a material text, examining its role from multiple perspectives and through diverse media, including science, fiction, non-fiction, film, visual arts, and foodways.
The course will introduce key concepts in the Environmental Humanities—such as the Anthropocene, blue humanities, ecocriticism, ecofeminism, natureculture, and posthumanism—and address various forms of political ecology, activism, and public engagement. We will study examples of intellectual and artistic intervention, environmental discourse, and rhetoric. Many of our case studies will be drawn from the cultural history and present condition of Venice and its unique ecosystem, showing how this microcosm encapsulates many global issues.
Amitav Ghosh’s novel Gun Island will guide us through India, Bangladesh, the United States, and Venice revealing how climate change and migration intertwine in the present while unfolding a mystery from the past. We will engage with the work of scholars, activists, and artists from the Anthropocene Campus, contributors to Venice and the Anthropocene: An Ecocritical Guide. Two documentaries will help us analyze how the Venice lagoon—a “natural” environment modified by humans for centuries—is central to understanding the city’s ecology and deeply connected to global migration dynamics. An essential part of the course will be field excursions, beginning from San Servolo and extending to key sites in the lagoon and the city.

Learning outcomes of the course
The general goal of this course is to enable students to address cultural issues related to the environmental crisis from both theoretical and practical perspectives, with a high degree of autonomy, and to interpret the material and cultural texts of Venice.
Students will learn to become effective researchers and communicators in the field of Environmental Humanities, employing a range of critical methods, conceptual models, and theoretical approaches. They will develop an awareness of place through investigation, observation, and engagement with local ecologies and communities.

Teaching and evaluation method
This course combines lectures, class discussions, field trips, and experiential learning. Discussion of assigned texts is at the heart of the course, enabling students to read critically and engage with major issues while drawing on their diverse cultural, linguistic, and disciplinary backgrounds.
In addition to reading and discussion, the course emphasizes personal engagement with Venice and its ecosystems. Students are expected to be active participants, both individually and collaboratively, in class discussions and experiential learning activities.
Evaluation will be based on regular attendance, classroom participation, a written midterm based on the readings, a group presentation, and the final research project detailed below:

Evaluation
10% – Attendance
20% – Active participation in class discussions
20% – Written midterm examination (based on assigned readings)
20% – Group presentation
30% – Final individual research project

The final research project—either a written and illustrated essay or a multimedia work—will focus on a specific Venetian site, analyzed from an Environmental Humanities perspective. The topic must be approved by the instructor and more detailed guidelines will be provided during the course.
Note: Readings, assignments, screenings, field trips, and guest lectures may be adjusted to accommodate unexpected opportunities. 

Coourse structure

Week 1 - What is the environmental humanities?
Venice and its Ecosystem in the Anthropocene
Readings:
Venice and the Anthropocene. Introduction; Giupponi, et al. “Boon and burden”

Week 2 - Venice Ecological Imaginaries
Readings: Venice and the Anthropocene. Section I: Waterscapes; Settis, If Venice Dies; “Venice Then and Now”

Week 3 - Literary Lagoonscapes
Venice and the Anthropocene. Section VII: Airscapes; Iovino, “Cognitive Justice”; Alexander, “Acqua Alta”; Scarpa, Venice is a Fish(excerpts).

Week 4 - Walking, Wading, Swimming
Readings: Venice and the Anthropocene. Section II: Architecture; Section VI: Immersion;
Codato, “Lagoon Wanderings”; Finch-Race, “Imagining Venetian Hydro-Peripatetics”.

Week 5 - Multispecies Venice
Readings: Elton, “More-than-human; Venice and the Anthropocene. Section III: Ecoliberation.

Week 6 - Ecological migrants and refugees
Readings: Venice and the Anthropocene. Section V: Migrations
Banglavenice (2022) Dir. Emanuele Confortin (Confortin & Guidolin), www.banglavenice.com
*Midterm*

Week 7 -Amitav Ghosh’s Planetary Venice (I)
Readings: Ghosh, Gun Island.

Week 8 - Amitav Ghosh’s Planetary Venice (II)
Readings: Ghosh, Gun Island; Bassi, “’None of that shit matters to the Swedes’”.

Week 9 -Venetian Foodscapes
Readings: Venice and the Anthropocene. Section III Foodways; Kent, “Ethnobotany on the Table”.

Week 10 - Environmental Activism
Readings: Araya López, “Saint Mark’s Square”; Guaraldo, “Resisting the Tourist Gaze”.

Lagunaria (2022) Dir. Giovanni Pellegrini

Week 11 - Ecology and Contemporary Art
Readings: Baldacci, “An Archipelago of Ecological Care”.
Visit to Ocean Space (tbc; reading tbd)

Week 12 - Students Presentations & Conclusion

Bibliography

Primary readings
Venice and the Anthropocene. An Ecocritical Guide, eds. Cristina Baldacci, Shaul Bassi, Lucio De Capitani, Daniel Pietro Omodeo, Venice: wetlands 2023.
Ghosh, Amitav, Gun Island, London: John Murray 2019.

Secondary readings
Alexander, Meena “Acqua Alta” from Quickly Changing River, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2008.
Baldacci, Cristina. “An Archipelago of Ecological Care: Venice, Its Lagoon, and Contemporary Art.” Lagoonscapes 3.2 (2023): 1-14.
Bassi, Shaul, “’None of that shit matters to the Swedes’: Venice, Bangladesh, and the Postcolonial Anthropocene” in: de Medeiros, Paulo, and Sandra Ponzanesi, eds. Postcolonial Theory and Crisis, Berlin-Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2024, pp. 105-122.
Codato, Petra “Lagoon Wanderings: Boat hydro-perspectivism in the aquapelagic assemblage of the Venetian Lagoon.” Shima 17.2 (2023).
Elton, Sarah, “More-than-human”, in P. Ballamingie and D. Szanto (eds.), Showing Theory to know Theory: Understanding Social Science Concepts Through Illustrative Vignettes, Ottawa: Showing Theory Press, 2022, 283-89. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/showingtheory/chapter/more-than-human/
Finch-Race, Daniel A. “Imagining Venetian Hydro-Peripatetics with Ciardi, Favretto, Lansyer, and Pasini.” Lagoonscapes 1.1 (2021): 59-78.
Giupponi, C., Bidoia, M., Breil, M. et al. “Boon and burden: economic performance and future perspectives of the Venice flood protection system”. Regional Environmental Change 24, 44 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-024-02193-9
Guaraldo, Emiliano. “Resisting the Tourist Gaze. Art Activism Against Cruise Ship Extractivism in the Venice Lagoon.” Lagoonscapes 1.1 (2021): 101-124.
Iovino, Serenella, “Cognitive Justice and the Truth of Biology Death. (and Life) in Venice'” in Ecocriticism and Italy. Ecology, Resistance, and Liberation, London: Bloomsbury, 2016.
Kent, Rachel, “Ethnobotany on the Table: Revolutionary Reimagination at Venice’s Tocia”, November 22, 2022, https://italysegreta.com/revolutionary-reimagination-at-venices-tocia/
López, Alexander Araya. “Saint Mark’s Square as contested political space: protesting cruise tourism in Venice.” Islandscapes and Tourism: An Anthology. GB: CABI, 2023. 101-124.
Scarpa, Tiziano, Venice is a Fish: A Cultural Guide, London: Serpent’s Tail, 2009 (excerpts).
Settis Salvatore, If Venice Dies, Toronto: New Vessel Press, 2016 (excerpts)
“Venice Then and Now. 1600th Anniversary of the City”, NLR Online Exhibitions, https://expositions.nlr.ru/ve/RA4544/maps-of-venice

Film
Banglavenice (2022) Dir. Emanuele Confortin (Confortin & Guidolin), www.banglavenice.com
Lagunaria (2022) Dir. Giovanni Pellegrini https://www.ginkofilm.it/film/venezia-liquida/

Last updated: January 21, 2026