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What Are the Environmental Humanities?

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2026, 83(3), pp.9~60
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : July 22, 2026
  • Accepted : August 10, 2026
  • Published : August 31, 2026

Jo Hyang 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the concept of the environmental humanities, their brief history, key issues, and several exemplary cases. It focuses on core questions such as what challenges the humanities are facing amidst the ecological and climate crisis of the Anthropocene, why we need a concept such as ‘environmental humanities’ and what the humanities can do to help in dealing with this crisis. Although related fields such as environmental philosophy, environmental and ecological history, and ecocriticism remain marginal in Korea, they have been researched, established, and disseminated over a considerable period of time. Presently, when the need for a concept capable of encompassing these various streams of research and education is being raised, this paper examines the extensive research, exchanges, and forms of institutionalization that have taken place and are developing under the banner of ‘environmental humanities,’ with the aim of further expanding and deepening these streams. The environmental humanities emerged in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and are now spreading globally, but they have ‘old roots’ in the humanistic reflection on ecological problems. Emerging in response to the deepening University 60 인문논총 83권 3호 2026. 8. 31. ecological and climate crises and the influence of the environmental move ment, the environmental humanities have taken various forms across different regions of the world, following distinct historical trajectories. Inter- and transdisciplinarity, the crossing of boundaries, loose connec tions and a spirit of experimentation, meta-disciplinarity, and a focus on intervention and participation are among their core characteristics. Above all, the environmental humanities are called upon to humanize scientific aspects of the ecological and climate crisis, and to decenter humanity. Several key issues in the environmental humanities include tensions between tradition and change, continuity and novelty, disciplinarity and inter- and transdisciplinarity , humanization and dehumanization, constructive and critical thinking, the urgency of the ecological and climate crisis and ‘slow scholarship,’ ‘ecological’ and ‘social’ dimensions, whilst also raising the challenge of moving beyond Western-centric views to develop a regional and context-specific line of inquiry. The environmental humanities, which have emerged out of the ‘new human condition’ of the Anthropocene, call for the rethinking, reimagining, redefining, rearranging, reconfiguration, and re-storying of long-established knowledge, while also necessitating new ways of knowledge transfer, com munication, and education. Amidst various tensions, contradictions, and diversities, the environmental humanities are expected to play an indispen sable and increasingly important role through their close collabo ration with the social and natural sciences, focusing on the social and human dimensions of the ecological and climate crises.

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