History, Mission, and Values

Our interdisciplinary community explores how the study of religion and the humanities can contribute to addressing ecological challenges by fostering cultural, ethical, and spiritual transformations.

The magnitude, and complexity, of the climate crisis calls for solutions that extend beyond scientific and technological innovation; we must reimagine how we educate, communicate, and collaborate across disciplines. ACRE seeks to bridge the gaps between humanities, sciences, and public policy, exploring “applied” work in the humanities and considering its importance both within and beyond academia. We consider how the study of religion can contribute to issues like: the ethics of technology and its limitations; the importance of preserving biodiversity and the magnitude of its loss; the role of emotions like grief and hope in cultivating resilience; and understanding the enormous cultural importance of myth and narrative. We examine the unique contributions of religious traditions and complementary systems of knowledge–including Indigenous traditions–for rethinking environmental justice, sustainability, and education. We highlight the collaborative humanities as essential tools for cultural and institutional transformation, and demonstrate the necessity of integrating humanistic perspectives with the natural and social sciences to tackle the complexities of climate change.

Vision

The environmental humanities are grounded in a commitment to the idea that ethical and political deliberation about planetary ecological crises require ample room for humanistic perspectives. In order for humanities scholars and humanistic perspectives to be meaningfully incorporated into sustainability efforts (in higher education, in policy making, in public intellectual discussions, etc.), it is important to develop applied approaches; that is, approaches that employ the humanities not as abstract theory discontiguous with the ‘real world’ but as an intimate and important part of it. Applied environmental humanities refers to spaces where humanistic “thinking” becomes humanistic “doing.” Affirming these perspectives, our collaboratory further emphasizes the critical relevance of religion, theology, and spirituality as aspects of the environmental humanities. 

History and Mission

ACRE emerged from an international group first convened in the Fall of 2023, a gathering of scholars working at the intersection of religion, ecology, and the public humanities. This now-permanent working group grapples with applied environmental problems and case studies, considering specific issues of law, policy, regulation, environmental decision-making, and management. Our work is significantly shaped by these real-world problems, but we also highlight the importance of pedagogy, embodied practice, and contemplation as applied dimensions of our work. During our monthly ACRE meetings, we exchange ideas, engage in shared reading, offer feedback on works-in-progress, host “visiting” scholars, workshop syllabi and teaching activities, and join together in community by nurturing collaborative connections. ACRE emphasizes the importance of nonhierarchical governance and intergenerational mentorship, fostering connections between graduate students and faculty, and between senior and junior faculty as well. We privilege co-writing and collaborative projects.   

ACRE gratefully acknowledges our inspiration in the efforts of those who have come before, including the continued good work of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, and the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, & Culture. The past two decades have witnessed the emergence of a new phenomenon: academic centers and initiatives that seek to harness the power of the humanities to better understand, and address, the perils of global climate change and impending ecological disaster. While scientific study and technological innovation remain essential to environmental work and education, they have proven insufficient; in part because of their magnitude and complexity, even cataclysmic reports and dramatic models are not motivating the much-needed collective action and large-scale change. It has become increasingly clear that other significant changes–social, ethical, cultural, aesthetic, philosophical, and spiritual transformations–are equally necessary as we come to terms with our troubled place on this changing planet. 

Our efforts to advance the study of global climate change, and with it the study of sustainability, are also hampered by a disciplinary fragmentation that defines the modern academy. The balkanization into silos and specialties means that we are not preparing our undergraduate and graduate students to encounter the “wicked problem” of climate change; this crisis is a multifactorial, cumulative constellation of social, economic, scientific, and humanistic problems. Concerned faculty often tackle environmental issues in piecemeal ways, from within the ambit of their own specialized training, and humanities scholars in particular are often excluded from core discussions around environmental issues. Our failure to address the climate crisis is, in many respects, a marked failure of the human imagination. To expand our capacity for imagination, we must deepen the network of sources that are available to us. ACRE aims to understand, and steward, the deep ecological resources found in texts and traditions of the past, while seeking to produce new knowledge that can be applied to our contemporary situation. 

Our community of ACRE scholars gathers regularly to explore how humanistic wisdom–and the study of religion in particular–can enrich contemporary ecological conversations and environmental study by offering a very different set of disruptive ideas, practices, and values. These modes of thinking, reading, and acting, challenge the common–if often unstated–assumption that all problems relevant to the study of sustainability must be tackled solely through empirical science or engineering. More than a justification for the continued existence of the humanities, this approach to “applied humanities” argues that scholarship in these fields can and must contribute solutions by applying theory to practice and engaging with the most pressing problems of our day. By examining a series of concrete environmental questions, our work demonstrates that humanities scholars have expertise that can be—and ought to be—shared with scientists, activists, regulatory advisors, community organizers, and governmental players of all levels.  This work is, however, a two-way street: the applied environmental humanities must remain in open dialogue with the natural and social sciences.