Bren Ram is a PhD candidate in the Department of English and Diluvial Houston Predoctoral Fellow at Rice University, where she studies the intersection of risk and ecology.

 

Course Description:

This course is organized around three central questions: what is environmental film, why study film through the lens of the environment, and how is ecological thinking impacted by the medial constraints of film? Together, we will explore the ways ecological concepts can help us understand film from the early 20th Century to today. We will watch lots of films, from blockbusters to festival darlings. Through both fiction film and documentary, we will use the classroom space to build new understandings of how films contribute to notions of community, climate change, nature, culture, and more. This course privileges collaboration, engaged research, and egalitarian learning in the classroom-as-environment.