Sarah Lawrence College

The Sarah Lawrence Interdisciplinary Collaborative on the Environment (SLICE)

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The Sarah Lawrence Interdisciplinary Collaborative on the Environment (SLICE) SLICE Courses SLICE Partners SLICE Events
Academic Approach Areas of Study Global Education Combined Degree Programs Pre-Professional Programs Faculty Students & Faculty in Conversation Success After Sarah Lawrence
a group of people standing in the water with buckets of food in their hands and a man holding a shovel
Students from "Gothic Decay," co-taught by SLC faculty Eric Leveau (literature) and Michelle Hersh (biology)
a group of people working in a lab with microscopes and microscopes on the tables and on the floor
Students from "Gothic Decay," co-taught by SLC faculty Eric Leveau (literature) and Michelle Hersh (biology)
a group of women sitting around a tree in a forest with leaves on the ground and trees in the background
Students from "Gothic Decay," co-taught by SLC faculty Eric Leveau (literature) and Michelle Hersh (biology)
a group of people standing in front of a gate with statues of men and women on it and a crowd of people standing in front of the gate
SLC and BCC students walk through the Hall of Fame at Bronx Community College before a panel on Hudson River Marshes during SLICE Interlude 1 in 2023
a group of people standing in front of a wall with posters on it and writing on the side of the wall
Students in Heather Cleary's "Difficult Womxn" create a conceptual map of climate narratives in different media
a group of people walking through a forest next to a pile of fallen tree trunks and logs on the ground
SLC and BCC students explore Tibbetts Brook in Van Cortlandt Park during SLICE Interlude 2 in 2023
a group of people standing around each other in a forest with a sign on the side of the road
Ashley Hart Adams discusses the history of enslavement in New York City and Van Cortlandt Park

Each fall since the start of the Mellon Humanities for All Times grant, a group of faculty members from Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) and Bronx Community College (BCC) have met regularly to collaboratively develop the SLICE courses they will teach in the spring and to plan two week-long interludes during which their regular classes will be replaced by experiential learning in the area surrounding SLC and BCC. These bi-weekly meetings also include training in new tools and approaches in digital pedagogy.

Each spring, students in these SLICE cluster courses participated in joint events, workshops, discussions, collaborative projects, and field trips focused on environmental justice and the humanities. Students also have the opportunity to work on environmental justice-based projects with our SLICE community partners. At the end of the year, students present their work in interdisciplinary, cross-institutional panels at the SLICE Student Symposium.

There are also many SLICE-affiliated courses at Sarah Lawrence each semester. These classes do not participate in the spring interludes, but they do attend SLICE events and contribute to the ongoing interdisciplinary exploration of issues related to environmental justice.

    • "Animals and Animality in Medieval Literature and Culture" (Gillian Adler - SLC): seminar, literature
    • "Justice for the Anthropocene, Ethics for a Vulnerable World: Reconceiving Normative Value for an Era of Global Catastrophe" (David Peritz - SLC): lecture, philosophy
    • "The Machine in the Garden: Cinema and Nature" (Leanna Hirschfeld-Kroen - SLC): seminar, film studies
    • "Critical Urban Environmentalism, Space, and Place" (Linwood Lewis - SLC): seminar, psychology
    • "Global Environment History" (Matthew Ellis - SLC): seminar, history

    • “Contemporary Native American Literature” (Izzy Lockhart - SLC Mellon postdoc): seminar, Indigenous studies
    • “Deconstructing the Idea of ‘Nature’ in the Western Tradition” (Eric Leveau - SLC): First Year Studies seminar, literatures
    • “Histories of Art and Climate Justice” (Sarah Hamill - SLC): seminar, art history
    • “Human/Nature: Philosophical Perspectives” (Sarah DiMaggio - SLC Mellon postdoc): seminar, philosophy
    • “Indigenous Ecologies and Environmental Justice” (Deanna Barenboim - SLC): seminar, anthropology
    • “Literature, Art, and (Environmental) Ethical Attention” (Sarah DiMaggio - SLC Mellon postdoc): seminar, philosophy
    • “Sounding Voices and Voicing Sound: Musical and Sonic Interventions of Climate Justice” (Niko Higgins - SLC): seminar, ethnomusicology
    • “Sustainability, Energy, and the Green Economy” (Raffaella Diotti - BCC): seminar, biology
    • “The Atlantic is a Sea of Bones”: Black Literatures of the Ocean” (Elias Rodriques - SLC): seminar, literature
    • “Transnational Migration in the Age of Capitalocene” (Laura Barberan Reinares - BCC): lecture, English
    • “Women—The Historical Experience: "Environmental Movements” (Mara Lazda - BCC): seminar, history

    • “Care Work, Climate Adaptation, and the Settler Colony” (Izzy Lockhart - SLC Mellon postdoc): seminar, Indigenous studies
    • “Earth Science, Energy, and Global Climate Change” (Sheldon Skaggs - BCC): seminar, geology
    • “Environmental Ethics as Liberatory Theory and Practice” (Sarah DiMaggio - SLC Mellon postdoc): seminar, philosophy 
    • “Gothic Decay - Literature and Science of Soils, Swamps and Forests” (Michelle Hersh - SLC biology and Eric Leveau - SLC literature): seminar 
    • “Histories of Art and Climate Crisis” (Sarah Hamill - SLC): lecture, art history 
    • “History of Africa and Climate (In)Justice” (Sibongile Mhlaba - BCC): seminar, history 
    • “Plundered - Tales of Extractivism and Resistance” (Heather Cleary - SLC): lecture, literature 
    • “Signs of the Material World:  Dostoevsky and 19th c. Science” (Melissa Frazier - SLC): seminar, literature
    • “Teaching the Environment through Creative Writing” (Grisel Acosta - BCC): introductory course, creative writing

    At the end of the year, students from SLC and BCC participated in an interdisciplinary symposium showcasing their work.

    • “The Animal” (Kate Zambreno - SLC): seminar, creative writing
    • “Climate Change” (Bernice Rosenzweig - SLC): First-Year seminar, environmental science
    • “Difficult Womxn” (Heather Cleary - SLC): First-Year seminar, literature 
    • “Ecopoetry” (Marie Howe - SLC): seminar, creative writing 
    • “Geospatial Data Analysis” (Bernice Rosenzweig - SLC) seminar, environmental science
    • “Political Creativity” ((Heather Cleary - SLC): seminar, Spanish
    • “Political Economy of Environmental Justice” (An Li - SLC): seminar, economics
    • “Studies in Ecocriticism: The Idea of Nature in the Western Tradition” (Eric Leveau - SLC): lecture, literature
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