Ken Hiltner is a professor of English literature and environmental studies. This website was originally created to house a variety of materials supporting his courses, though now also aggregates resources relating to research & professional service (more).

News

Teaching: In 2012-13, Hiltner is a visiting professor at Princeton University (details).

Writing: Hiltner published two books in 2011; another will appear in 2013 (publications).

Service: Hiltner will be hosting The Environmental Humanities Podcast series in 2013 (details).

Climate Change

For details on the carbon footprint of this website, click here. The below Carbon Counter displays, in metric tons, a running total of long-lived greenhouse gasses in the earth's atmosphere (more).

Intro to Literature and the Environment, Fall 2012. This course surveys nearly 5000 thousand years of literature in order to explore the literary history of our relationship with the earth, as well as to better understand our current environmental beliefs. This course is completely open-access, including lecture notes, the video lecture series, the Course Reader, and additional material (website; student feedback).

Theories of Literature an the Environment, Spring 2013. Environmental criticism is a rapidly emerging field of literary study that will be crucially important in upcoming decades, especially as our present environmental crisis unfortunately worsens. This course explores a range of works from modern environmental critics, beginning in the 1960s and ending with the ongoing explosion of interest in the field in the 21st century (course website).

Course Tweets

"The Two Cultures in Environmental Studies," Princeton University, February 2013.

"Forward to Nature," University of Oregon, March 2013.

Opening Remarks, The Environmental Humanities in a Changing World, Princeton University, March 2013.

"The Role of the Environmental Humanities in Our Future," Princeton University, April 2013.

"Reading the Renaissance, Greenly," Sarah Lawrence College, April 2013.

"Environmental Criticism: What is at Stake?" University of Pennsylvania, April 2013.

"Looking Forward, Environmentally" Boise State University, April 2013.

"Paradise Lost 2.0," 2013 Annual Renaissance Society of America Conference, San Diego, California, April 2013.

"Food and the Future, and the Environment," Princeton Food Salon, April 2013.

"The Role of the Past in Our Environmental Future," D&R Greenway Land Trust, Princeton, April 2013.

"Reconsidering Milton, Ecology, and Place," Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany, May 2013.

(Additional talks listed in the online CV.)