1st Edition

A Global Humanities Approach to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals Understanding Planet, People, and Prosperity

Edited By Kelly Comfort Copyright 2024
252 Pages 14 Color & 73 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

252 Pages 14 Color & 73 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

252 Pages 14 Color & 73 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This edited textbook explores the 17 UN SDGs through 12 works from the humanities, including films, novels, and photographic collections. It provides students with the knowledge and understanding of how the humanities engage in broader social, political, economic, and environmental dialogue, offering a global perspective that crosses national and continental borders. The book takes students... Read more

Introduction: A Global Humanities Approach to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

Kelly Comfort

 

Part 1: Planet: Relating Global Humanities Texts to UN SDGs 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, and 15

 

Chapter 1: Aya Hanabusa’s Holy Island: Nuclear Power and Political Resistance in Iwaishima, Japan

Amanda Weiss

 

Chapter 2: Barbara Dombrowski’s Tropic Ice: Dialog Between Places Affected by Climate Change – Photographs and Art Installations of People and Landscapes

Britta Kallin

 

Chapter 3: Fabrice Monteiro’s The Prophecy: Trash Art Photography Protests Trashing the Planet

Kelly Comfort

 

Chapter 4: Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn’s Cowspiracy: Animal Agriculture and the “Sustainability Secret”

Natalie Khazaal

 

Part 2: People: Relating Global Humanities Texts to UN SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

 

Chapter 5: Fernando Contreras Castro’s Única Looking at the Sea: Marginalization, Community, and Politics from a Garbage Dump

Miguel Rosas Buendía

 

Chapter 6: Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I: From Waste to Wonder—A Cinematic Odyssey on Food Loss and Gleaning

Stéphanie Boulard

 

Chapter 7: Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh: Devouring Each Other in Consumerist Society

Mirla González

 

Chapter 8: Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos’s Bending the Arc: Public Health Pioneers Fight for Universal Health Equity and Global Justice

Seung-Eun Chang

 

Part 3: Prosperity: Relating Global Humanities Texts to UN SDGs 8, 9, 10, 11, and 16

 

Chapter 9: Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger: Stagnation or Social Mobility in Modern India

Smita Daftardar

 

Chapter 10: Ivan Sanjinés, Nicolás Ipamo and Alejandro Noza’s Cry of the Forest: Sustainable Development and the Indigenous Communities of Bolivia

Vicki Galloway

 

Chapter 11: Hao Jingfang’s “Folding Beijing”: Unequal Time and Space in a Dystopian City

Lu Liu

 

Chapter 12: Wang Jiuliang’s Plastic China: Unveiling the Façade of Prosperity

Jin Liu

 

Conclusion: Think Global, Act Local: Partnerships and Projects (SDG 17)

Kelly Comfort and Jennifer Hirsch

Biography

Kelly Comfort is Professor in the School of Modern Languages at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.

"This engaging collection reveals the vital links between the humanities and the SDG framework. An integrative humanities perspective calls attention to the work of global artists, writers, and texts underrepresented in studies of environment, climate, and sustainability. Foregrounding the 2030 Agenda, the book centers on the themes of Planet, People, and Prosperity. Through an exploration of science fiction, photography, documentary film, and other genres, this highly accessible collection brings the global humanities into generative dialogue with education for sustainable development."

John C. RyanAdjunct Associate Professor at Southern Cross University, Australia, and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Nulungu Institute, Notre Dame University, Australia