Finding Humour in the Environmental History of the Climate Crisis
A NiCHE New Scholars Series
Extended Submission Deadline: 1 15 March 2025
Discussions about climate change have become ubiquitous in public and political spheres. Raising awareness about impending catastrophe and environmental crises has been successfully translated into legislation and action in some parts of the world. Given the scale of the problem and its unpredictable nature exposes us to a veritable flood of environmental problems that becomes a saturation point that overwhelms those experiencing these consequences and creates ennui and apathy in others. Yet, as the crisis exacerbates every year, attempts to convince citizens, corporations, and decision-makers of this threat have not yet been fully successful. Many registers have failed to take timely and proportionate action to address the urgency of ecological crises. American essayist David Gessner described the genre of nature wiring as akin to “going to Sunday School.” A wholesome mix of seriousness, urgency, morality and didacticism within a spoonful of sugar. Ecocriticism has been successful in challenging the proposition that writing about the climate crisis cannot engage with anything that does not seem grave and serious. Ecocritic Michael P. Branch (2013) proposed the concept of environmental humour as a means to challenge the earnestness of environmental writing. Branch asked why we do not employ more levity and humour within scholarly work and rejected the notion that humour subverts and contaminated urgent action. Yet much more remains to be done in the quagmire of misinformation, fake news, and post-truth.
This NiCHE call for papers is inspired by Nicole Seymours Bad Environmentalism (2018) who asks us to rethink the environmental movement’s reputation for doom and gloom, and Zong and Bisenieks (2025) who ponder the incongruity between the gravity of species loss and comedy to highlight humour’s ambivalent potential to subvert human exceptionalism and the anthropomorphization of the nonhuman.
We seek proposals for Finding Humour in the Environmental History of the Climate Crisis that:
- Respond to the concept of humour
- Explore the role and potential of humour to engage an audience who may otherwise overlook the crisis due to ennui or fatigue.
- Enables us to reflect critically on our current moment within the field of environmental history via memes, social media posts, stand-up comedy, opinion pieces, cartoons, archival sources, and scholarly projects.
- Enable the field to advance or obstruct environmental communication
- Increase societal engagement of environmental issues, offer new insights, and bring in new audiences with effective, entertaining, and accessible storytelling
- Are written in English or French
Finding Humour in the Environmental History of the Climate Crisis will feature:
- Environmental History
- Environmental Humanities
- Environmental Art
- History of Emotions
- Affect Studies
- Queer Theory
- Crisis, Risk, and Disaster Studies
- Related Disciplines
Finding Humour in the Environmental History of the Climate Crisis submissions can take the form of:
- Blog posts (800-1200 words)
- Creative Fiction or Non-Fiction
- Poetry
- Art
- Photo Essays
- Audio and Visual Projects
- A Lesson Plan (high school, undergraduate or graduate class)
- Other forms of expression and writing
Submit a 100-300 word proposal describing your proposed submission, how it incorporates or relates to humour, and its contribution to the field of environmental history/studies more broadly, as well as a short bio using the Google Form below by 15 March 2025.
Applicants will be alerted of their submission status by 28 March 2025. Please email Nuala Caomhanach, nfc231 [at] nyu.edu, with any questions or other inquiries.
NiCHE offers $50 CAD honoraria to contributors without adequate or consistent access to institutional support. Learn more about our honoraria policy here.
Feature Image: “Ice Storm Sign” by normanack is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
