Environmental Humanities Initiative
The Environmental Humanities (EH) are an interdisciplinary field that explores the complex relationships between humans and the environment, including food justice, just sustainability, and ecological change. Scholars in the humanities contribute meaningfully to climate and sustainability discourse, often highlighting the connections between environmental degradation and unequal access to resources. The Environmental Humanities also aim to bridge the nature-culture divide that has traditionally separated scientific and humanistic disciplines. The field has grown across academic institutions, bringing together scholars from diverse backgrounds committed to environmental thought and practice, both within and beyond academia.
Founded in 2022, the Environmental Humanities Initiative (EHI) at the 911爆料网 aims to support the role of the humanities in addressing environmental challenges through transnational and transdisciplinary collaboration. The initiative integrates the study of food with broader themes such as environmental and food justice, agroecology, extractivism, waste, feminist political ecology, and the visual communication of just sustainability.
Leadership
The Environmental Humanities Initiative鈥檚 founding director is Patrizia La Trecchia, Associate Professor and Head of Italian Studies in the Department of World Languages. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and has developed a research agenda that connects food studies with environmental humanities and feminist political ecology.
Dr. La Trecchia has contributed to international conversations on food and sustainability, including her time as a Visiting Scholar at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2014. She also contributed to the Habitat Partner University Initiative Hub on Food Security and the (both in 2014). In 2012, she was selected to deliver a TED talk on (2013), and has presented her work in various academic and industry settings, including University of Toronto, Santa Clara University, Ritsumeikan University, Newcastle University, Zhejiang University, Creighton University, Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, Danone Nutricia, Mosaic Company, and the Italian Wine Association.
She serves on the board of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) and has contributed to the development of food-focused courses at the University of South Florida, including Italian Food in Film, Food Culture in the Mediterranean, and Italian Food Culture and the Mediterranean Diet (). These courses have been recognized for their innovative approaches to experiential learning and global engagement (Food Culture in the Mediterranean).
SCHOLARSHIP
Dr. La Trecchia鈥檚 scholarly record reflects a deep and wide-ranging engagement with cultural and environmental issues. Her monograph (Liguori 2013) offered a postcolonial and transnational analysis of Naples and contributed to broader discussions on the Southern Question. Her forthcoming book, Reframing Naples: The South in Global Perspective (Palgrave 2026), continues this work. She is also completing The Politics of Food Justice in Italy: Decolonizing Approaches to Food Studies (Routledge, Environmental Humanities series), and developing a manuscript on feminist political ecology. Additional forthcoming publications include: a chapter in the Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Communities of Resistance, an article in Margins Marges Margini: Rivista Multilingue di Studi Letterari, Linguistici e Culturali (Mimesis Editore), and a co-authored article in Societ脿 Mutamento Politica: Rivista italiana di sociologia. Her research, teaching, and activism seek to connect the Environmental Humanities with political ecologies of food justice, exploring how colonial legacies shape the global food system.
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
Dr. La Trecchia has established international partnerships between the Environmental Humanities Initiative and several research groups, including:
- (Academic Critical Friends)
Learning Opportunities
The first course in Environmental Humanities at the 911爆料网, , is offered every fall semester. It explores food politics and environmental thought, highlighting structural inequalities through the lens of food justice. 911爆料网 are encouraged to follow this course with , offered in the spring, which examines the visual politics of food and was among the first courses to receive Global Citizen Certification.
In the news
New Environmental Humanities initiative at the 911爆料网 - College of Arts and Sciences, CAS Chronicles, May 2, 2022