Deze informatie is alleen in het Engels beschikbaar.
Topics: Biodiversity, Climate change, Pollution, Power and Justice.
Disciplines: Law, Philosophy, Biology, Environmental Science
Extra Skills: Project management, Making a short film
Admission requirements:
This course is an (extracurricular) Honours Class: an elective course within the Honours College programme. Third year students who don’t participate in the Honours College, have the opportunity to apply for a Bachelor Honours Class. Students will be selected based on i.a. their motivation and average grade.
Description:
This course explores our relation to nature, combining tools and insights from disciplines such as environmental science, biology, law and philosophy. The course will cover various aspects of the unfolding climate and ecological crises to reveal the complexity of the problem and what makes it so hard to address. The course will be organized around several key topics, which will likely include: global warming, biodiversity, waste, intergenerational justice and political power.
Each topic is introduced by a lecture by an expert on the topic, followed by student presentations. Key topics include the following:
Global warming:
What does the latest research tell us about the impacts of climate change? How effective are current climate policies at reducing emissions? This lecture will provide an overview of climate change science in a broad perspective, emphasizing the critical interplay between scientific knowledge, policy-making, and societal impact, highlighting the challenges and opportunities inherent in integrating science into societal transitions and policy decisions. The Netherlands will be used as a case study: a rich and wealthy country dependent on fossil fuel for their economy, vulnerable because water ‘comes from all sides’, high population density, intensive industry and transport, and international trade position.
Biodiversity:
Our natural world is changing. Biodiversity is in decline. We see this trend across many species and habitats, all over the news, in our social media. Is it all doom and gloom? Let’s get together to discuss what is happening to biodiversity, why do we need it and most importantly how we can increase it? Using case studies and stories of optimism from around the world let’s explore this pertinent topic!
Waste and pollution: The invention of plastic sparked off a whole range of inventions that shaped modern life as we know it; e.g., the rise of supermarkets. It also generates tremendous amounts of waste, from plastic soup in the ocean to the inner workings of organic cells. How did we end up in a world full of waste and pollution? To answer this question, we need to understand the social, economic and legal developments that created the conditions for materials to become waste.
Indigenous perspectives:
Indigenous communities are often among the first to suffer impacts of climate change and environmental degradation. But their resilience and experience may also prove vital in resisting extractivism and adapting to changing circumstances, for example by protecting rainforests. We will explore the resources Indigenous traditions of environmental thought have for thinking through the relations between humans and their environment, as well as challenges such communities face in defending their interest, for example at the COP.
Justice:
Climate change raises fundamental questions of justice, across every spatial scale, mitigation pathway, and adaptation strategy. In this session, we will try to get an overview of the main contours of climate justice. Who is responsible for addressing climate change? In virtue of what? And what does that responsibility consist in? We will both outline the central questions and considerations that we need to attend to in order to evaluate our responses to climate change with respect to justice, as well as try to connect these considerations to the current (and possible future) policy landscape.
Power:
Despite the widespread public understanding of the dangers posed by climate change, action taken by political leaders to prevent, or even slow climate change has not been nearly enough to prevent significant planetary warming. In response to this lack of action, some individuals and groups have turned to civil disobedience as a way of trying to bring about change. What explains the gap between avowed climate goals and existing policies? And what might be promising and defensible forms of action in response?
Please note that the schedule is provisional. Any changes will be announced on Brightspace.
Course objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will:
be able to identify different perspectives on environmental issues;
be able to describe and reflect on their own attitude in relation to climate change and environmental problems;
show sophistication in their judgement and analyses of environmental issues;
have trained their skills in collaboration and project management.
Programme and timetable:
The meetings of this class will take place from 15.15 - 17.00 on the following Tuesdays:
Session 1: 3 Febraury, 2026 (P.J.Veth building, room 0.06)
Introduction
Session 2: Wednesday, 11 February, 2026 (location TBA)
Topic 1: Climate change
Session 3: 17 February, 2026 (Old Observatory, room B0.06)
Topic 2: Biodiversity
Session 4: 24 February, 2026 (Old Observatory, room B0.06)
Student presentations & discussion
Session 5: 3 March, 2026 (P.J.Veth building, room 0.06)
Video workshop
Session 6: 10 March, 2026 (Old Observatory, room B0.06)
Topic 3: Waste and pollution
Session 7: 17 March, 2026 (Old Observatory, room B0.06)
Topic 4: Environmental history OR economics OR techno-solutionism
Session 8: 24 March, 2026 (P.J.Veth building, room 0.06)
Student presentations & discussion
Session 9: 31 March, 2026 (Old Observatory, room B0.06)
Topic 5: Justice & future generations
Session 10: 7 April, 2026 (Old Observatory, room B0.06)
Topic 6: Non-western environmental thought
Session 11: 14 April, 2026 (P.J.Veth building, room 0.06)
Student presentations & discussion
Session 12: 21 April, 2026 (P.J.Veth building, room 0.06)
Topic 7: Behavior
Session 13: 28 April, 2026 (P.J.Veth building, room 0.06)
Topic 8: Power and resistance
Session 14: 12 May, 2026 (P.J.Veth building, room 0.06)
Student presentations & discussion
Session 15: 16 June, 2026 (15.15 - 18.00 in Lipsius building, room 1.29)
Filmfestival
Presentation:
Presentations are prepared and delivered by teams of students from different disciplines. At the first meeting, students register their preferences for presentation topics. Subsequently the lecturer assigns students to presentation teams based on preferences and spread of disciplines. The presentation team is responsible for running a 45-minute discussion session about that week’s topic. The format is flexible: use the time in a way that you think is most productive.
For example, you could give a presentation of 30 minutes, leaving 15 minutes for discussion at the end, or have a more interactive discussion throughout.
Presentations must contain the following elements:
1. Make an argument, provoke a discussion. Select one or two claims, arguments or
problems in the literature that you think are particularly important and/or fit for
discussion, and present these in your own words. Important: be selective in what you
include in your presentation. Do not try to summarize everything that is in the
readings but include only that which is needed to give context to the point you are
focusing on. You are free (and even encouraged) to use extra readings as you see fit.
2. Illustrate your argument by discussing an original example, analogy, case study (etc.),
for example by using a news item, a video fragment, or something you found in extra
readings.
3. Raise two or three critical questions with regard the claims in your presentation, or
consider potential objections. Choose them in such a way that they can serve as the
basis for a class discussion.
Final Project:
Teams of students make a short film about one of the topics discussed in this course. Detailed instructions for the final project and for making a video will be discussed in a workshop. The projects are presented at a closing event.
The assignment for the film project is flexible: it allows you considerable creative freedom to choose a format (e.g. a video essay, documentary, interview, site visit, even a fictionalized story).
But there are a few side constraints:
The film needs to engage substantially with an aspect of the theme of the course (the climate and ecological crisis). (The topic may be different from
your presentation.)The film should include some originally filmed material; it should not rely
exclusively on stock footage (you can borrow equipment—ask how this works
at the workshop!)How long should the film be? It depends on what you want to do or get
across, but also pragmatic considerations like workload. 10 minutes is typically fine. Substantially longer films are allowed (for example, for an in-depth interview you might need more time), but I’d recommend not going over 30 minutes.Most importantly: it should be thought-provoking: provide insights, arguments,
or raise questions we would not otherwise encounter in the course. (And yes,
fun is allowed too!)
Work plan & reflection report:
After the video workshop, each group develops a work plan, in which they outline the steps needed to develop their final film project and propose a division of tasks among the group members.
In the individual reflection report, due at the end of the course, you reflect on whether and how your views on the climate and ecological crisis have changed throughout the course, and on how your academic skills developed in this course.
A template for the report will be provided in Brightspace.
Location:
PJveth building, room 0.06
Old Observatory, room B0.06,
Lipsius buildinh, room 1.29
Reading list:
Literature will be announced via Brightspace.
Course load and teaching method:
This course carries a value of 10 ECTS, corresponding to a total workload of 280 hours:
Lectures
Group presentations and discussion
Project management & video workshop
Assessment methods:
Students will collaborate in groups on a film project, to be presented at a film festival at the end of the course.
The assessment is based on:
Presentation;
Final video project;
Work plan & reflection report;
Participation.
Students will be graded with pass / fail / good / excellent.
Brightspace and uSis:
Brightspace will be used in this course. Upon admission students will be enrolled in Brightspace by the teaching administration.
Please note: students are not required to register through uSis for the Bachelor Honours Classes. Your registration will be done centrally.
Application process:
Submitting an application for this course is possible from Monday, 27 October 2025 up to and including Sunday, 16 November 2025 23:59 through the link on the Honours Academy student website.
Note: students don’t have to register for the Bachelor Honours Classes in uSis. The registration is done centrally before the start of the class.
Contact:
Thomas Fossen: t.fossen@phil.leidenuniv.nl