Join us for the first Environmental Science and Geology Seminar of 2026 where we will hear from Dr. Elena Past, interim Dean of the Irving D. Reid Honor's College, and Professor of Italian in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Wayne State University. Dr. Past's research is at the intersection of Environmental Humanities and Media, with a focus on Italian film.

Crossing Borders, Crossing Disciplines: The Environmental Humanities, Media, and Italy

The Environmental Humanities (EH) is an interdisciplinary field that convenes conversations between the humanities and the social and natural sciences in order to address ecological crises. Scholars in EH work collaboratively to account for the many ethical, cultural, philosophical, political, social, and biological perspectives that underpin environmental questions. In my talk, I’ll outline some of the ways humanities professors are researching ecology and the environment. I’ll trace how a scholar of Italian literature and cinema came to study goats, volcanoes, and silver, and I will discuss how collaborative work – and Environmental Science and Geology – are crucial to my current research on the manufacture of Italian film stock.