Course Name: ENG Poets for Science: Eco poetry and Environmental Writing in Florence
Description: Inspired by Florence as a site of convergence between art, science, and the natural world, this course invites students to explore ecopoetry and environmental writing as essential forms of attention and inquiry. Drawing from the Poets for Science initiative and the interdisciplinary mission of the Wick Poetry Center and the College of Sciences and Humanities, we will consider how writers engage the natural world and a changing climate through language. At a moment of increasing environmental urgency, this course emphasizes the vital role of the arts in shaping public understanding of science and fostering imaginative responses to climate and ecological challenges. Students may write poetry, hybrid forms, or creative nonfiction as they develop practices of observation grounded in both artistic and scientific ways of seeing.
As we move between classroom and city, we will take up observational practices rooted in early scientific study and poetic attention, considering how figures like Galileo Galilei, working under the patronage of the Medici family, helped shape a culture of empirical observation and scientific inquiry in Florence. We will consider how these histories intersect with poetic practices of deep attention and imaginative interpretation. Students will write from direct experiences, working in gardens, along river systems, and within museum collections, while also engaging contemporary ecopoets and interdisciplinary writers whose work bridges environmental science and the humanities.
Class time will be divided between workshop and field-based writing. Site visits will include the Giardino dei Semplici, one of Europe鈥毭劽磗 oldest botanical gardens founded for the study of medicinal plants; the Boboli Gardens, developed by the Medici as a living laboratory of landscape design and environmental control; the La Specola Museum, home to early scientific collections in zoology, anatomy, and natural history; and the Arno River, a site for examining urban ecology, water systems, flooding, and climate impact in a historic city. Additional excursions may include nearby Tuscan landscapes that offer insight into agricultural traditions and biodiversity.
Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisites: None
This course is offered through the Kent Campus. Please review course tuition at /tuition to find costs for Kent campus tuition.