Climate Change and the Arts around the Mediterranean



Overview

How can the arts effectively contribute to our discussions on climate change? This course will investigate the intersections between Mediterranean human societies, nature, and the arts in relation to climate change from Antiquity to the present.

Can we trace climate change in the arts? Climate change asks contemporary human societies to think about their future with a sustainable and renewable mindset. How can we mobilise human ingenuity in relation to natural phenomena with unprecedented strategies and collective actions in order to adapt to climatic natural events affecting the spaces we have long been inhabiting on the planet? How can studying artistic production, reveal these complex relational dynamics, strategies and actions? 

The course will be structured on four themes: Mapping the World, Art and Nature, Climate as Agent, and Artists responding to Climate. These themes will showcase and discuss relevant artistic case studies, pertaining to, and originating from the Mediterranean basin from Antiquity to the present. Artistic production will be studied in relation to, and in dialogue with, the need to map an ever-changing world, the transforming forces of nature, extreme climatic events, and the advancement of science in understanding nature and climate change. 

Programme details

Courses starts: 22 Apr 2025

Week 1: An introduction to the history of the environment and climate

Week 2: Mapping the World 1 (from Antiquity to the early premodern era)

Week 3: Mapping the World 2 (from early Premodernity to the Present)

Week 4: Nature and Art 1

Week 5: Nature and Art 2

Week 6: Climate as agent 1 

Week 7: Climate as agent 2

Week 8: Artists responding to Climate 1

Week 9: Artists responding to Climate 2

Week 10: Student presentations

Certification

To complete the course and receive a certificate, you will be required to attend at least 80% of the classes on the course and pass your final assignment. Upon successful completion, you will receive a link to download a University of Oxford digital certificate. Information on how to access this digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course you attended. You will be able to download your certificate or share it on social media if you choose to do so.

Fees

Description Costs
Course Fee £285.00
Take this course for CATS points £30.00

Funding

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

Tutor

Dr Andrea Mattiello

Dr Andrea Mattiello holds a PhD from the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies University of Birmingham, and another PhD from the School for Advanced Studies in Venice. He has published and lectured on Medieval, Modern and Contemporary Art and Architecture, queer art in Antiquity, female agency in Byzantium and Greek-Italian exchanges in fifteenth-century Humanism. He has held a number of prestigious research fellowships and has lectured at Università IUAV of Venice, the University of Birmingham, Università di Salerno, Christie’s Education London and the Courtauld Institute of Art. He co-edited the volume Late Byzantium Reconsidered and is currently working on the queens at the late Palaiologan Byzantine court in Mystras. He is currently conducting research at the Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei in Milano on Climate change and the history and criticism of art.

Course aims

Course aim:

The course will help students to better understand and identify cultural artefacts that can be read and reassessed as responses to environmental challenges and climate change in the context of the history of the broad Mediterranean.

Course objectives:

  • To understand and contextualise scientific discourse on the climate in relation to the arts;
  • To recognise critical moments in global history when climate became a crucial factor in art making;
  • To develop analytical skills to deal with sources and artefacts that show significant responses to climate change.

Teaching methods

Each session will consist of a lecture with slides followed by a seminar. Each seminar will be run in the form of a participatory workshop with active involvement of the students; it will deal with written evidence, visual materials, and art historical scholarship. The last session will be devoted to a workshop for students to give a 10-minute presentation on a topic of their choice pertaining to the course materials.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will be expected to:

  • be able to identify the cultural implications of historic natural and climatic phenomena;
  • develop skills to research, analyse, and discuss artistic production that presents connections to natural environment and climate;
  • have a general understanding of Mediterranean societies that can be employed towards other geographies;
  • build academic discussion skills and presentation techniques.

Assessment methods

Formative assessment
Every week, students will be asked to participate in seminars by discussing very short readings or easy tasks involving visual analysis assigned from one week to the other. Students will also be asked to provide by week 5 a 500 word summary of their summative assessment.

Summative assessment
At end of the course, students will be given the choice of:
Option A) Preparation of an individual pre-recorded 15-minute presentation, on a topic pertaining to course materials with a 500 word summary. Students will be encouraged to choose materials not exclusively among the objects and themes discussed during the course.
or
Option B) A 1,500 word essay responding to a question defined with the tutor and pertaining to a topic discussed and agreed with the tutor by week 7. Guidance will be provided thoroughly, but artworks and specific cases will be investigated independently.

Coursework is an integral part of all weekly classes and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework in order to benefit fully from the course. Only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work the required standard.

Students must submit a completed Declaration of Authorship form at the end of term when submitting your final piece of work. CATS points cannot be awarded without the aforementioned form - Declaration of Authorship form

Application

To earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.

Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an Enrolment Form (Word) or Enrolment Form (Pdf)

Level and demands

The Department's Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, i.e. first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.

Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS)

To earn credit (CATS points) you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. Students who register for CATS points will receive a Record of CATS points on successful completion of their course assessment.

Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process can either register for CATS points prior to the start of their course or retrospectively from the January 1st after the current full academic year has been completed. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

Terms & conditions for applicants and students

Information on financial support