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Blue Humanities

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From the earliest metaphors of the mysterious and unknowable ocean to contemporary indigenous movements for the rights of rivers, water has shaped the human imagination and experience. This course introduces students to the "blue humanities," a
transdisciplinary engagement with the oceans, rivers, and other bodies of water. Students will examine the ocean as frontier and archive, rivers as modes of movement and power, and other bodies of water as reaffirming or disappearing repositories of culture and landscape.

Course Details
Prefix: 
UCO
Course Number: 
1200
Section Number(s) and Day/Times Taught: 
105: TR 8:00am- 9:15am
Term: 
Spring 2026
Categories: 
Global Issues
Sustainability
Instructor(s)

Jen Westerman

A wave crashes on rocks before a sunset.

Jennifer Westerman is a Professor in the Goodnight Family Sustainable Development Department, where she teaches courses in environmental humanities, environmental literature, and labor environmentalism. Prior to beginning her university career, she worked as a park ranger for state parks, the National Park Service, and the US Forest Service in several states across the US. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer and is an alumna of the Student Conservation Association, and she welcomes the chance to talk with students about these opportunities. She is also a creative nonfiction writer, and her most recent essay, "The Imprint Theory of Childhood," appears in Solastalgia: An Anthology of Emotion in a Disappearing World.