CI5442: Adolescent Literature, Youth Activism and Climate Change Literacy

This course explores how contemporary adolescent literature engages with the developmental and identity challenges faced by a generation whose lives are framed by anthropogenic climate change, biodiversity loss, mass migrations, and other forms of slow violence inherent in the unsustainable carbon-intensive civilization. Given that climate change is primarily a challenge to our story systems and that adolescents constitute the most invested audience for sustainability education, adolescent literature has become a site of rebellion against the unjust and ecocidal status quo; a site where adolescents can articulate, debate, and creatively respond to visions of sustainable futures. In this course we will study award-winning works of fiction and nonfiction across genres to understand how adolescent literature inspires activist positions vis a vis petronormative ideologies of power that are devastating the planet. Our focus on the intersection of storytelling, activism, and climate change literacy will help us grasp the key role adolescent literature plays in empowering today’s youths to become agents of change. We will discuss how adolescent literature can stoke young people’s transformative anger, inspire them to address the climate crisis, and stand up for their right to have a future. We will consider how educators can support this fight through activism and engaged discussions of adolescent literature. We will read award-winning picturebooks, novels, and graphic novels that challenge us to reinvent ourselves as a biocentric global civilization. The goal is to transform you into an informed advocate of adolescent literature as a tool for developing climate change literacy and empowering your students to imagine post-carbon futures.

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