Workshop: Ecologies of Knowledge: an Intellectual History of Science, Nature and the Environment
A.Y. 2025/2026
Learning objectives
This laboratory aims to provide students with the ability to isolate and understand the attention to the environment in pre-modern scientific thought (1400-1800). In particular, the main objective of the laboratory is to understand continuities and discontinuities in the history of knowledge and science in European and non-European contexts.
Expected learning outcomes
Students will manage to gain expertise and knowledge on the intersections between the history of science and the history of the environment, especially aiming at relating these themes to contemporary problems. Students will acquire critical instruments to read and understand the main references to environmental history in the different contexts, isolating the different attempts to deal with nature at large. Students will acquire historical knowledge and expertise by a direct exchange with the professor.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Giudizio di approvazione
Assessment result: superato/non superato
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
This workshop aims to analyze the relationship between the environment and the construction of scientific knowledge from the late Middle Ages to the modern era (up to the French Revolution). Pre-modern science, in fact, establishes a new notion of nature compared to that of previous centuries, highlighting the connection between science, nature, environment, and the exercise of political power. Through selected texts and various primary sources provided during the course, students will develop the ability to trace the roots of the concepts of ecology and environment in the period from 1400 to 1789, challenging certain misconceptions and identifying key elements of European culture. In doing so, the workshop seeks to examine the relationship between politics, science, technology, and the environment that led to the development of a Eurocentric conception of knowledge, economy, and politics
Prerequisites for admission
A good knowledge (reading, writing, listening) of English is required.
Teaching methods
Frontal lessons.
Teaching Resources
Sara Miglietti e John Morgan (eds.), Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World (Routledge 2019)
Rachel Carson, Primavera Silenziosa (Milano: Feltrinelli, 1994) [Traduzione Italiana].
Carolyn Merchant, La Morte della Natura. Donne, Ecologia e Rivoluzione Scientifica (Editrice Bibliografica, Milano 2022) [Traduzione italian]
Matthias Schemmel, "Global history of science as a knowledge resource for the Anthropocene", Global Sustainability, 3:22 (2020).
Sumana Roy, How I Became a Tree, (Yale University Press 2021).
Marco Armiero e Stefania Barca, Storia dell'Ambiente (Carocci 2004)
Rachel Carson, Primavera Silenziosa (Milano: Feltrinelli, 1994) [Traduzione Italiana].
Carolyn Merchant, La Morte della Natura. Donne, Ecologia e Rivoluzione Scientifica (Editrice Bibliografica, Milano 2022) [Traduzione italian]
Matthias Schemmel, "Global history of science as a knowledge resource for the Anthropocene", Global Sustainability, 3:22 (2020).
Sumana Roy, How I Became a Tree, (Yale University Press 2021).
Marco Armiero e Stefania Barca, Storia dell'Ambiente (Carocci 2004)
Assessment methods and Criteria
Although there is no final evaluation, in order to pass the laboratory it is mandatory to write a short essay (up to 5 pages). All students should discuss the topic of their essays with the professor.
- University credits: 3
Humanities workshop : 20 hours
Professors:
Baldassarri Fabrizio, Giannini Giulia
Professor(s)