Fall 2026
Writing the Future: Creative Leadership for a Better World
Dates: September 01, 2026 – December 10, 2026Day/Time: Tuesday; Thursday 10:10 AM - 11:30 AM EDT
Level: 200-Level
Certificate: Global Humanities, Sustainability and Climate Solutions
Global Humanities certificate requirement: Global imagination (study of art and culture). Global story- and history-telling (stories and storytelling traditions).
Sustainability and Climate Solutions certificate requirement: Elective.
Instructor: Jennifer Browdy, Simon's Rock at Bard College
This interdisciplinary course is part of the growing field of environmental humanities, combining research in environmental science and social science with creative writing and collaborative storytelling. It invites students to shine the light of their creative imaginations on the serious environmental and social challenges we face as a global community in the 21st century, drawing on the pioneering work of leading philosophers, theorists, creative writers and transition practitioners such as Rupert Read, Christiana Figueres, Denise Baden, Rob Hopkins, Otto Scharmer, Erica Chenoweth, Joanna Macy and others. Research in current challenges facing the sustainable future of humanity on Earth will culminate in students producing collaborative “State of the World” and “Vision of the World That Could Be” reports, drawing on research in the solutions—both scientific and social—that could lead us to a sustainable, thriving future. Deploying research in environmental and climate communications as well as skill-building in creative writing, the final project will be a work of thrutopian fiction, in which students will envision their best possible future scenario and write a short story or novella that tells a story of how innovators, visionaries and ordinary people working together were able to lead the way from today’s challenges to a brighter future.
This network course includes an online section that is open to enrollment to GHEA21 students across the network. Please visit the GHEA21 Online Courses for further information.
This course counts toward the Global Humanities and Sustainability and Climate Solutions certificates.
Credits: 4 US / 8 ECTS