Green Shakespeare and the Environmental Studies Classroom

As early modern scholars and teachers, we often discuss the need to defend our field of study—to make Shakespeare relevant to our students and immediate to the contemporary concerns of our society. When working with English majors, however, the need for explicit defense often falls by the wayside. We assume we don’t need to preach to the choir, which affords us more time to explore the OED, to examine textual differences between quartos and folios, etc. But what happens if we take an upper-level Shakespeare course, move it out of the major, and insist that we make Shakespeare speak to the pressing environmental issues of today? In the summer of 2017, I participated in a week-long workshop at my university that helped faculty develop new cross-listed courses in the Environmental Studies department. As the early modernist in our English department, I was cautiously optimistic that this workshop could speak to me or my students. How could I teach the principles of twenty-first century sustainability, I wondered, and simultaneously manage to teach the crisis of legitimacy in King Lear or the performance of power in The Tempest? Putting these hesitations aside, I committed to design and teach a “Green Shakespeare” course that would unite students from English and Environmental Studies in an interdisciplinary experiment, equipped with both formal papers and sustainable community service projects. In this essay, I discuss my approach to teaching Shakespeare in an Environmental Studies context, arguing that Shakespeare provides an opportunity for analyzing a range of pressing contemporary issues, from the connection between early modern enclosure practices and the contemporary politics of eminent domain, to questions of land stewardship and environmentally ethical community responsibilities. This interdisciplinary approach allows us make connections between our past behaviors and our present crisis while offering an imaginative, creative response that celebrates human ingenuity and creativity.