Course features

Today, as climate change, urban pollution and airborne pandemics increasingly shape our lives, air has become a focus of attention across a wide range of disciplines and practices.

This course invites you to think critically about air as an environmental, cultural, social and political phenomenon. Drawing on perspectives from history, anthropology, literature, art and architecture, you'll consider how different fields enhance our understanding of the relationships between humans and other species in our fragile shared atmosphere.

Throughout the course, you'll reflect on the connections between individual and generational experiences of climate change and develop new ways of understanding the challenges and opportunities that emerge from our shared dependence on air. 

Guided by Dr Rowan Rose Boyson, this course will give you the opportunity to:

• Learn about the history of air science, and different cultural attitudes to air

• Reflect on the metaphoric status of air and how it relates to lived air

• Gain critical resources for articulating rights to clean air

• Recognise some of the ethical conflicts around shared air

• Reflect on the sensory experience of air as smell and tactility

• Engage with contemporary aesthetic theories of atmosphere

• Evaluate attempts to enshrine a human right to clean air

Course format

This course is delivered through the edX learning platform and is designed to be completed in approximately 5 hours, along with 3 hours of self-directed study.

What you'll learn

This course will enable you to:

• Gain historical and cultural knowledge about air and atmosphere

• Understand how arts and humanities perspectives can contribute to addressing environmental challenges

• Develop your communication and storytelling skills in relation to pollution and climate change

• Think critically about sustainability, environmental justice and human rights

Entry requirements

No formal requirements. English proficiency recommended (IELTS Level 6).

Further information

King’s College London has partnered with the online education platform edX to deliver self-paced short courses to learners worldwide. Anyone can audit the course materials for free, excluding graded assessments, for a limited time.

For full access to the course, including graded assessments, and to obtain a verified certificate upon successful completion, the fee is $199.

Payment for verified access to the course is made directly via edX. Please see edX Terms of Service for further information.