Ursula Heise, a distinguished professor of English and UCLA’s Marcia H. Howard Professor of Literary Studies, has earned an international honor for her leading role in advancing the field of environmental humanities.
Heise received the Biophilia Award, which is presented annually by the BBVA Foundation and carries a prize of 100,000 euros. The award’s selection committee lauded Heise for, over the past two decades, having “explored the varied shapes that environmental thought, narrative and activism take in different regions of the world.”
In a statement, the foundation noted that the results of Heise’s scholarship have been global in their influence. Her work delves into an incredibly broad array of mediums — journalism, nonfiction, film and fiction to graphic novels, video games and web content — and disciplines.
“What I put particular emphasis on is how environmental changes that look similar or identical across regions from a scientific or technological perspective — deforestation, soil erosion, plastic waste, species extinction, pollution, climate change — turn out to look very different when they’re approached from different languages, historical memories and cultural contexts,” Heise said.
Heise is also the director of UCLA’s Lab for Environmental Narrative Strategies, or LENS, which is a part of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Among her most recent projects was co-leading a team of faculty and students that produced “Grand Theft Eco,” a series of three animated short films adapted from the Grand Theft Auto video game.
Read the full story about Heise’s award on the humanities department website.