On a frosty night in January, 90 students made the trek across campus to gather in the largest lecture hall in the Science Complex, H101. They were there for ES 125H/ES 125H: The Climate Crisis, a class that embodies one of the goals in the College’s strategic plan: “We will renew the structure of our academic program and draw the greatest possible value from finite resources by reducing the siloing of our academic departments and prioritizing interdisciplinary collaboration.”

“It is in interdisciplinarity that we will solve this crisis,” said Catia Confortini, associate professor of peace and justice studies, that night. “We are better people when we learn to think and reason across disciplines,” added Tom Burke, Ralph Emerson and Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of Political Science.

Cross-listed in the environmental studies and peace and justice studies departments, the half-credit, ungraded class was co-taught by professors from five disciplines: Confortini; Burke; Jay Turner, professor of environmental studies; Becca Selden, assistant professor of biological sciences; and Dan Chiasson, Lorraine C. Wang Professor of English.

The premise of the course is the idea that the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences are indispensable to understanding and responding to the climate crisis. This iteration of the course (there will be others offered in the future) was organized around the idea of “place” because, as the syllabus asks, “How do people’s experiences of place affect their understanding of climate change? How does the experience of climate change vary from place to place? How do these experiences affect gender, racial, and other inequalities, and global migration patterns? How is the experience of place and of the climate crisis mediated by art?” Students kept journals to explore these questions.

The professors taught units in the course in the context of their own disciplines. Turner offered an overview of the current state of climate change. Selden, who called the climate crisis “a generation-defining issue,” introduced the science of phenology, the timing of events in nature and the understanding of them through close observation of the living world. Burke lectured on the politics of climate change. Chiasson spoke about how climate change has affected the tone and content of nature poetry. Confortini lectured on climate and gender.

Guest lecturers included Suzanne Langridge, director of Wellesley’s Paulson Ecology of Place initiative, who joined Selden to explain phenology. Catherine McCandless ’14, climate change and environmental planning project manager for Boston, spoke on climate resilience in the city. Gregory White, a professor in the department of government and environmental science and policy at Smith College, explored the social justice issues around climate refugees. Chiasson brought the peace and environmental-action collective Bread and Puppet Theater to campus from Vermont for a performance.

At the last class, Burke collected students’ journals, which they had the option of donating to the College Archives. Then, the five co-instructors led the class out to gather under a tree on a rise along College Road. Chiasson read an excerpt from his poem “The Math Campers,” in which a group of precocious boys tries to invent an algorithm to make summer last forever.

Students had acquired a new understanding of the challenges their generation faces from climate change. And on that May evening, the place that held them, the Wellesley campus, was a poignant reminder of all we stand to lose. The snow and ice had disappeared; lilacs were budding and peepers were shouting from the wetland below the Science Complex. Phenology in action.