“Environmental Futures and the Challenges of Biophilia”

Professor Ursula K. Heise, recipient of the 6th BBVA Foundation Biophilia Award, delivered a lecture on March 27, 2025, titled “Environmental Futures and the Challenges of Biophilia,” focused on explaining how narratives conveyed through literature, film, television, and other media can transform society’s attitudes and behavior toward nature and the many species with which we share the planet. In her talk, she defended the power of “well-told stories” to raise awareness and mobilize society in the face of the global environmental crisis, during the award ceremony of the 6th Biophilia Prize.

Ursula K. Heise was awarded for “advancing the development and global application of the field of Environmental Humanities.” Over the past two decades, the Professor of Literary Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), “has explored, through her pioneering research, the diverse

Professor Ursula K. Heise, recipient of the 6th BBVA Foundation Biophilia Award, delivered a lecture on March 27, 2025, titled “Environmental Futures and the Challenges of Biophilia,” focused on explaining how narratives conveyed through literature, film, television, and other media can transform society’s attitudes and behavior toward nature and the many species with which we share the planet. In her talk, she defended the power of “well-told stories” to raise awareness and mobilize society in the face of the global environmental crisis, during the award ceremony of the 6th Biophilia Prize.

Ursula K. Heise was awarded for “advancing the development and global application of the field of Environmental Humanities.” Over the past two decades, the Professor of Literary Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), “has explored, through her pioneering research, the diverse forms that environmental thought, narrative, and activism take across different regions of the world,” as highlighted by the award jury.