This session examines ecocritical approaches to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Spanish cultural production, treating the Iberian Peninsula as a site of environmental imagination and emancipatory narratives. Attuned to the MLA presidential theme, we examine how diverse cultural texts (literary, artistic, scientific, economic, and political) and productions from across these two centuries articulate relationships between people, land, labor, mining and extraction, modernization, and ecological crisis. From reformist agrarian discourses in the 18th century to the urban transformations depicted in the novels of Benito Pérez Galdós, we seek to examine both environmental precarity and new forms of collective agency in the social and cultural imaginary of modernity. Particular attention is given to the emergence of new sensibilities toward nature and landscape as mediators of individual and collective identity, as well as to the figurative and rhetorical strategies through which nature becomes a vehicle for social critique.

The rationale for this session lies in the growing importance of the environmental humanities and ecocriticism across literary studies, and in the relative underrepresentation of Iberian materials within these conversations. By focusing on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Spain, the panel highlights a crucial period in which discourses of reform, industrialization, and liberal nation-building intersect with evolving conceptions of nature. These materials offer a rich archive for examining how environmental precarity and emancipatory visions are articulated within the cultural imaginary of modernity.

The session engages and extends existing scholarship in ecocriticism, urban studies, and the history of science by situating Iberian texts within broader theoretical frameworks. Drawing on work in environmental humanities, affect theory, and spatial theory, the papers consider how cultural production negotiates the relationship between the human and non-human, critiques extractive and positivist paradigms, and anticipates contemporary concerns with ecological crisis. In doing so, the panel contributes to ongoing conversations about the historical roots of environmental thought and expands the geographic and linguistic scope of ecocritical inquiry.

The session is designed to maximize both presentation and discussion. Four presenters will deliver concise papers of approximately 10–12 minutes each, allowing all participants to present sequentially within the allotted time. This structure ensures clarity and thematic cohesion while reserving at least 15 minutes at the end for open, unstructured discussion with the audience, fostering collective engagement and dialogue.

The individual presentations approach the session’s central theme from complementary perspectives. Carlos Varón González analyzes the politics of landscape in the work of Carlos de Haes and Francisco Giner de los Ríos, examining how aesthetic representations of nature function as affective practices that support educational and political projects of modernization and nation formation. Sarah Sierra explores “emancipatory ecologies” in nineteenth-century Spain, identifying a discursive undercurrent that critiques unchecked progress and anticipates ecological crisis through engagements with thermodynamics, literary texts, and apocalyptic imaginaries. Rhi Johnson examines landscapes of re-enchantment in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century texts, arguing that supernatural or otherworldly environments operate as critiques of positivism and contribute to a longer genealogy of ecopoetics. Hazel Gold focuses on the urban ecology of Benito Pérez Galdós’s novels, tracing how representations of Madrid illuminate the interaction between environmental conditions, social relations, and processes of urbanization and alienation.

Together, these papers demonstrate how environmental imagination in Iberian cultural production functions as a site of both critique and possibility, linking questions of nature to issues of gender, class, and power.

The panel incorporates a diversity of voices across career stages, institutional contexts, and methodological approaches. It brings together scholars working in different subfields: literary studies, cultural history, ecocriticism, and the history of science; while also reflecting a balance of perspectives and research trajectories. This diversity strengthens the session’s interdisciplinary scope and fosters a more inclusive and dynamic conversation.