Performative Pedagogy Modeling Afect and Action in Climate Change Courses Matthew Schneider-Mayerson Given the widespread uncertainty about how we ought to respond to climate change, instructors inevitably serve as models for their students. Te scope of this modeling is greater than we tend to admit, extending from framing to behavior to afect. If this is the case—if all pedagogy is performative and afect is always a component of learning—then cli- mate change instructors in the humanities (and beyond) ought to mod- el more consciously by demonstrating alternative environmental afects in response to our charged subject matter. Tis essay draws on my experience teaching a course called Energy Humanities at Yale-NUS College, in Singapore, and contrasts it with a previous iteration of the same class, taught at Rice University. At both institutions, the course ofered an introduction to scholarship on ener- gy and climate change from the humanities. Afer spending a month on energy and environmental history, the majority of our time was focused on climate change, which was presented as an issue of environmental justice via a diverse set of materials that included sociology, anthro- pology, philosophy, documentaries, interactive multimedia projects, short stories, and novels. We examined current and potential responses through politics, art, and activism. My pedagogical approach is to have the heaviest hand in the course’s structure, texts, and assignments and then to serve as a facilitator and “meddler in the middle” during most meetings. 1 Tis neutrality encourages students to respond to our assignments and discussions in any way they choose and diminishes the likelihood that they will experience the course as a campaign of environmental persuasion.