Spring 2019 Class Schedule: Program in Environmental Policy and Culture

Spring 2019 Class Schedule

Course	Title	Instructor	Lecture	Department
ENVR_POL 309	American Environmental History	Woodhouse	TTH 9:30-10:50	Environmental Policy and Culture
ENVR_POL 309 American Environmental History This course will survey American history from the colonial era to the present with two premises in mind: that the natural world is not simply a passive background to human history but rather an active participant, and that human attitudes toward nature are both shaped by and in turn shape social, political, and economic behavior. The course will cover formal schools of thought about the natural world - from transcendentalism to the conservation and environmental movements - but also discuss the many informal intersections of human activity and natural systems, from European colonialism to property regimes, migration and transportation, industry, consumer practices, war, technological innovation, political ideology, and food production. Taught with History 309; students may not receive credit for both courses.
Bio coming soon
ENVR_POL 390-21	Special Topics in Policy & Culture: Politics of Disaster A Global Env. History	Barnett	TTH 9:30-10:50	Environmental Policy and Culture
ENVR_POL 390-21 Special Topics in Policy & Culture: Politics of Disaster A Global Env. History The term ‘natural disaster' conjures images of tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, and other powerful forces of nature that strike without warning, inflicting massive suffering on a powerless and unsuspecting populace. We now have several decades' worth of research from the social sciences and humanities showing that so-called "natural" disasters are not very natural at all. Instead, they are deeply political and profoundly man-made. This course adopts a historical and global approach in order to denaturalize disaster. From famines in British India to earthquakes in post-colonial Peru, from floods in New Orleans to nuclear disaster in Japan, we will see how disasters expose and exacerbate pre-existing inequalities, inflicting suffering disproportionately among those groups already marginalized by race, class, gender, geography, and age. These inequalities shape not only the impact of the disaster but the range of responses to it, including political critique and retrenchment, relief and rebuilding efforts, memorialization, and planning - or failing to plan - for future disasters of a similar kind. The course culminates in a unit on the contemporary challenge of anthropogenic global climate change, the ultimate man-made disaster. We will consider how memories, fears, and fantasies of past disasters are being repurposed to create new visions of what climate change will look like.
Bio coming soon
ENVR_POL 390-22	Special Topics in Environmental Policy & Culture: Energy in American History	Woodhouse	TTH 3:30-4:50	Environmental Policy and Culture
ENVR_POL 390-22 Special Topics in Environmental Policy & Culture: Energy in American History This course will examine energy use in American history, ranging from the use of wood and water in colonial times, to animal-derived oils and fossil fuels in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to nuclear in the late-twentieth century, and finally to the search for alternative sources in recent decades. We will consider not only how human use of various forms of energy has affected the non-human environment but also what particular energy regimes have meant for the social, political, and material lives of Americans at different points in history.
Bio coming soon
ENVR_POL 390-23	Special Topics in Environmental Policy & Culture: Black Ecology	Zorach	TH 2-4:50	Environmental Policy and Culture
ENVR_POL 390-23 Special Topics in Environmental Policy & Culture: Black Ecology Taking inspiration from Nathan Hare’s 1970 essay “Black Ecology” and Félix Guattari’s 1989 essay “The Three Ecologies” (which discusses ecology in relation to environment, society, and human consciousness and also includes a memorable comparison of Donald Trump to invasive algae), this course addresses the question of eco-aesthetics in relation to environmental justice with a focus on the experiences, political struggle, and art making of people of color in the U.S. and internationally. We will read fiction and scholarly writings, view artworks, and participate in one or more environmental projects. The class will also host several guest speakers (artists, scholars, and activists). It will also involve several field trips during class time—potentially extending into the early evening—and/or on weekends.
Bio coming soon
ENVR_POL 390-24	Special Topics in Environmental Policy & Culture: Media, Earth and Making a Difference	Taylor	F 2-4:30	Environmental Policy and Culture
ENVR_POL 390-24 Special Topics in Environmental Policy & Culture: Media, Earth and Making a Difference The central question of this course is: What Makes a Difference? Analyzing a variety of works of media addressing environmental themes, including works drawn from advertising and marketing, we will consider different types of environmental messaging and attempts to mobilize public moral engagement. Specifically, we will be looking at strategies for implementing media interventions as moral interventions. Discussion taken up in this class will include evaluating the comparative value of media messaging that emphasizes individual action and personal responsibility, versus messaging that promotes collective action, policy, and structural changes. Students will consider and debate what constitutes authentic "green" messaging versus mere corporate "greenwashing." Throughout, we will ask what kind of media we need in what has been called the "Anthropocene" (a time when humans are now a major geologic force affecting the future of the planet). When motivating public moral engagement in climate crisis, are the solutions being offered those that the planet will actually "register" or "notice" on a global scale? If not, what kinds of "media interventions" do we need to be making and how? Course content will include discussion of media interventions as moral interventions, media directed at social change, eco-media responses by religious communities and organizations, participatory digital culture, and the challenges of addressing environmental crisis in the distraction economy and what has been called the "post-truth era." Students will have the opportunity to propose and craft their own environmental media interventions as the course's final project.
Bio coming soon
ENVR_POL 399	Independent Study	Arranged		Environmental Policy & Culture
ENVR_POL 399 Independent Study Independent project in student's area of interest. Readings and conferences. Comprehensive term paper required. Prerequisite: consent of program director.
Bio coming soon