Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Spring 2023

Course Description

This course centers the ways in which environmental injustices have played fundamental roles in perpetuating anti-Black racism and anti-Indigenous forms of oppression in the United States. It goes on to explore how environmental injustices manifest across borders, on different spatial scales, and along a broader range of intersecting axes of difference including race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, species, and more. The course focuses as much on the social movements pushing for environmental justice and it does on injustices. Students will thus grapple with key questions about building coalitions across differences, theories of change, strategies and tactics, and what climate justice could be. A key consideration in this class is thus politics. Today’s scholarship on environmental (in)justice embraces taking political positions and actively seeks to create knowledge that can translate into political practice. With this consideration in mind, the class will focus much attention on different efforts to imagine and bring about more just environmental futures.

Student Outcomes

  • Analyze and evaluate abstract texts and films with respect to notions of nature, environment, equity, justice, and more
  • Understand and analyze scholarly literature and argument, particularly with respect to theoretical orientation and sources of support on topics related to environmental justice
  • Formulate and communicate ideas, critiques, and arguments through written, verbal, and visual formats in the form of written assignments and in-class presentations
  • Attain a new appreciation for and perspective on human embeddedness in the material world and the unevenness of environmental risks to humans

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