21A.429J | Fall 2016 | Graduate

Environmental Conflict

Calendar

Note: For two weeks of your own choosing, students are allowed to skip writing a reaction paper.

SES # TOPICS KEY DUE DATES
1

Introduction

Tracking environmental conflict: How far will ideas of the “Anthropocene” take us?

 
2 Histories and Ideas of Nature Reaction paper due
3 Ecologies: Differing Understandings from Human Ecology, Cultural Ecology, Political Ecology, Postindustrial Ecology and Ecological Science Frameworks Reaction paper due
Field trip: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA
4

Agencies

What kind of actors are humans and non-humans? What are the “ontology in the Anthropocene” debates and why should we care?

Reaction paper due
5

Species: Thinking Across Boundaries

Reaction paper due
6

Knowledges: How We Know and Whose Knowledge Counts?

Final research paper topics due

Reaction paper due

7

Ethnographies

Mapping the Politics of Conservation; Exploring Ethnographic Methods and the Meeting of Ethnography, Oral History, and Theory

Reaction paper due
8

Toxics (1)

Occupational Health, Environmental Justice, and Postindustrial Ecologies: The Co-Production of Race, Class, and Toxicity

In lieu of a reaction paper, analyze media articles in the Readings section relating to the lead poisoning crisis in Flint, MI.
9

Toxics (2)

From Endocrine Disruptors to Epigenetics: Rethinking Environmental Health

Reaction paper due
10 Climate Change: Why it Takes More than Information to Change Minds

Detailed outline of final research paper

Reaction paper due

11

Energy

From “Fracking” to Citizen Science

Screening

GasLand. Directed by Josh Fox. Color, 107 min. 2010.

Reaction paper due
12 Discussion of Final Papers  
13 Final Presentations and End of Semester Potluck Final research paper due

Course Info

As Taught In
Fall 2016
Level