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21A.525 | Fall 2025 | Undergraduate

# Oceans and Us

### Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 1 session/week, 3 hours/session

### Prerequisites

This course has no prerequisites.

### Course Description

This course explores how people have understood and encountered the ocean, cross-culturally, as a site of danger, pleasure, travel, food-procurement, commerce, and tourism. Topics include imperial voyaging, piracy, the invention of seaside vacations, the politics of fishing, the culture of onboard living in surface and submarine ships, the rise of undersea entertainment and documentary, regimes of managing maritime spaces and species, and the emergence of the ocean as an object of global ecological concern, particularly around climate change and sea level rise.

The class will meet once a week, with the first half of each session devoted to discussing readings and the second often centering on a film (either documentary or dramatic) that illustrates or extends themes explored in the first.

### Requirements

Students will write three 1500–1800 word papers. Each paper represents 25% of the subject grade. Students will also be evaluated on class participation (also 25% of the subject grade). Punctual attendance is obligatory. There is no final.

For further information on the papers, see the Assignments section.

### GenAI Policy

During session 2, we will discuss the utility of AI tools as well as their limitations, hazards, and costs, both material and intellectual. We will then collectively draw up a use agreement for AI tools in this class. Everyone will be expected to follow the rules decided on by the class.

### Readings

Required articles etc. can be found in the Readings section.

## Course Info

### Instructor

- Prof. Stefan Helmreich

### Departments

- Anthropology

### As Taught In

Fall 2025

### Level

Undergraduate

### Topics

- Science
  - Earth Science
    - Climate Studies
    - Environmental Science
    - Oceanography
- Social Science
  - Anthropology
    - Cultural Anthropology
    - Social Anthropology

### Learning Resource Types

auto_stories Readings
assignment Written Assignments

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