Course Description:
This course is the final segment of the ENVS first-year core sequence introducing graduate environmental studies. Building upon Winter Term’s ENVS 610: Environmental Studies in Theory and Practice, we will explore case studies of environmental controversies in order to analyze premises, possibilities, and conflicts among various disciplinary approaches; students will apply similar analyses to their evolving thesis projects; and we will examine various texts from biology, literature, and philosophy, in which scientific and humanistic perspectives overlap.
Course Requirements
Regular attendance and active class participation, formal responses to assigned readings, several short reports and papers, a poster on your thesis project (to be displayed at the Joint Campus Conference in May), and a written analysis of one case study from Taking Sides. Missing three classes begins to erode your grade, and all assignments must be completed for a satisfactory evaluation.
Texts
- Easton, Thomas A. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Environmental Issues
- Margulis, Lynn. Symbiotic Planet: A New View of Evolution
- Butler, Octavia. Dawn.
- Von Uexküll, Jakob. A Stroll Through the Worlds of Animals and Men
Selected essays and articles TBA, e.g. “Critical Thinking and Interdisciplinarity in Environmental Higher Education: the case for Epistemological and Values Awareness,� readings in 19th century Natural Science chosen by Bill Rossi, Elizabeth Bishop’s “At the Fishhouses� and Simon Ortiz’s “A Good Way to Change,� EXCERPT from Carson’s Silent Spring