Society and Environment

Teacher(s)

Zitouni Benedikte;

Language

English

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

Recognize the political nature of any environmental discourse as well as its theoretical underpinnings. More particularly, s·he will be able to distinguish between eco-modernism, ecofeminism, decolonial ecology, deep ecology, political ecology (ecomarxism), social ecology (post-state ecology), human ecology and native ecologies. S·he will no longer consider the environmental problem as one that could, given enough information and political will, be resolved in a straightforward manner but s·he will recognize it to be a foremost political, cultural and historical problem that necessarily requires struggle, intervention and debate. This course is definitely an asset for students who are considering pursuing a masters’ degree in environment studies but it is also very useful to students who simply care about environmental problems that involve high societal stakes.

Content

By means of collective text analysis and discussion (weekly homework is required!), the course introduces the students to the environmental humanities. This is a relatively recent interdisciplinary field carried by historians, philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists mostly. Those scholars question both the environmental conundrum we're in as the sometimes very problematic ways in which the environmental movement is trying to find ways out of that conundrum. Social, gender and racial justice are at the heart of the matter. So are power and class dynamics. Although many of the texts and arguments we'll look at closely have been published quite recently, many have already become classics for critical and radical environmental thinking.

Teaching methods

Classes are interactive. They revolve around in-depth discussion and analysis led by the students with help of the professor. Before coming to class, students must read a text every single week. Furthermore, throughout the term, the professor will ask them to listen to a few podcasts and if need be, she will post video capsules on Moodle in order to rehearse some of the fundamental theoretical underpinnings of the arguments discussed in class. All of this material is part of the course and must be mastered by the students for the exam. Overall, a liking for in-depth reading and intellectual curiosity are a plus for this course, as well as the willingness to learn from one another through discussion.

Evaluation methods

Open-book oral exam. However, if too many students are enrolled, the evaluation will happen in written form. 

Other information

As the learning process is an interactive and collective one, weekly attendance is required of students. 

Bibliography

The reader will involve texts by some of the following authors: William Cronon, Sophie Chao, Marisol de la Cadena, Amitav Gosh, Richard Groves, Silvia Federici, Ailton Krenak, Max Liboiron, Andreas Malm, Carolyn Merchant, Jason Moore, Val Plumwood, James Scott, Anna Tsing, Eve Tuck & Wayne Yang, Katrhryn Yusoff, amongst others. 

Teaching materials

• The course's compulsory reader

Faculty or entity

> ESPB