Environmental Justice and Sustainability
ENVS 350Z
Summer 2023
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
SISP 349Z |
The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." Although we still have a long way to go in achieving this goal, over the last fifty years a vibrant environmental justice movement of racially diverse activists and international coalitions has struggled to create a more equitable and sustainable world. Specifically, they have worked to expose and end the vastly disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation, climate change, air and water pollution, waste disposal, drought, wildfires, and famine on Black communities, Indigenous communities, and other communities of color around the globe.
In this course, students will examine the environmental justice movement, its historical development, its strategies and tactics, and the many contemporary environmental harms it strives to eliminate. Following a four-day-per-week Summer Session immersion schedule, daily readings and discussions, weekly films, and an independent research project will introduce students to topics including environmental racism, environmental health, (un)natural disasters, climate refugees, agricultural and industrial pollution, international waste export, seed imperialism, food sovereignty, water contamination, reproductive justice, environmental reparations, the extinction crisis, and just forms of sustainability.
Note: This course is being offered as a blend of synchronous class meetings and asynchronous work involving small group discussions. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
NSM ENVS |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 - Summer Session II |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
David Pellow and R. Brulle (eds.), POWER, JUSTICE AND THE ENVIRONMENT; Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, FROM THE GROUND UP: ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM AND THE RISE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT; Dina Gilio-Whitaker, AS LONG AS GRASS GROWS: THE INDIGENOUS FIGHT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, FROM COLONIZATION TO STANDING ROCK; Robin Wall Kimmerer, BRAIDING SWEETGRASS: INDIGENOUS WISDOM, SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE TEACHINGS OF PLANTS; Melissa Checker, POLLUTED PROMISES; as well as additional readings.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly reflection papers and a final research project. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Full syllabi will be linked as they become available |
| Instructor(s): Abrell,Elan Louis Times: .MTWR.. 03:30PM-05:35PM; Location: ONLINE; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 25 | | SR major: 5 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: 14 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 5 | JR non-major: 5 | SO: 5 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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