WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2022-2023       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
History of Ecology
HIST 221
Fall 2022
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: SISP 221, ENVS 211

The word "ecology" has come to have many meanings and connotations: a scientific field dealing with the relation of organisms and the environment, a way of thinking about the world emphasizing holism and interconnection, a handmaiden of the environmental movement, to name a few. This course covers the history of ecology as a scientific discipline from the 18th-century natural history tradition to the development of population, ecosystem, and evolutionary ecology in the 20th century, situating the science in its cultural, political, and social contexts. Along the way, it traces the connections between ecology and economic development, political theory, ideas about society, the management of natural resources, the preservation of wilderness, and environmental politics. How have scientists, citizens, and activists made use of ecological ideas, and to what ends? How have they understood and envisioned the human place in nature? How have the landscapes and places in which ecologists have done their work shaped their ideas? Other major themes include the relationship between theories of nature and theories of society, ecology and empire, the relationship between place and knowledge about nature, the development of ecology as a professional discipline, the role of ecologists as environmental experts, the relationship between the state and the development of ecological knowledge, and the relationships among ecology, conservation, agriculture, and environmentalism.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST
Course Format: LectureGrading Mode: Student Option
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (CGST-MN)(ENVS-MN)(ENVS)(HIST-MN)(HIST)(IDEA-MN)(IDEA)(STS)
Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74%

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459