GWS172 PO - Race, Gender, & The Environment

When Offered: Each spring.
Instructor(s): A. Bahng; C. Sherrard-Johnson
Credit: 1

This course takes an intersectional approach to environmental studies, emphasizing critical feminist, queer, trans, race, and disability studies. Highlighting decolonial and indigenous thought in particular, course assignments examine planetary futures that reflect on how histories of imperial conquest, settler colonialism, and global capitalism have contributed to anthropogenic climate change. Another goal of the class is to question how contemporary approaches to environmentalism might have arisen out of already limited epistemological frameworks and legal histories. As part of our investigation into the asymmetrical distribution of toxins and environmental fallout across different populations, students will not only grapple with biopolitical theory but also look to a range of cultural texts - from science fiction films to contemporary fiction to graphic art - to consider alternative political assemblages and strategies for survival that arise from gender and ethnic studies frameworks. Letter grade only. Prerequisites: GWS 026 PO.

Satisfies the following General Education Requirement(s), subject to conditions explained in the Degree Requirements section of this Catalog:
Area 3; Analyzing Difference