AMS 311S: Environmental Justice, Culture and Society Fall 2017 Instructor: Robert Oxford Email: robertoxford@utexas.edu Class meets Monday, Wednesday, Friday 1:00-2:00 p.m., BUR 436A Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 3:00-4:30 p.m, or by appointment. BUR 408 Writing Flag Required Texts: Joni Adamson, William A. Gleason, and David N. Pellow, eds.. Keywords For Environmental Studies Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything Andrew Ross, Bird On Fire: Lessons from the World s Least Sustainable City The term environmental justice denotes an ongoing civil rights struggle based upon the fact that certain groups are marginalized by bearing the greatest social and cultural burdens from ecological changes and circumstances based on race, gender, and class. This discussion and reading seminar will allow students to use these lenses and develop a vocabulary to deepen their understanding of a variety of environmental issues like climate change and environmental racism in order to understand humans relationships to and definitions of nature, modernity, and pollution, as well as to recognize those most at risk from environmental degradation and destruction. This class will engage with a variety of cultural texts like photography, film, ethnography, public policy, environmental justice advocacy, and testimonials. The goal of the course is to recognize the intersectional ways in which we come to understand the environment and how people work at different times and contexts toward a more equitable, sustainable, and socially centered approach to ecological problems. The purpose of this course is to broadly examine the components of the environmental justice movement through vocabulary building, media, and case studies. Course Objectives: 1) To understand various topics, themes, histories, and controversies about environmental justice. 2) To consider how race, gender, sexuality, and class contribute to the complexities of environmentalism. 3) To think critically about the possibilities, contradictions, and actions toward a more just and sustainable society. Your grade is determined as follows: Participation 15% Reading Responses 15% Mid-Term Paper 20% Final Paper First Draft 15% Final Paper Peer Review 10% Final Paper 25% Participation is a combination of how much you contribute to in class discussions and the production of discussion questions that you bring to class. These questions should be thoughtful
and engage with the texts we are reading for the day. These will be the genesis of our in-class discussions and will be handed in after class. If you do not have anything to turn it, it will negatively affect your participation grade. No late reading questions are accepted. Reading responses are weekly two-page, double spaced responses to prompts I create on Friday and are due on Monday. These prompts will come out of our discussions, readings, and in class activities. They are not meant to drill you on answers, but rather serve as a place to reflect on what we learned during the week. All reading responses should be final drafts that are copy edited for clarity, grammar, and mechanical errors. These are graded on check, plus or minus system. Your grade is determined holistically based upon quality and progress. A late response essay will result in a ten point deduction per day. Your Mid-Term paper is a 5 page essay on a prompt of my choosing that will come out of class discussions, readings, and reading response papers. Late papers will result in a ten point deduction per day. Your Final Paper is an 8 page policy or action plan that you develop about an environmental justice issue of your choice. Details will be provided as we approach the assignment. Along with completing the draft, you are also responsible for providing feedback to one of your peers. No late papers are accepted after the final deadline. You must complete all reading before class and participate fully in class discussions. Many of the texts are quite complicated so I strongly suggest that you take reading notes since our discussions rely on textual observations. Always bring texts to class because I may call upon you to read an excerpt. Prompt and regular attendance is expected. Tardiness is disrespectful to me and to your classmates. Please be advised that if you miss multiple classes and/or are consistently late your grade will suffer. Attendance: Attendance is mandatory but I understand that life happens. As such, you are granted five days of absences, excused or unexcused. Absences beyond these will reduce your participation grade and excessive absences jeopardize you passing this class. In any event, communication is key. If you know you are going to miss class, please make arrangements with me beforehand. If you do not, I will need you to email me about your plan to return to class. Missing a deadline, for example, will reduce your grade, but I will still need to know when you plan on completing your work. Please note, however, that extensions are rarely offered and only in truly serious circumstances. Electronic Devices Policy: Cell phones should be silent and remain in your bags for the duration of class. Laptops may only be used for note-taking purposes or to view pdfs of readings. Any other use of laptops or cellphones is a serious distraction and will result in a deduction of your participation grade. This policy is subject to change.
Contact: The best way to reach me is by email or to stop by my office hours. I do not check my email in the evenings, so do not expect an instant reply. Please give me at least 24 hours to respond to you. Similarly, if you message or post on Canvas, do not expect and immediate response. Accommodations and Inclusivity: Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities, 512-471-6259 or 471-4641 TTY for users who are deaf or hard of hearing. See also: http://www.utexas.edu/ diversity/ddce/ssd/ University of Texas Honor Code: The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community. All cases of academic dishonesty will be referred to the Office of the Dean of Students. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. It is an exhausting waste of everyone's time and you're better than that. If you are unsure what constitutes plagiarism, please see me before turning in any documents. Course schedule is subject to change: see Canvas announcements. Reading Due Keywords Other reading or assignment due 8/30 9/1 Introduction Introduction 9/4 Labor Day Holiday 9/6 Environment Tracing the Environmental Linage (Canvas) Cronon, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature. 9/8 Pollution (Canvas) Carson, Silent Spring Chapters 1, 3 9/11 9/13 Environmentalism(s) (Canvas) Næss and Sessions, Basic Principles of Deep Ecology (Canvas) Bookchin, Social Ecology versus Deep ecology: A challenge for the Ecology Movement
9/15 9/18 Environmental Justice Health" (Canvas) Principles of Environmental Justice, Bali Principles of Climate Justice; Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing, Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth (Canvas) Lerner, Introduction to Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure in the United States Naomi Klein and Current Environmental Justice Struggles 9/20 Climate Change, Anthropocene This Changes Everything: Introduction 9/22 9/25 9/27 9/29 10/2 10/4 10/6 10/9 10/11 10/13 10/16 10/18 Risk Society This Changes Everything: Chapter 1 Neoliberalism (on Canvas), Sustainability This Changes Everything: Chapter 2 Globalization This Changes Everything: Chapter 3 Economy, This Changes Everything: Chapters 4 Degradation This Changes Everything: Chapter 5 Green This Changes Everything: Chapter 6 Natural Disaster This Changes Everything: Chapter 7 Consumption This Changes Everything: Chapter 9 Democracy This Changes Everything: Chapter 10 Indigenous This Changes Everything: Chapter 11 Ethics Genome This Changes Everything: Chapter 12 and 13 This Changes Everything: Conclusion Special topics in and other considerations of Environmental Justice 10/20 Biopolitics, Imperialism (Canvas) Campbell, The Biopolitics of Security, Oil, Empire and the Sports Utility Vehicle
10/23 10/25 10/27 10/30 Ecofascism, Ecoterrorism Race (on Canvas) Midterm Due https://news.vice.com/story/inside-the-lastdays-of-the-standing-rock-protest; We Need to Be Talking About Standing Rock; History of US Settler Colonialism Selections from: Bullard, Dumping in Dixie (Canvas) Pellow: Toward a Critical Environmental Justice Studies Black Lives Matter as an Environmental Justice Challenge ; Flint Water Documentary MiWeek Clip 11/1 Presentation by PublicCitizen, no reading due 11/3 Eco-Feminism (Canvas) Perkins: Women s Pathways Into Activism Rethinking the Women s Environmental Justice Narrative in California s San Joaquin Valley 11/6 Queer (on Canvas), Queer Ecology (Canvas) Hogan: Undoing Nature: Coalition Building as Queer Environmentalism 11/8 Species, Animal (Canvas) Bittman: Rethinking the Meat- Guzzler 11/10 Education Watch Flow (Un)Sustainable Cities 11/13 Ethnography Bird on Fire, Introduction 11/15 11/17 11/20 Sustainability Bird on Fire, Chapter 1 Built Environment Bird on Fire, Chapter 2 Eco-Art, Bird on Fire, Chapter 3 Thanksgiving Break 11/27 11/29 12/1 12/4 Landscape Bird on Fire, Chapters 4, 5 Urban Ecology Bird on Fire, Chapter 6, Bird on Fire, Chapter 7 Bird on Fire, Chapter 8
12/6 12/8 12/11 Catch-up day Final paper workshop Party! Final paper first draft due First drafts returned, peer review due 12/18 FINAL DUE on Canvas @10pm