AMS 4379 Environmental Justice

Course Description

Environmental justice is a movement aimed at combatting environmental injustices - the disproportionate burden of environmental har most often facing communities of color, Indigenous communities, and working-class communities.

In this course, we'll examine and explore historical and contemporary issues and topics related to environmental racism, women and the environment, and resource theft. We'll analyze how historical inequities and systemic oppression impacts marginalized people and their environments.

A critical lens is needed in environmental discourse to better understand the complex historical/political/economic/social contexts, phenomena, and relationships that undermine the achievement of equitable access and outcomes for marginalized people and their environments.

Our understandings will helps us radically challenge, critique, build, care for, and imagine our communities and our bodies.

Course Learning Outcomes

Identify key concepts, issues, and policies that shape how marginalized populations experience and subsequently, engage in their environment.
Critically assess how environmental concepts, issues, and policies impact marginalized groups, health outcomes, and their environments, paying special attention to power structures, access, identity, and difference.
Analyze and discuss concepts and issues in environmental contexts and their implications for practice, research, and policy for marginalized populations.
Critique and (re)imagine applications of diversity and social justice within and beyond environmental contexts.

Check out the Syllabus at a Glance

Questions we will ask often in class:

Who is telling the story? Which parts of the story are being told?
Who holds the power? Who makes the decisions?
Is this good for marginalized people? Who gets to decide?
What assumptions are made about people of Color?
What intersectionalities have I noticed, and what does that mean for people with marginalized identities?

Course Expectations

*We will also develop some course expectations together on our first day.

Mural of street art consisting of power fists and the phrase "To exist is to resist"

What you can expect from me:

I will show up to class on time, ready to participate.
I will treat you and our learning space with respect.
I will return your graded assignments in a timely manner.
I will use technology responsibly.
I will do my best to support you and help you overcome learning barriers.
I will be flexible and understanding; life happens.

Tree with DEI words coming from branches: peace, equality, love, and freedom. Children are watering the ground around the tree.

What I expect from you:

You will attend each class, ready to participate. That means having watched, read, or listened to class materials prior to the beginning of class.
If you are unable to attend class due to illness or unforeseen circumstances, please let me know (via Teams/email) as soon as possible.
You will use technology responsibly.
You will treat your peers, learning space, and instructor(s) with respect.
You will be flexible and understanding; life happens.

“These things, to me, are connected [the environmental movement and racism]. It’s comfortable for people to separate them, because remember that the environmental movement, the conservation movement, a lot of those institutions were built by people who cared about conservation, who cared about wildlife, who cared about trees and open space and wanted those privileges while also living in the city, but didn’t care about black people. There is a long history of racism in those movements.”

-Elizabeth Yeampierre