AMS 4379 Environmental Justice - Syllabus & Assignments

As a first-gen college student, I understand not knowing the right questions to ask, balancing work and school, and the feeling of not knowing if you're on the right path. If you have questions, please ask. We will work together toward a successful outcome and learn some cool stuff along the way!

Make sure to check Blackboard for directions, links, and course content.

Discussions are due on Perusall Mondays by 12p noon and Tuesdays by 11:59p. If you are new to Perusall, there are a number of helpful videos on YouTube. I think this one will be a good starting point.

Assignments should be uploaded to Blackboard each Friday no later than 12p. I will send you your feedback by email.

Please save your assignments as follows: LastName_FirstName_Assignment (e.g., Cropps_Torrie_Scholar Statement).

Student Hours are Fridays 2p - 4p. This is time dedicated to you/for you, so take advantage of it.

There is no textbook required for this course and no prerequisites.

Weekly Logistics

Use this graphic to help plan your week. We may deviate from this schedule, but I'll let you know the plan each day/week.

Course Topics

Week 1 Introduction to the Course

Week 2 Introduction to Activism & Environmental Justice

Week 3 Challenges of Environmental Justice

Week 4 Colonialism & Race

Week 5 Environmental Justice and the Arts as Activism

Week 6 Global Environmental Justice Movements

Week 7 Ecofeminism

Week 8 Linking Reproductive Justice & Environmental Justice

Week 9 Black Environmentalism & Black Environmental Thought

Week 10 Urban Environmental Justice

Week 11 Land & Water Cases

Week 12 Blue & Green Grabbing/Potpourri

Week 13 Environmental Sciences Education

Week 14 The Future

Week 15 Presentations

*Subject to change*

Assignments

Scholar Statement, so that we learn more about how your background, beliefs, and identities inform your worldview

Culminating Project, a semester-long project that engages the course topics but is meant to allow you to be creative

Culminating Project Progress Reports, to hopefully discourage procrastination lol

Op-Ed, which will give you writing experience beyond formal academic writing and engage audiences outside of academe

Scholar Journal, to allow for self-reflection and interrogation of our own power, position, and privilege

Weekly Readings to expand our minds!

“One is the idea of global catastrophe, that all of us are all on the proverbial Titanic and it has hit the climate iceberg. In reality we may all be on the Titanic, but it’s the rich, white industrialised countries who are on the top deck, sipping their cocktails, listening to the orchestra and waiting for some technological fix to save them, whilst in the hold of the Titanic are black, brown, indigenous people, poor brown and black people from the Global South, who are already drowning, and when they try and flee, they find that the escape hatch is bolted.”

-Asad Rehman