Race and the Environment

Transcription

1 Fall 2011 Race and the Environment Environmental Processes, Institutions, and Behavior 440 (11:374:440) Crosslisted as Anthropology 293 (01:070:293) Professor David McDermott Hughes Office: 201 Bioscience Building (Douglass Campus) Office hours: Tuesdays 9:30-1:00 and Thursdays 11:00-12:30 In Biosciences Building, room 201 (Douglass Campus). Students whose class schedules conflict with these office hours may make an appointment. Lectures run Mondays and Wednesdays 3:55-5:15 in Blake Hall, room 131 (Cook Campus). Course summary The course examines the ways in which racial categories, racism, environmental care, and environmental destruction have all shaped and informed each other. The course is divided into sections corresponding to the major global encounters between Europeans and other peoples: conquest, genocide, and slavery. Readings from social science, fiction, and poetry will address the particularly potent transactions between blacks and whites in North America, the Caribbean, and Southern Africa. Having recognized this past and present, the course will suggest a more forward-looking environmental ethic - one that speaks more to a common future than to the nostalgia of separate ethnicities. Learning goals 1. To understand the social construction of race; 2. To dissect various forms of racism; 3. To analyze relationships between race and space; 4. To improve the quality of one s writing; 5. To gain confidence and ability in making oral presentations. Requirements Students are expected to do all the weekly reading by the class meeting. Students are also responsible for the material in films listed on the syllabus. These will be shown in class and will be available for re-viewing at the Douglass Media Library (in the basement). At each class meeting, two students will present the reading, summarizing it, interrogating it, and offering 1

2 questions for further discussion (see below). Finally, attending the class and contributing to discussions therein contribute to the final grade. I will calculate final grades as follows: 25% for in-class participation 25% for the in-class presentation 25% for the midterm exam 25% for final exam or final paper Students who wish to carry out a major research project, in lieu of the final exam, must discuss this option with the professor by the end of week 4. Such a project may also comprise creative writing, memoir, and other literary forms. Exams and papers: Further instructions will follow closer to the time of the midterm. For now, you should know that this class will emphasize writing of high quality. All written work should conform to the following guidelines. 1. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence. 2. Each paragraph should end with a summarizing sentence. 3. Each sentence should contain no more than two dependent clauses ideally no more than one. 4. Most importantly, avoid the passive voice. For further illustration, please consult any page of Whiteness in Zimbabwe, one of the assigned books. Group presentations: At the first meeting of the class, we will assign a group of students to present on each week s reading. Those pairs will share the assignment in a fair manner. Each one will present separately and receive a separate grade. A superior presentation will accomplish the following objectives: 1) summarize the important points of the reading assigned; 2) relate that reading to previous reading, lectures, and/or discussions in the course; 3) relate that reading to some aspect of our everyday lives and/or to current events; 4) discuss a gap, flaw, or limit to the argument of the author of the reading; 5) pose three questions to the class regarding the reading. Reading For greater ease of comprehension, please read each week s selections in the order they appear on the syllabus. All reading materials are on reserve in the IRIS system. (If you do not know how to use this system, you may seek a tutorial at any campus library.) Articles and some book chapters are on electronic reserve. Where I have assigned more than one third of a book, however, copyright laws prohibit loading it onto electronic reserve. Therefore, the books listed immediately below are available on reserve as hard copies rather than electronic files at the Chang Library, Cook Campus. If you wish, you may also purchase them at the Barnes and Noble Store on the Cook/Douglass Campus. 2

3 Bullard, Robert D Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Inequality. Boulder: Westview. Carney, Judith A Black Rice: the African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Belonging. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Kincaid, Jamaica A Small Place. New York: Plume. Krech, Shepard The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. New York: Norton. Obama, Barack Dreams from my Father: a Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Times Books. Week 1 (7,8 September): Introduction Syllabus I. Introduction Week 2 (12 September): Race as socially constructed Obama, Barack Dreams from my Father: a Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Times Books. Chapters 4, 5, 10, 11, 15. Week 3 (19 September-): Racism, personal and structural Memmi, Albert Racism. Translated by Steve Martino. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Pp Smith, Neil The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City. New York: Routledge. Chapters 1 (pp. 3-29). Hill, Jane C Language, race, and white public space. American Anthropologist 100(3): II. Conquest environments Week 4 (26 Septmber-): Eden Krech, Shepard The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. New York: Norton. Introduction, Chapters 1,3-5, Epilogue. Film: Dances with wolves, segments shown in class Week 5 (3 October-): Industry and worse 3

4 Kuletz, Valerie The Tainted Desert: Environmental and Social and Ruin the American West. New York: Routledge. Chapters 2, 5, 8. Week 6 (10 October-): Whiteness and Conservation Belonging. Chapters 1-4 (99 pages) Week 7 (17 October-): Review and exam There will be a review session on Monday 17 October. The exam is a take-home, open-book test. Students may collect the test from the door of my office (201 Biosciences Building, Douglass) on Tuesday 18 October from 10am onwards. I will advise students on complete draft essays during the class on Wednesday 19 October. Only students who have completed draft essays should come to this meeting. Exams must be turned in as hard copies by 3pm on Friday 21 October at the Anthropology Department office (301 Ruth Adams Building, Douglass). Be aware that the Ruth Adams Building is only open 9am-4pm. II. Environments of slavery and emancipation Week 8 (24 October-): Trans-plantation Carney, Judith A Black Rice: the African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas.. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Introduction, Chapters 1-3 (107 pages). Spring Break Week 9 (31 October-): Freedom and Fear Bilby, Kenneth M True-Born Maroons. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. Chapter 5 (53 pages). Glave, Dianne D Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books. Chapters 2 and 4 (28 pages). Week 10 (7 November-): Environmental injustice Bullard, Robert D Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Inequality. Boulder: Westview. Entire book (118 Pages).. 4

5 Week 11 (14 November-) : Eco-Tourism Braun, Bruce On the Raggedy Edge of Risk : articulations of race and nature after biology. In Donald S. Moore, Jake Kosek, and Anand Pandian, eds Race, Nature, and the Politics of Difference. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Pp Kincaid, Jamaica A Small Place. New York: Plume. Entire book (79 pages). III. Environmentalism as Humanism Week 12 (22, 28 November): After Belonging Belonging. Chapters 5-6. Appiah, Kwame Anthony Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: Norton. Chapters 1, 7-9. Note, Thursday classes meet on Monday, and Monday classes meet on Tuesday this week. There are no classes on Wednesday. Week 13 (30 November, 5 December) : Becoming a species Beck, Ulrich Risk Society: towards a New Modernity. London: Sage. Introduction, Chapter 1 (pp.1-50) Film: Children of Men (110 minutes), shown in class on 30 November. Week 14 (7, 12 December): Review and exam There will be a review session on Wednesday 7 December. The exam is a take-home, openbook test. Students may collect the test from my office (201 Biosciences Building, Douglass) on Thursday 8 December from 10am onwards. I will advise students on complete draft essays during the class on Monday 12 December. Only students who have completed draft essays should come to this meeting. Exams must be turned in as hard copies by 3pm on Tuesday 13 December at the Anthropology Department office (301 Ruth Adams Building, Douglass). Be aware that the Ruth Adams Building is only open 9am-4pm. 5