Ecofeminism
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General
Course Long Title
Ecofeminism
Subject Code
CHMN
Course Number
377
School(s)
Academic Level
UG - Undergraduate
Description
Ecofeminism: Environmental Justice, Activism and Reimagining the World
Together, we will learn terms and concepts central to ecofeminism, environmental justice and activism. What is the anthropocene and how is it different from what theorists are calling the capitalocene? What might sustainability look like and how can it be fostered in your community? How can political organizing confront unequal power systems that jeopardize the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we live on?
We will examine these questions by troubling how we have come to think about distinctions between nature-culture, local-global, and human-nonhuman agents. As Donna Haraway encourages, we will "stay with the trouble" to explore how non-dualistic, relational thinking may help us to face ecological problems in a more viable way. Theorists and artists show us how the ocean waves carry plastic from the California coast to Sweden's ports, how the mushroom and its gifts can be traced from Japan and the U.S. to China and Finland, and how human animals and nonhuman beings cohabitate to create mutual survival systems.
Our study will be grounded in an intersectional feminist analysis, which insists that a study about environmental justice highlights issues of racism, gender, economic inequity, Indigenous rights and setter colonialism. It also claims that questions about the environment must be connected to issues of health, human rights, and imagining a world where all can live and thrive. In addition to critical texts, we will look to film, literature, visual art, performance and music to see how artists are engaging environmental and activist issues in their practices. And importantly, how might environmental concerns inform your practices as artists and creators?
Together, we will learn terms and concepts central to ecofeminism, environmental justice and activism. What is the anthropocene and how is it different from what theorists are calling the capitalocene? What might sustainability look like and how can it be fostered in your community? How can political organizing confront unequal power systems that jeopardize the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we live on?
We will examine these questions by troubling how we have come to think about distinctions between nature-culture, local-global, and human-nonhuman agents. As Donna Haraway encourages, we will "stay with the trouble" to explore how non-dualistic, relational thinking may help us to face ecological problems in a more viable way. Theorists and artists show us how the ocean waves carry plastic from the California coast to Sweden's ports, how the mushroom and its gifts can be traced from Japan and the U.S. to China and Finland, and how human animals and nonhuman beings cohabitate to create mutual survival systems.
Our study will be grounded in an intersectional feminist analysis, which insists that a study about environmental justice highlights issues of racism, gender, economic inequity, Indigenous rights and setter colonialism. It also claims that questions about the environment must be connected to issues of health, human rights, and imagining a world where all can live and thrive. In addition to critical texts, we will look to film, literature, visual art, performance and music to see how artists are engaging environmental and activist issues in their practices. And importantly, how might environmental concerns inform your practices as artists and creators?