2021-2022 Academic Catalog

Apr 19, 2024

2021-2022 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

GEOG 226 - Critical Environmental Histories of the US: Race, Indigeneity, and Nature

This course will critically look at how ideas of “race” and “indigeneity” are intertwined with “nature” in a U.S. American context. Nature is often imagined as external to human society and culture. However, many social scientists and humanities scholars criticize the Eurocentric separation of nature and culture and of environment and society. We will focus in particular on environmental histories and ideas of nature that are entangled in settler-colonialism, racial oppression, eugenics, pollution, catastrophe, and health. At the same time, this course will present critiques of how nature is mobilized in the service of empire in the United States and will present alternative conceptualizations of nature from selected indigenous studies and critical race scholarship.

This course will complement other advanced undergraduate Geography courses, serving as an elective for majors, especially in the Human-Environment Geography Concentration. It will count towards the Geography Major/Minor as well as the Global Environmental Studies Major/Minor.

Course Designation/Attribute: GP, DI

Anticipated Terms Offered: every fall