(= A LCS 430Z) Environmental Justice: Racism, Classism, Sexism

Catalog description

In Environmental Justice: Racism, Classism, and Sexism, we will explore how racism, classism, and sexism impact current environmental “events,” including environmental policy-making, public health outcomes, and the rhetoric and politics of environmentalism. Surveying the development of environmental awareness among the public, philosophies behind such awarenesses, and resulting shifts in policy, we will focus on the growth of the environmental justice movement, and will consider how various groups have addressed environmental degradation and injustice. Also under consideration will be a set of related issues: how globalization has impacted these events, the feminist critique of science and its impact, relationships between grass-roots activism (for example, native American activists and other Environmental Justice groups) and between these groups and more scholarly approaches, and contributions by artists, labor-rights groups, religious leaders, animal rights activists, and deep ecologists. Prerequisite(s): Students, at whatever level, are welcome. The requirements will differ for graduate and undergraduate students. For example, graduate students will be reading more theoretical articles, and will be responsible for explaining these to the undergraduate students. In addition, graduate students will be required to submit a final research paper that is much longer (12-20 pages) than that required for undergraduate students. Only one version of A WSS 430Z may be taken for credit.