Nature, Culture, & Representation: Themes in International Studies

Catalog description

This course examines three themes or theoretical frameworks that are crucial to International Studies, Nature, Culture, & Representation, to teach students how to better "read" socio-natural environments across global and historical contexts. "Culture," Raymond Williams argues, "is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language" while "Nature is perhaps the most complex word in the language." Despite this, both words are ubiquitous in everyday discourse - their meanings often taken for granted or seemingly obvious. An interdisciplinary array of scholars now refer to "NatureCultures" to analyze the complex interrelations between the humans and their ecologies and investigate environmental transformations, such as the Anthropocene, to question the "naturalness" of historically, culturally and geographically contextual assumptions, or investigate the social practice that guides laboratory life. Additionally, the dichotomy of "Nature" and "Culture" is foundational to the constitution of modern scientific knowledge and the deployment of power, undergirding questions of inequality, identity, human rights. Furthermore, these critical inquiries require a theory of "Representation" to understand how natural and cultural realities are mediated through signs, imagery, language, and technology, such as social media and AI. This course engages an interdisciplinary array of readings and multimedia, including Political Ecology, Environmental Humanities, Indigenous Studies, Multispecies Ethnography, Science and Technology Studies, Cultural Studies, and Film.