DC Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: Equity and the Environment

Catalog description

How does air quality in one city differ from air quality in another? Do citizens have a right to clean air, regardless of where they live? How does global climate change impact the discussion of environmental and human health? The answer to these and other questions about environmental quality are complex and manifest at global and local levels. Access to environmental "justice," that is, the right to a healthy environment, is linked to social factors like race, ethnicity, indigenous identity, income, educational status, and geographic location, among others. By analyzing the case of Pittsburgh, a city in the rust belt and Appalachian region that is working to "reimagine" its environmental identity, students will trace past environmental issues and define current environmental concerns that may manifest both locally and globally. They will use environmental justice as a framework to examine how environmental issues are defined and how policies are created and enacted when different voices are included. Students will explore these topics as they relate to multiple sectors (e.g., air and water quality, agriculture, industry, transportation, architecture) and environmental impacts like human physical and mental health or global climate change. Students will also be introduced to concepts like "sustainable science" and "sustainable humanities," and study how environmental problems and solutions are framed in different cultures, communities, and academic disciplines ranging from science to social science and art.