Urban Ecology

Catalog description

We are currently living in an era when urban crises and environmental catastrophes are both growing in number and consistently colliding. How did we get to such a place - and what can we do to address these concerns? This course will attempt to answer these important questions by putting them in conversation with the history of “urban ecology.” The field of urban ecology is usually associated with the natural sciences, as it seeks to better understand the relationships between living organisms and their surroundings in an urban environment. This course, however, proposes to also view urban ecology through the lenses of the humanities and the social sciences to best explain our contemporary moment. We will therefore pay close attention to the relationships between individuals and the environment, at both the macro- and micro-level. We will examine the way that human beings have shaped the environment to meet economic needs, but we will also study the issue of individual accessibility and environment, and how this accessibility is often regulated and policed. How and why, for example, have certain people been excluded from certain spaces throughout American history? And what impact do these acts of exclusion have on how all Americans view both urban and ecological issues?