First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar: Climate Change

Catalog description

Is anxiety about the climate crisis warranted? As protests rock London, New York and other cities around the world, what does an interdisciplinary view bring to these public debates? This course draws on theories from science studies, decolonial theory, anthropology and climate justice to tease apart a multifaceted - and multicultural - view of our collective ecological predicament. First we take on the *political *side of climate change by asking questions about its collective nature. How do we think about political collectivity? Then we turn to a critical understanding of the science, both to expose ourselves to some of the underlying facts and to think about science as a socio-political process. Lastly we focus on 'Living with Climate Change' - human practices ranging from fossil fuel cultures and the sociology of protest, to pragmatic attempts to grapple with a rapidly changing climate around the world. We read works from Pope Francis and Montaigne to Donna Haraway and Slavoj Zizek. Far from instilling a predetermined viewpoint, this seminar is designed to impart critical thinking skills for a rapidly evolving global situation.