- The Costs of Things: Environmental, Human, and Personal

Catalog description

Explores the significance of consumer goods in histories of colonization, enslavement, and modern social formation from the 19th century to the present. Students will examine how consumer practices and access to natural resources and commodities are dependent upon unequal power relationships that privilege western, white populations and have devastating consequences for the earth. Students will interrogate the disproportionate impact of this process on formerly colonized and enslaved populations and will explore strategies to effect change. Studying these topics across space and time will provide a context for understanding and engaging with contemporary realities and concerns in the U.S. We also will resist rampant consumerism by considering the experiences of people forced to abandon their belongings due to political crises and natural disasters, and by cultivating more conscientious, meaningful relationships with the things in our lives. Students will develop public-facing activities to educate the Skidmore community about the environmental and human costs of everyday objects.