Today’s climate emergency, raising sea levels, extreme weather, species
extinction, and ubiquitous pollution require not only urgent action but
also a critical and interdisciplinary reflection on the causes of
environmental crisis and its impact on various human and nonhuman lives.
This course is an invitation to look into humans’ relationship with and
understanding of the environment through the lens of selected feminist,
queer, and other anti-oppressive perspectives. We employ critical tools
and theories to discuss environmental change in relation to multiple
trajectories of power and resistance that involve the interlocking
systems of sex/gender, race/ethnicity, dis/ability, and other.
We
discuss the historical roots of environmental crisis and imagine possible climate futures. The course introduces essential readings on
gender and environment and familiarizes students with some of the key
concepts, questions, and debates in the field of feminist environmental
humanities – an eclectic field of study that looks at intersections of
environmental and societal issues with multiple critical theories of
race, gender, and species. The course offers a space to discuss and
reflect on current environmental crisis and how it affects various
bodies, communities, and ecologies.