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BC: Fulfillment of General Education Requirement: Social Analysis (SOC I)., BC: Fulfillment of General Education Requirement: Cultures in Comparison (CUL).
Not offered during 2022-23 academic year.

In the past thirty years, disciplines across the social sciences and humanities -- from philosophy to history to sociology to political science to geography to cultural studies -- have undergone a "greening" as the social aspects of nature have come to be seen as a legitimate, even sexy subject of scholarly investigation. In a very real sense, anthropology has always been environmental. Given nature's tremendous capacity to shape nearly every facet of our existence, both physiological and cultural, the self-proclaimed "science of humanity" could hardly be otherwise. This course provides a critical introduction to environmental anthropology, beginning with a brief exploration of its historical roots and examining its various iterations (including cultural, historical, and human ecology) but concentrating especially upon anthropology's contributions to the interdisciplinary field of political ecology, with a particular emphasis on issues of environmental justice. Although the readings for the course are discipline-specific, the course will attempt to contextualize the anthropological take on particular environmental topics within the broader cross-disciplinary framework noted above in lectures and class discussions.