AFR 347
(De)colonial Ecologies
Last Offered Fall 2021
Division II Writing Skills Difference, Power, and Equity
Cross-listed AMST 332 / ENVI 332
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

What is the relationship between race, colonialism, and capitalism? How do such structures organize nature, including human nature? How do ideas of “nature” and “the human” come to structure race, colonialism, and capitalism? From the “discovery” and plunder of the “New World,” to 18th-century claims that climate determined racial character, to the 21st-century proliferation of DNA tests underwriting claims to Indigenous ancestry, it is clear that race, colonialism, capitalism constitute asymmetric world ecologies, and give rise to interconnected liberation struggles. Anchored in the contexts of U.S. colonialism and racial capitalism, and drawing on environmentalist, Black Marxist, and feminist works, this course aims to expose students to a world history of colonial and decolonial ecologies. By the end of this course, students should be able to describe the historical foundations of dominant ideas, attitudes, and practices toward human and non-human natures. Students should also be able to analyze how such orientations toward human and non-human natures mediate the ways in which colonial, racial, gender, and sexual categories and structures inform and are (re)produced by U.S. institutions and in public areas such as the law, public policy, and property. Finally, students should be able to interpret how racialized and colonized peoples’ visions, representations, and practices of liberation constitute decolonial ecologies that contend with, and exceed normative political, economic, and social categories of governance and systems of dispossession and exploitation.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 15
Expected: 15
Class#: 1384
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: Participation: 25%; Weekly Response (350-500 words): 25%; Final Essay--Research proposal (2-3 pgs.): 10%; Final Essay--Peer review and feedback (2 pgs.): 10%; Final Essay--Presentation: 10%; Final Essay--Paper (15 pgs.): 20%
Prerequisites: AMST 101, AFR 200, and/or ENVI 101
Enrollment Preferences: AMST, AFR, ENVI
Distributions: Division II Writing Skills Difference, Power, and Equity
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AMST 332 Division II ENVI 332 Division II AFR 347 Division II
WS Notes: One thesis paper at 15 pages. The writing process is staggered, with each part graded, and with critical feedback from professor and peers. Specifically, one research proposal (including thesis outline and annotated bibliography of primary texts) with feedback from professor; one thesis paper draft with feedback from peers; one letter of revision explaining the student's revision process; one final draft with critical feedback from professor; and student presentation and discussion.
DPE Notes: The course addresses issues of difference, power, and equity, and offers theoretical tools and perspectives to understand these issues. Specifically, students learn how to interpret how racialized and colonized peoples' visions, representations, and practices of liberation with regard to relations with non-human natures and the materiality of land precede, contend with, and exceed normative political, economic, and social categories of governance and systems of dispossession and exploitation.
Attributes: ENVI Humanities, Arts + Social Science Electives

Class Grid

Updated 7:14 am
  • HEADERS Column header 1
    CLASSES
    Column header 2
    DREQ
    Column header 3
    INSTRUCTORS
    Column header 4
    TIMES
    Column header 5
    CLASS#
  • AFR 347 - SEM (De)colonial Ecologies
    AFR 347 SEM (De)colonial Ecologies
    Division II Writing Skills Difference, Power, and Equity
    Not offered

Course Catalog Search


(searches Title and Course Description only)
TERM




SUBJECT
DIVISION



DISTRIBUTION



ENROLLMENT LIMIT
COURSE TYPE
Start Time
End Time
Day(s)