RLSP 26
Sustainability Studies in Uruguay Winter 2024

As Nick Gallagher recently reported in the New York Times (“What Does Sustainable Living Look Like? Maybe Like Uruguay,” October 5, 2022), the Oriental Republic of Uruguay is at the forefront in terms of forging sustainable futures for its citizens. This travel course offers an in-depth look and hands-on experience with cultural, economic and ecological sustainability in three regions of the South American nation: the coast, the capital, and the interior. We will engage with practitioners of sustainable artisan fishing, get our hands dirty at an experimental farm, and dialogue with artists, activists and ecocritics in the capital city of Montevideo. Students will do a lot of reading, particularly reading Uruguayan literature in the forms of essays, novels, and poetry that engage with Latin America’s history of colonial and neocolonial extractivism and propose more ecological ways of relating to the planet and its many species. We will deeply consider the writings of Eduardo Gudynas, once of Uruguay’s most prominent contemporary intellectuals and a leading voice in the struggle between extractivism and sustainable self-determination. We will also watch a number of documentary films.