WGSS 362
"'Rebel Ecologies': Black and Indigenous Struggles for Land and Life" Spring 2023
Division II
Cross-listed AMST 362 / AFR 300 / ENVI 300
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

This course will ask, what other socioecological models exist? We will weave together a study of differing, yet often converging or synergistic traditions of Black/Womanist eco-feminism that often confronts the social constructions of race, gender, class and sexuality, dominant religion as a means of social control, imperialism, capitalism, and colonialism; Ecosocialism which often frames ecology in terms of a mode of production beyond or outside of capitalism; and Indigenous perspectives on resistance to capitalist extraction, imperialism, and colonialism. Given ongoing struggles against the extraction of land and labor, the urgent calls raised in the present-day “climate strike,” the COVID-19 Pandemic, Black-led pandemic rebellions, along with long(er) histories of land-based peoples around the planet opposing racial capitalism, settler colonialism, and imperialism, this class will explore not only what those in opposition to both extractivism and expropriation resist, but also what we want. We will critique binaries, settler notions of time and explore theories of change. Additionally, this class will look to an array of literature, film, sound, and other forms of cultural production in order to not just “locate,” but describe and reveal rebel ecological visions emerging “from below.” Ultimately this class will consider how the above ecological praxis can work simultaneously and within a sense of plurality, examining what we can learn from the work of activists, intellectuals, and defenders on the frontline. This course is an extension of Dr. Guess’ concept of a “rebel ecology.”
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 10
Expected: 7
Class#: 3036
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: The following requirements serve as the basis for course evaluation: Attendance and Participation 30%; Serve as Discussion Leader at least twice 20%; Weekly 500-word Literature Review 20%; One Final Project, which can take any number of forms, including the conventional research paper (8-12 double-spaced pages plus bibliography). More projects might include, an annotated bibliography of 7 texts, film analysis, syllabus, book review, a written play, an op-ed, etc. We will discuss further possibilities in class.
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Preferences: If the course is overenrolled, preference will be given to Africana studies concentrators.
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AMST 362 Division II WGSS 362 Division II AFR 300 Division II ENVI 300 Division II

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