Courses Related to Environmental Justice
Course offerings are subject to change. We will try to keep this list updated but please verify information in the Undergraduate Catalog if you see a course that is of interest.
Courses listed on this page all cover topics related to environmental justice. Courses may focus on historical, ethical, or societal facets of environmental justice issues, movements, and action.
Anthropology
ANT 225 – Climate Change, Societies, and Cultures
Surveys the human dimensions of climate change from a cultural perspective, the interactions among societies, cultures, and climate change. Reviews climate-change futures and their human implications around the world, drivers of climate change, and technological, social, and cultural mitigation and adaptation strategies. Perspective throughout is universalistic (all human societies, past and present) and holistic (all realms of thought and behavior, though with particular emphasis on social, political, and cultural dimensions).
ANT 270 – Environmental Justice Movements in the United States
Examines how poor and racialized communities have responded to the incidence, causes, and effects of environmental racism and injustice. Special attention will be given to how critiques offered by these communities challenge the knowledge and procedural forms of justice embedded in environmental policy and democracy in the United States. Case studies will be drawn from readings on African-American, European-Americans, Chicano and Latino Americans, and Native Americans.
ANT 410 – Human Dimensions of Climate Change
Surveys advanced topics on the human dimensions of climate change, including anthropogenic drivers and consequences of climate change, mitigation, and adaptation strategies.
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
EES 100 – Human Population and the Global Environment
Introduces the concepts and principles necessary to evaluate contemporary global issues of population growth, natural resource conservation, and environmental protection. Surveys the historical development of environmental awareness in the United States. Develops skills to interpret the diverse types of information available about environmental issues.
Maine Studies
MES 301 – Rachel Carson, Maine, and the Environment
In this course, students will take a chronological approach to the study of Rachel Carson’s life and work, reading her books in the order in which they were written, with attention to the role of “place,” specifically the Maine coast, in fostering her achievement as a nature writer and in shaping her vision as an environmentalist. Some of the questions the course will pose and attempt to answer are: What role did the Maine coast play in enabling Carson to understand the importance of the conservation of “wild” spaces? In what ways did Carson’s experience of the Maine coast contribute to her knowledge and understanding of the sea (a central theme in her work) in all its physical and metaphorical dimensions? And how did Carson’s establishment of a permanent home on the coast of Maine facilitate her development as a science and nature writer?
Philosophy
PHI 345 – Global Justice
A study of moral and political philosophies developed in response to the issues and challenges raised by political, economic, and technological globalization. These include such topics as sovereignty and self-determination, global institutions and democracy, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, poverty and international or global distributive justice, fair trade, intellectual property rights, global environmental justice, domestic institutions and responsibility for global injustice, human rights and cultural diversity, women and global justice, immigration, war, humanitarian intervention and terrorism.
PHI 432 – Environmental Justice
A critical study of historical and multicultural perspectives on environmental justice. This course will focus on environmental intersectionality, the theory that environmental burdens disproportionately affect oppressed social groups. Attention will be given to environmental philosophy, ethics and policy, ranging from local indigenous struggles, to national and global issues.
School of Forest Resources
SFR 220 – Environment and Society
Introduces the concepts and principles necessary to understand the connections between human behavior and environmental conditions. The course includes a review of the conservation and environmental movements in the United States, tracing changing American values towards forests and other natural resources over time. Students learn how to critically analyze the social, economic, and environmental aspects of various case studies concerning society-environment connections by evaluating diverse information sources.
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
WGS 230 – Women, Health, and the Environment
Examines the roles of women in shaping current practices and policies of the Western health care system and related environmental issues. It will draw on the work of Rachel Carson and modern women healers of the body and the ecosystem. Students are encouraged to be involved in transformational work at the local, personal or more global level.
WGS 280 – Intersectionality and Social Movements
A bridge between introductory WGS courses and more focused WGS courses, WGS 280 explores topics from WGS 101 and WGS 103 such as transnational feminisms, queer theory, and ecology through intersectional perspectives which reveal the interconnected and overlapping nature of social categories such as gender, class, and race. Through close examination of a variety of texts dealing with equity and diversity, students connect pedagogies and theories to activism, self-reflection and social movements.