Search: Course, Social Sciences and Humanities

Intersection of geological processes with American cultures in the past, present, and future. Overview of ethnogeology including traditional knowledge of sources and uses of earth materials and their cultural influences today. Scientific approach to study of tectonic controls on the genesis and global distribution of energy fuels, metals, and industrial minerals. Evolution and diversity of opinion in attitudes about resource development, environmental management, and conservation on public, private, and tribal lands. Impending crisis in renewable energy and the imperative of resource literacy.

The course will focus on the culture of the Low Countries, including both the Netherlands and Belgium. Through reading, audiovisual materials, the World Wide Web, guest lectures, and discussions, we will cover the major social, political, and cultural aspects of modern Dutch society. The course is organized around five larger themes: water management and environmental issues; language and education; art, literature, and culture; politics, religion, and social welfare; and social issues.

The relationship between societies and natural environments lies at the heart of geographical inquiry and has gained urgency as the rate and scale of human transformation of nature have grown, often outstripping our understanding of causes and effects. The physical side of environmental science has received most of the emphasis in university research, but the social basis of environmental change must be studied as well. Recent developments in social theory have much to offer environmental studies, while the latter has, in turn, exploded many formerly safe assumptions about how and what the social sciences and humanities ought to be preoccupied with. This seminar allows students to explore some classics in environmental thought as well as recent contributions that put the field on the forefront of social knowledge today.

This course will introduce the methods and theories of Science and Technology Studies (STS) in order to explore the relationships among science, technology, law, and politics in the domains of environment and health. The course will focus some attention on the tension between technocracy and democracy in science policy, and on the role of biotechnology in reshaping the natural and political order. The course will equip graduate students in the social sciences, law, life sciences, and public policy with theoretical and practical tools for analyzing complex problems at the science, technology, and society interface.

Critique and comparison of literature in political ecology--an approach to sociological analysis of environmental change focusing on environmental conflict. Initial sessions address the definition of political ecology, its origins, and the politics and discourses of natural resource management. Literature includes domestic and international research involving the combination of social and environmental history, local perspectives, and political economy to discuss accounts of social and environmental change.

Changes in Third World rural economy, ecology, and environment and ways in which these are affected by development policies. Historical dimensions of Third World environmental problems. Changing patterns of rural production (especially food) and resource use; alternative theories of natural resource and socioeconomic development; linkages between socioeconomy and environment in agrarian change and development policy; technology and resource control; conservation and development problems

Motivation: What is the history and evolution of environmental thinking and writing? How have certain "environmental classics" shaped the way in which we think about nature, society, and development? This course will use a selection of 20th-century books and papers that have had a major impact on academic and wider public thinking about the environment and development to probe these issues. The selection includes works and commentaries related to these works that have influenced environmental politics and policy in the U.S. as well as in the developing world. Through the classics and their critiques, reviews, and commentaries, the class will explore the evolution of thought on these transforming ideas.

This innovative course taught by a scientist and a humanities professor surveys current global environmental issues; introduces students to the basic intellectual tools of environmental science; investigates ways the human relationship to nature has been imagined in literary and philosophical traditions; and examines how tools of scientific and literary analysis, scientific method, and imaginative thinking can clarify what is at stake in environmental issues and environmental citizenship

Living in an urban area at the end of the 20th century, it is easy to forget how germane the biophysical world is to our lives. This course seeks to explore the relationships between society and the environment as they have varied over time and across societies. The approach taken will be broadly historical and multicultural and will include readings on the social construction of nature, early industrialization and natural resource use, social movements and the environment, and the environmental impacts of late capitalism.

Changing patterns of agriculture in relation to population growth, the biology and social impact of plant disease, genetic engineering of plants: a thousand years of crop improvement and modern biotechnology, interactions between plants and the environment, and effects of human industrial and agricultural activity on plant ecosystems. Knowledge of the physical sciences is neither required nor assumed