Fall 2023 Syllabus: “Environmental Protection”

Just one course for me this fall, due to my somehow still being chair: an update of my “Environmental Protection” Material Cultures class. I moved some of the more hands-on eco humanities stuff into an extended discussion of The Ministry for the Future, so we’ll have to see how that goes.

Here’s the week-by-week schedule…

M8/28FIRST DAY OF CLASSW8/30N.K. Jemisin, “Emergency Skin” [D2L]F9/1Charles Stross, “Designing Society for Posterity” (Web)   M9/4LABOR DAY—NO CLASSW9/6Johan Rockstrom et. al, “Planetary Boundaries” [D2L] John Bellamy Foster, “Ecology against Capitalism” [D2L] Naomi Klein, “Climate Rage” [Web]F9/8Nathaniel Rich, “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change” [Web] Responses to Rich from Robinson Meyer, Naomi Klein, Alyssa Battistoni, and Matto Mildenberger and Leah C. Stokes [Web]M9/11Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia (first third)W9/13Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia (second third)F9/15Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia (whole book)   M9/18S.B. Banerjee, “Necrocapitalism” [D2L] Vandana Shiva, “Earth Democracy” [Web]W9/20Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future, chapters 1-16F9/22The Ministry for the Future, chapters 17-30   M9/25The Ministry for the Future, chapters 31-45W9/27The Ministry for the Future, chapters 46-60F9/29The Ministry for the Future, chapters 61-74   M10/2The Ministry for the Future, chapters 75-90W10/4The Ministry for the Future, whole bookF10/6The Ministry for the Future and responses   M10/9FIRST PAPER WORKSHOPW10/11John Berger, “Why Look at Animals?” [D2L] Randy Malamud, “Zoo Spectatorship” [D2L] Octavia E. Butler, “Eye Witness” [Web]F10/13Kathy Rudy, “Where the Wild Things Ought to Be: Sanctuaries, Zoos, and Exotic Pets” [D2L] Blackfish (discussion)   M10/16Blackfish (discussion continues) Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy, “Grief, Sadness, and the Bones of Elephants” [D2L] Sascha Pare, “Orcas have sunk 3 boats in Europe and appear to be teaching others to do the same. But why?” [Web]W10/18Clare Kendall, “A New Law of Nature” [Web] Mihnea Tanasescu, “When a River Is a Person” [Web] Chris McKay, “Does Mars Have Rights?” [D2L] FIRST PAPER DUEF10/20FALL BREAK—NO CLASS   M10/23Dipesh Chakrabarty, “The Climate of History” [D2L] McKenzie Wark, “Critical Theory after the Anthropocene” [Web]W10/25Daniel Hartley, “Against the Anthropocene” [Web] Kyle Whyte, “Indigenous Science (Fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral Dystopias and Fantasies of Climate Change Crises” [D2L] Kathryn Yusoff, excerpt from A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None [D2L]F10/27Margaret Atwood, “Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet” [Web] Ted Chiang, “The Great Silence” [Web] film: Ramin Bahrani, “Plastic Bag” (in class)M10/30Richard McGuire, HereW11/1Richard McGuire, HereF11/3SECOND PAPER WORKSHOP   M11/699% Invisible, “Ten Thousand Years” [Web] Sarah Zhang, “The Cat Went Over Radioactive Mountain” [Web] Alan Bellows, “This Place Is Not a Place of Honor” [Web] WIPP Exhibit, “Message to 12,000 A.D.” [Web]W11/8Kim Stanley Robinson, introduction to Future Primitive [D2L] Ernest Callenbach, “Chocco” [D2L]F11/10Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home: “A First Note,” “The Quail Song,” “Towards an Archaeology of the Future,” and “Stone Telling: Part One”   M11/13Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home: “The Serpentine Codex” through“Pandora Worrying About What She Is Doing: She Addresses the Reader with Agitation”W11/15Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home: “Time and the City” through “Eight Life Stories”F11/17Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home: “Some Brief Valley Texts” through “Poems (Fourth Section)”   M11/20Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home: “The Back of the Book” SECOND PAPER DUEW11/22THANKSGIVING BREAK—NO CLASSF11/24THANKSGIVING BREAK—NO CLASS   M11/27FINAL PAPERS/PROJECTS MINI-WORKSHOPW11/29Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation, 01F12/1Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation, 02   M12/4Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation, 03W12/6Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation, 04F12/8Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation, 05 Annihilation (film)   T12/12FINAL PROJECT DUE IN D2L DROPBOX BY 10:00 AM