FYS 1101 CULTURE, POLITICS, ENVIRONMENT
What relationships do each of us have, as individuals and in community, with the environments around us? How do our presumptions and beliefs, preferences and demands, actions and inactions, define where we live? Understanding that our ways of being (culture) and the power we invest in values (politics) impact the areas through which we move (environment), this seminar explores how space is claimed, named, and transformed. Focusing on the United States, this seminar studies environmental conflicts and negotiations across historical eras and geographic regions. Students will discuss the continuing influence of manifest destiny ideals; the dynamics of environmental movements and environmental justice; and the debates about recent history and discrediting history. Drawing examples from the Nameaug region (now renamed New London) and the Connecticut College campus, and from students’ own experiences, this seminar investigates how culture and politics continuously affect our environments. Students will refine their own theories about power and U.S. environmental policy-making, improve their primary and secondary source reading skills, enhance their ethnographic and observational awareness, and strengthen their textual and visual literacies.
Enrollment Limit
Enrollment limited to 16 students.
Attributes
W