Course description: How can social theories about power benefit the environmental movement, and help to solve our gravest environmental problems? In this class, we will see how the power imbalances produced by imperialism and capitalism have allowed France to systematically outsource its environmental pollution in places belonging to Black and Indigenous people. Environmental activists in the French and Francophone world, from antinuclear activists in Tahiti to yellow vests in France, have actualized social theories about power to reclaim their environment and their futures. Exploring places in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and Europe, this class explores how Marxist, antiracist, and feminist struggles subtend environmental movements. Primary material includes novels, comics, songs, films, and essays by authors such as Chantal Spitz, Pierre Gope, Jacques Roumain, Kopp Johnson, Jean-Marc Rochette, and Pablo Servigne.
Language of instruction: Course and reading material are all in English
Satisfies SAS Core Learning Goals - AHp, WCd
Faculty: Professor Anaïs Maurer
