We are actively seeking titles and descriptions of relevant undergraduate courses from professors and instructors at the University of Minnesota for dissemination among interested faculty and graduate students. Upcoming courses include:
Spring 2018
ALL 8002 (Ecocriticism and Posthumanism), with Christine Marran: Issues/approaches in academic study of Asian literature/ cultures. Problems in contemporary academic theory in humanities. Application of theory to Asia/issues raised. Interventions of critical theory. Ethics of professional peer review. Crisis in higher education.
COMM 4250 (Environmental Communication), with Mark Pedelty: Effective communication helps people create sustainable communities and institutions. Whether you are an average citizen concerned about toxins in local lakes, a salesperson marketing biodegradable products, or a scientist explaining the results of climate change research to policy makers, it is essential to know how to communicate clearly, creatively, persuasively, and accurately about environmental issues.
HSCI 1212 (Life on Earth), with Tulley Long: How have people explained where life came from and how it has developed over time? We examine controversies over life's origins, the Holocene extinction, human population growth, the Dust Bowl and soil conservation, DDT and falcon repatriation, and disease and responses to pandemics. Evolution, natural theology. Ecosystems
LA 3514/5514 (Making the Mississippi), Spring 2018, with Matthew Tucker: Critical environmental parameters affecting growth/development of metropolitan areas. Students assess these parameters and prepare a multi-functional land use plan for a defined locale.
SUST 3017 (Environmental Justice), with Michelle Garvey: With a focus on understanding environmental justice, including interconnections between health, economic and environmental disparities, this course shows students how they can take action for sustainability. Students synthesize multiple disciplinary perspectives and participate in small group collaborative activities, service learning, and digital mapping, all related to contemporary challenges.
Fall 2017
ALL 3468 Environment, Technology and Culture in Japan, with Christine Marran: Read/view historical, literary, visual texts to discover guiding ideas about nature, environment, technology use in Japan. No prior knowledge of Japan is necessary.
GER 3651/5610 (Environmental Thinking), Fall 2017, with Charlotte Melin How environmental thinking became social- political force through German literature/culture, with comparisons to global or U.S. developments. Authors include Goethe, Christa Wolf, Enzensberger.
GWSS 3590 (Feminist Environmentalisms), Fall 2017, with Michelle Garvey U.S. multi-/cross-cultural studies of contemporary social, cultural, and personal conditions of women's lives.
HSCI 3244/5244 (Nature's History: Science, Humans and the Environment), Fall 2017 with Sally Gregory Kohlstedt We examine environmental ideas, sustainability, conservation history; critique of the human impact on nature; empire and power in the Anthropocene; how the science of ecology has developed; and modern environmental movements around the globe. Case studies include repatriation of endangered species; ecology and evolutionary theory; ecology of disease; and climate change.
Summer 2017
LA 5705 (Regreening Minds, Cities, and Regions), Summer 2017, with Laura Musacchio Description currently unavailable. Please check back at a later date.
If you will be teaching a graduate course in 2017-18 that you wish to publicize among members of the EHI, please share it with us at [email protected].