This program will approach environmental pollution, remediation, and protection through an interdisciplinary lens that considers social science and humanities approaches as well as ongoing community-based activism and advocacy. We will consider environmental justice issues globally and locally, with particular concern for uneven health outcomes and economic impacts on particular communities.
We will especially focus on environmental issues in Washington State. Case studies will include the Hanford nuclear site, ASARCO smelter contamination in Tacoma, Seattle’s Duwamish River, and other regional sites of industrial pollution and remediation. In addition, we will learn about agencies, laws, non-profits, and activists involved in environmental protection work at both the state and federal level. The advanced seminar in environmental anthropology will focus on recent ethnographies and works in the humanities that approach local issues of waste through grounded, long-term studies. Texts will likely include Shannon Cram's Unmaking the Bomb, about the Hanford nuclear site, Saunara Taylor’s Disabled Ecologies, and other works related to environmental anthropology.
As part of our studies, students will learn processes of archival research and complete a major independent research project on one of several sites in Washington State. We will travel to several archives to conduct primary source research and develop an in-depth understanding of a particular case in environmental history, with opportunities to present our findings to the campus community at the end of the quarter.
Students can expect weekly or bi-weekly seminars, lectures, films, quizzes, and research project work.
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies
4 - Advanced Seminar in Environmental Anthropology
4 - Environmental Justice
4 - Washington State Environmental History
4 - Social Science Methodology: Archival Research
Registration
Academic Details
Environmental Studies, Public Administration