My Women of Color Feminisms and Environmental Justice Course
My community-engaged course, “Women of Color Feminisms and Environmental Justice.” See my syllabus here.
Course Description:
This undergraduate seminar course explores how marginalized groups, such as women, LGBTQ people, and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), are disproportionately impacted by environmental problems. The course is rooted in theoretical approaches from women of color feminisms in order to emphasize how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, geography, and class work together to influence how people experience environmental issues. Throughout the semester, we will explore approaches to environmental justice from critical ethnic studies and gender studies, including Black ecologies, Latinx environmentalisms, ecofeminism, and queer ecologies. This course emphasizes the relationship between theory and praxis. You will be introduced to theory from women of color feminisms alongside case studies of feminist, queer, decolonial, and antiracist environmental activism.
In the 1970s and 1980s, ecofeminist thinkers and activists recognized the connections between the oppression of women and the destruction of nature. Many of these feminists were also leaders in the environmental justice movement and/or civil rights struggles. However, as the movement was diverse, some ecofeminist theorists activists ignored issues of racial justice or appropriated Indigenous cultures. LGBTQ activists also pointed out that some ecofeminists reinforced heteronormativity, or the view that heterosexuality is normal and natural.
Today, many feminist environmental activists work with the framework of intersectionality, which was originally developed by Black feminism to describe social identities in terms of interlocking systems of power and oppression. As you will see in part II, women of color feminisms have been central to feminist theory and activism that addresses environmental issues today. In part III, we will apply course concepts to examples of contemporary environmental inequalities, such as pollution, food insecurity, and climate change. We will explore contemporary feminist approaches to climate justice and other key issues in environmental theory and activism.
At the end of the semester, you will have a better understanding of how contemporary environmental issues relate to social inequalities, and how feminist scholars and activists have sought to bring about environmental justice.
Course Objectives:
Demonstrate understanding of how women of color feminists have theorized environmental inequalities
Apply concepts from gender studies and critical ethnic studies to examples of environmental injustice
Asses how experiences with environmental problems differ across various social identities, including those different from your own
Compare and contrast frameworks from feminist theory and the viewpoints of environmental activists and other community leaders
