SISU-249 Community, Sustainability, and Service (3)

This course introduces students to social, political economic, (agri)cultural, and epistemic contexts and consequences of what are framed as environmental problems. This entails contextualizing ecological crises within histories of colonialism and anticolonialism and geographies of coloniality and decoloniality, from land defenders to water protectors. Drawing on geopolitical ecology, bioethics, and environmental justice, the class focuses on food and agricultural systems, policies, and equity movements. Specific topics include agrobiodiversity, Indigenous and African Diaspora traditional (agro)ecological knowledge, labor, land use, forests, the U.S. Farm Bill, land-based livelihoods, agrarian climate justice, and struggles for food, water, seed, data, and land sovereignty. Finally, the class weaves in community-based learning opportunities with frontline agrarian movements, field trips, and an introduction to community-based research methodology. Grading: A-F only.