Introductions
Fri., Jan. 12: Welcome & Introduction
Pro tip: START READING The Monkey Wrench Gang
⇒Blog: Post your introduction
Environmentalism(s)
Wed., Jan. 17: SNOW DAY – No Class Climate Change Is Everything Change
Reading: Margaret Atwood, “It’s Not Climate Change, It’s Everything Change”
Fri., Jan. 19: Climate Change Is Everything Change
Reading: Margaret Atwood, “It’s Not Climate Change, It’s Everything Change”
⇒Blog: Please reflect on this week’s readings and discussion.
Environmental Conservation Actions
Wed., Jan. 24: This Crisis Needs a Movement
Reading: Bill McKibben, “The Climate Change Crisis Needs a Movement”
Fri., Jan. 26: Monkey-wrenching
Reading: Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang, pages 1-109 AND pages 149-232 (we are skipping chapters 8-10)
⇒Blog: Please reflect on this week’s readings and discussion. Why do you think this book captured the attention of so many environmentalists?
Wed., Jan. 31: More Monkey-wrenching
Reading: Edward MWG, pages 311-421 (we are skipping chapters 19-25)
Fri., Feb. 2: Bidder 70
Reading: No Readings, In-class Screening
⇒Blog: Write a critical or creative response to Bidder 70.
Wed., Feb. 7: Bidder 70
Readings: No Readings (Keep reading for Friday)
In-class group research:
1a) US Bureau of Land Management Release 1/31/2018 “Updating Oil and Gas Leasing Reform – Land Use Planning and Lease Parcel Reviews” (2018)
1b) EcoWatch Responses here and here. (2018)
2) “A Timeline of Donald Trump’s War on Public Lands” (2018)
3) Declassified CIA “Simple Sabotage Field Manual” (1944)
4a) FBI Congressional Statement “Statement of James F. Jarboe Domestic Terrorism Section Chief Counterterrorism Division Federal Bureau of Investigation on The Threat of Eco-Terrorism” (2002)
4b) Tim DeChristopher Climate Disobedience Center Press Release “Fossil Fuel Congress Asks Jeff Sessions To Label Climate Action ‘Terrorism’” (2017)
Indigenous Rights, Traditional Knowledges & Ecological Actions
Fri., Feb. 9: Power
Reading: Linda Hogan, Power (full)
⇒Blog: Please reflect on your reading and our discussions of Linda Hogan’s novel Power.
Wed., Feb. 14: Indigenous Rights
Readings:
1) Linda Hogan, “Backbone: Holding Up our Future”
2) Deborah Bird Rose, “Country and the Gift”
3) Kyle Powys Whyte, “Is It Colonial Déjà Vu?” (All on Sakai. Note Hogan and Rose are in one document)
Fri., Feb. 16: Spider the Artist
Readings: Nnedi Okorafor’s short story, “Spider the Artist” AND the video game Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna)
⇒Blog: Please reflect on this week’s readings and discussion.
Global/Glocal Resistance
Wed., Feb. 21: Global Resistance: Non-US Resistance
-In-class group work: choose your group, choose your issue
Fri., Feb. 23: Oil on Water
Reading: Helon Habila, Oil on Water (full)
⇒Blog: Please reflect critically on Oil on Water. How does this link to previous course readings and topics? What does it add to our ever-growing worldview of activism and environmentalism?
Wed., Feb. 28: Backyard Resistance
Reading: NRDC, “The Resistance Is in Your Backyard“
MEET AT SMITH WAREHOUSE, BAY 4 Visitor: Robin Kirk
Fri., Mar. 2: Rules for Radicals
Reading: Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, Prologue and Chapter 1 (Note: the full book is also on Sakai so feel free to skim the other chapters.)
In-class Protest Group Work
⇒Blog: Please reflect on this week’s visitor, readings, and discussion.
Wed., Mar. 7: Local ‘Green’ Change-making with Crystal Dreisbach
Visitor: Crystal Dreisbach, Executive Director of Don’t Waste Durham and Durham Green to Go and all around power-house green change-maker in Durham!
Fri., Mar. 9: Activist Group Debriefs (midterm presentations)
⇒Blog: No blog. Protest Contribution One-Page will be due by midnight on Monday.
Spring Break
Wed., Mar. 14: No class, Spring Break
Fri., Mar. 16: No class, Spring Break
Digital Environmentalism/Tools for Activists
Wed., Mar. 21: Radical Mapping with Social Movements
Guests: Counter-Cartographies Collective
MEETING LOCATION East Duke Building, Room 209
Reading: Read the Counter-Cartographies Collective’s homepage, disOrientation Guide, and disOrientation Guide 2.0 (be sure to look at the two maps at the bottom of this page).
Fri., Mar. 23: Mapping Movements
Readings: “How is GIS Being Used to Map Resistance and Political Protests?“
In-class Social Movements Map work
⇒Blog: Please reflect on this week’s readings and discussion.
Wed., Mar. 28: Digital Environmentalism, Visualizing Data, Tools for Grassroots Activists
Reading: Tools for Grassroots Activists (the ebook can be found on Duke Library’s website, a print copy is held in Textbook Reserves at Perkins)
Bill McKibben “Leaderless” 53-55
Jane Goodall “Sowing Seeds of Hope” 185-188
“Visualizing Data” 214-225
Annie Leonard “Taking Our Work to the Next Level” 29-33
“The Gulf of Mexico” and “Creating Print Materials” 107-113
Lois Gibbs, “When We Change the Climate, We Change the World” 114-119
“Networking” 122-131
Mapping Spreadsheet: Please add your Social Group and the Social Actions you plan to map. First come, first served.
Need a group to map? Check here for NC Environmental Organizations
Fri., Mar. 30: Environmental Justice
MEET AT SMITH WAREHOUSE, BAY 4 Visitor: Catherine Flowers
Reading: “Sewage is a problem that few will touch” AND, Tools for Grassroots Activists selections above
⇒Blog: Please reflect on this week’s readings and discussion.
Wed., Apr. 4: CRP Debrief & Environmental Justice
Research: Please come to class with an answer to the question: What environmental justice concerns are related to my protest campaign? Think about how your topic, your audience, your tactics, your acts might affect others outside your group bubble. Think about how your individual contribution, as well as your group as a whole, might avoid and/or address environmental justice issues.
Come ready, too, to map the second half of class.
Fri., Apr. 6: Hope
Readings: Read 1) Rebecca Solnit’s “Grounds for Hope” (Sakai) and 2) China Miéville’s “The Limits of Utopia”
⇒Blog: Please reflect on this week’s readings and discussion.
Permaculture and Hope
Wed., Apr. 11: Permaculture
Reading: No reading, Start One Straw Revolution
Fri., Apr. 13: One Straw Revolution
Reading: Masanobu Fukuoka, One Straw Revolution (full)
⇒Blog: Please reflect on this week’s readings and discussion.
Wed., Apr. 18: Role of Art in Environmental/Climate Justice
MEET AT SMITH WAREHOUSE, BAY 4
Special Visitors: Dr. Paul Farber and Pedro Lasch
Optional:
1) Read “Artists as Activists: Pursuing Social Justice”
2) Watch “One year of turning the world inside out” see JR’s previous Ted Talk “My wish: Use art to turn the world inside out” (second video here is optional but well worth watching)
3) Watch the second video here, “James Nachtwey – My Photgraphs Bear Witness,” the other four videos are optional
Optional Readings:
–“How Artists Change the World,” David Brooks
–“Why art has the power to change the world,” Olafur Eliasson
–“Can art change society?,” Tate Modern
See a list of climate/environmental art here (created by myself and my Global Ecological Humanities students).
Fri., Apr. 20: Where do we go from here?
⇒Blog: Please reflect on this week’s readings and discussion.
Wed., Apr. 25: Last class
No Class. Remember the Rules: Recycle/Reuse, Recruit your friends to Recycle/Reuse, and Remain Safe (<ahem> sober) at LDOC.
Due instead: ALL DUE FRIDAY 27 by midnight!
Group reviews are due: Together your protest group will submit a description of what has been done, who has done what, what you’ve learned, and what will be done going forward.
Group evaluations are due: You will evaluate your group mates on their participation in the collaboration using the Group_Peer_Evaluation form. Please download, complete, and email to me. Please add columns or complete several sheets as needed.
Blog with your final project abstract is due by Friday the 27 at midnight.
May 5: Finals Due