Political Science 267 - Truth Games and Climate Change

This interdisciplinary course studies the idea that the way people care for themselves is materially inseparable from how they care for everyone and everything else, including the planet. In a 2019 interview, philosopher and eco-feminist Donna Haraway observed that “the established disorder of our present era is not necessary.” Are there ways to imagine the world without this disorder? What encounters between place-based lives and climate change are necessary? How can we speak truth to power in a post-truth era? We will explore these and other questions as truth games, each with particular political and aesthetic impacts. As cultural anthropologist Paul Rabinow put it, “to establish the right relationship to the present—to things, to others, to oneself—one must stay close to events, experience them, be willing to be effected and affected by them.” Through close reading and discussion, we will explore what can further environmental and social justice, as will as what has aggravated climate change.  We will explore ways to inhabit (not dominate) the Earth, ways to embrace (not fear) social and cultural diversity, ways to renew (not extract) resources, and ways to work together (not against one another) for the common good. Readings will include the voices of artists, critics, historians, cultural theorists, anthropologists, and philosophers, including Sara Ahmed, Kate Crawford, Michel Foucault, NK Jemison, Donna Haraway, Jack Halberston, Bruno Latour, Ursula Le Guin, Paul Rabinow, and Kim Stanley Robinson.

Limited to 24 students. Spring semester. Lecturer Falk.

How to handle overenrollment: Preference to POSC majors and first-year students.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations, group work, critical thinking.