Critical Social Inquiry 0232 - Rivers of Life & Death

Rivers have become sites of contention surrounding how they can best serve the people living along them and the nations through which they flow. For some, they provide cultural meanings and livelihoods; for others, they represent progress in the ways they can be developed and used. We will critically examine several case studies of rivers to unpack the cultural, environmental, economic, and identity conflicts that arise worldwide as people's concepts of rivers collide. Issues explored will include colonization and trade, indigenous histories and rights, economic development and dams, water rights, environmental debates, and transnationalism. The rivers we will look at include the Connecticut, the Mekong (Southeast Asia), the Ganges (India), the Yangtze (China), the Amazon (South America), and the Congo (Africa), each bringing different stories of meaning, conflict, development, and environmentalism. Theories from anthropology, history, human rights and agrarian studies will inform our explorations of these rivers and their controversies.

Power, Community and Social Justice Multiple Cultural Perspectives Independent Work Writing and Research