First-Year Seminars 110EJ - Environmental Justice

Environments are never simply natural or given: they are imbued with unequal entanglements of race, gender, class, and power. Environmental justice is concerned with the questions of risk, harm, access, privilege, oppression, and liberation in human-environment relations. This course examines histories and contemporary manifestations of environmental (in)justice in the United States: from colonization and slavery to industrialization, toxic waste, and pollution; food and justice, including race and gender in agricultural labor, food deserts, and food movements; and recent events around water, including hurricanes, toxic water in Flint, Michigan, and oil pipelines through Standing Rock.

Mount Holyoke first-year students only, by placement.