COURSE TEXT: Bill McKibben, ed., American Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau (New York: Library of America, 2008)
You have a choice between rather different assignments here EITHER
A) Several items in the course text address, in one way or another, questions of what has come to be called “environmental (in)justice.” Central among these are: Gibbs (pp. 609-21), Chavez (pp. 690- 5), Bullard (pp. 725-36), Williams (pp.739-59), Ray (898-906). Bearing in mind the standard definition of environmental justice (“the right of everyone to enjoy and benefit from a safe and healthy environment regardless of race, class, gender, or ethnicity”), read these and other sources that bear on this topic as you see fit (consider for example the issues raised in the lecture and readings of March 8 as they might bear on this theme). Think about the framing of key terms in this debate (eg. “acceptable risk”, the need for “things”, the unavoidability of waste Then write a 1500 word essay on environmental (in)justice in Canada (or part thereof). You may frame and focus your essay pretty much as you wish but you would be well advised to address some or all of the following questions: do minority communities and individuals bear more than their share of environmental risks in Canada? What factors other than race and class discrimination might explain the unequal distribution of environmental burdens and benefits? Are patterns of environmental injustice aligned with the unequal distribution of other forms of benefits and burdens? We will evaluate the essay on the following criteria: quality of writing; structure and coherence of argument; robustness of connection with larger debates; acuity of insight.
OR
B) Select between three and six of the illustrations in the text (after p 224 and after p.736) and write a 1500 word essay on their relevance to ideas discussed in this course, the development of environmental thought, or North American attitudes to nature. Your essay might contrast images, select images that are complementary (speak to a similar theme or issue), or focus on particular images and use them as springboards for a larger commentary. Although this essay begins in and with a small handful of illustrations, its completion will require reference to the broader corpus of work considered in this course (lectures/ discussions/ reading lists) and successful completion of this exercise will require “background research” in whatever sources you might consider pertinent. We will evaluate the essay on the following criteria: quality of writing; structure and coherence of argument; robustness of connection with larger debates; acuity of insight.
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