This course examines climate change as a central component in a web of interconnected global crises associated with the Anthropocene epoch. Guided by an intersection of critical frameworks and subaltern knowledges, we will foreground questions of power and resistance, identity and diversity, hegemony and social-ecological transformation as we explore the historical and structural dimensions of climate change as a matter of global (in)justice (i.e., climate (in)justice). In emphasizing the social drivers and political ecologies of climate change, we will highlight how complex and intersecting power relations systemically connect climate change to multiple other crises in fields like energy, economics, food systems, health, demographics (e.g., urbanization, migration), and governance at global, local and transnational levels. We will take a critical look at responses to climate change by dominant actors such as governments, corporations and large NGOs in international and national policy spheres. We will also examine the groundswell of alternative paradigms and subaltern movements working locally and globally to resist climate injustice, prefigure just transitions, and address the climate crisis in relation to other crises by advancing “system change, not climate change”. Students will research and asses the work of different actors and organizations in the spheres of climate policy and/or climate justice with the aim to produce collaborative research projects that combine critical insight, systemic analysis, socially transformative creativity and public engagement. EPSM/Sustainability Strategies Requirement.

This course examines climate change as a central component in a web of interconnected global crises associated with the Anthropocene epoch. Guided by an intersection of critical frameworks and subaltern knowledges, we will foreground questions of power and resistance, identity and diversity, hegemony and social-ecological transformation as we explore the historical and structural dimensions of climate change as a matter of global (in)justice (i.e., climate (in)justice). In emphasizing the social drivers and political ecologies of climate change, we will highlight how complex and intersecting power relations systemically connect climate change to multiple other crises in fields like energy, economics, food systems, health, demographics (e.g., urbanization, migration), and governance at global, local and transnational levels. We will take a critical look at responses to climate change by dominant actors such as governments, corporations and large NGOs in international and national policy spheres. We will also examine the groundswell of alternative paradigms and subaltern movements working locally and globally to resist climate injustice, prefigure just transitions, and address the climate crisis in relation to other crises by advancing “system change, not climate change”. Students will research and asses the work of different actors and organizations in the spheres of climate policy and/or climate justice with the aim to produce collaborative research projects that combine critical insight, systemic analysis, socially transformative creativity and public engagement.