UENV
3089

An Environmental History of Slavery

Schools of Public Engagement: Global, Urban, & Environmental

Liberal Arts
Undergraduate Course
An Env. History of Slavery
Spring 2026
Taught By: Mia White
Section: A

CRN: 16494

Credits: 4

In this new course, students will connect the long-term environmental consequences of slavery to present fights for racial and environmental justice, seeing them as part of the same struggle. The course will explore how the exploitation of both people and land were linked to the rise of capitalism, and will engage historical and material ecologies in a dialectic with the everyday experiences of enslaved people. Key ideas like “property”, "nature”, "wilderness," "frontier," and "progress" will be deliberated towards a theorization of the relationship between racial and environmental justice. Readings will examine the ecological diversity of the South, including how environmental devastation drove slavery’s expansion; how people negotiated their relationship with the land during enslavement; and how enslaved labor was used to extract value from a variety of different environments, for e.g., agriculture, mining, and lumbering. Finally, our course will explore how enslaved people used their environment as sites of resistance, including the use of swamps, forests, and rivers to evade slave patrols and build fugitive communities. Course materials will include traditional scholarship, primary source interviews, and multimedia.

Prerequisites: No Prerequisites
Co-Requisites: No Co-requisites

College: Schools of Public Engagement (NS)

Department: Global, Urban, & Environmental (GLUE)

Campus: New York City (GV)

Course Format: Seminar (R)

Modality: In-Person

Max Enrollment: 18

Repeat Limit: N/A

Add/Drop Deadline: February 3, 2026 (Tuesday)

Online Withdrawal Deadline: April 14, 2026 (Tuesday)

Seats Available: Yes

Status: Open*

* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 9:34pm EDT 10/25/2025

Meeting Info:
Days: Monday, Wednesday
Times: 2:00pm - 3:40pm
Building: TBD
Room: TBD
Date Range: 1/21/2026 - 5/12/2026