Sacrifice Zones and Disaster Landscapes: Ecocriticism and Environmental Justice - Einzelansicht

This class explores “Landscapes of Justice and Injustice” from the perspective of Ecocriticism and studies how these spaces have been understood, represented and produced. Students will be introduced to the fields of ecocriticism and environmental justice. Drawing on these two fields we will examine American landscapes that are shaped by extraction, pollution, and climate disaster as sites where questions of justice and injustice play out. With our readings we will ask which spaces are readily “sacrificed” and which are protected. Central questions will be: How can we understand landscapes as sites where questions of justice and injustice become materially visible? And how has the changing understanding of “landscape” and its production facilitated the continuation of violence against human and more-than-human life? We will therefore explore how environmental harm is unevenly distributed across landscapes and communities in the United States. With concepts such as “sacrifice zone,” slow violence, and resilience we will study how activism, literature, art and performance is employed to make environmental injustice visible – or invisible. Our reading will include theory texts such as Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence, and Steven Lerner’s Sacrifice Zones, but also fictional texts and photography.

!Please note!

This class is part of the project “Landscapes of In/justice,” which encompasses three classes offered in the department this semester (“Sacrifice Zones and Disaster Landscapes: Ecocriticism and Environmental Justice,” “Nature, Land, and Wilderness in African American Writing,” “Narrating Indigenous and Settler-Colonial Land Relations on Turtle Island”). Each class explores “landscapes of In/justice” from distinct research perspectives – from environmental humanities, Indigenous studies, and Black studies – and will have the chance to exchange their ideas and findings, and present them in a symposium at the end of the semester (July 17). The organization and co-hosting of the symposium gives students the opportunity to participate in academic knowledge production, learn from international guests, and gain knowledge in science communication and event management. The event and its dates are obligatory and non-negotiable. This will be factored into the workload of the class and reduced number of weekly sessions.

3LP Testat: academic presentation (e.g. poster, speaker introduction, critical key words), 6LP Modularbeit