Environmental Ethnographies
Instructor: Sarah E. Vaughn
Term: Spring 2019
Time: W, 2:00 pm - 3:59 pm
Units: 4
Course Number: 26396
Course Description:
This course examines contemporary ethnography on the environment. A central concern of the course is: How are ethnographic concepts shaped by the possibilities and vulnerabilities of rapid environmental changes? Whether from the perspective of theory or method, ethnography has held some cachet across the humanities and social sciences in its ability to capture the historical and empirical specificity of human-environment interactions on the planet. Yet, less explored are the ways these interactions shape scholars’ commitments to certain analytics and writerly forms. While ambitious in both practice and critique, this course sets its sights on this task. We will engage a variety of well-trodden and less well-known themes including “Conservation,” “Landscape,” “Energy,” “Scale,” “Waste,” “Atmospherics,” “Expertise,” “Biodiversity,” and “Waterscape.”