UN3888: Ecocriticism for the End Times | M. Ivy
Anthropology
Undergraduate Seminar
M 2:10-4PM
This seminar aims to show what an anthropologically informed, ecocritical cultural studies can offer in this moment of intensifying ecological calamity. The course will not only engage significant works in anthropology, ecocriticism, philosophy, literature, politics, and aesthetics to think about the environment, it will also bring these works into engaged reflection on "living in the end times" (borrowing cultural critic Slavoj Zizek's phrase). The seminar will thus locate critical perspectives on the environment within the contemporary worldwide ecological crisis, emphasizing the ethnographic realities of global warming, debates on nuclear power and energy, and the place of nature. Drawing on the professor's long experience in Japan and current research on the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, the seminar will also take care to unpack the notion of "end times," with its apocalyptic implications, through close considerations of works that take on the question of ecocatastrophe in our times. North American and European perspectives, as well as international ones (particularly ones drawn from East Asia), will give the course a global reach.
Prerequisite: the instructor's permission.
Link to Vergil
Note: only courses offered during the two previous semesters have active Vergil links.
Please note: The Center does not administer the courses listed below and is not responsible for any changes in the content. For more information, please check the course directory or reach out directly to the instructor.