Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2020 - GSWS 411 D100

Special Topics in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies (4)

Gendering Environment

Class Number: 7407

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 9 – Dec 8, 2020: Fri, 9:30 a.m.–1:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units, including six units in GSWS.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

A specific theme within the field of gender, sexuality, and women's studies, not otherwise covered in depth in regularly scheduled courses, will be dealt with as occasion and demand warrant.

COURSE DETAILS:

How do forms of social difference (gender, race, sexuality, and so on) influence people’s understanding of, and experience with, environment? Further, how do these understandings and experiences operate within ever-shifting settler-colonial and capitalist contexts? This course tackles these questions.

Using a feminist-critical perspective, we examine efforts to address climate justice and the climate emergency by:

  • Unpacking our systems of knowledge, expertise, and nature-culture relations;
  • Exploring the links (and disconnections) between environmental “movements”, from ecofeminism to climate resiliency;
  • Analyzing case studies in environmental activism and its intersection with demands for Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice. “Critical moments” like Clayquot Sound and Wet’suwet’en pipeline protests will be discussed alongside modest but similarly significant efforts like food sovereignty and the fight for clean water.

 

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

For more detailed information please see the GSWS website: http://www.sfu.ca/gsws/undergraduate/courses/Educational_Goals.html

Grading

  • Participation (Individual and collaborative exercises) 20%
  • Foundational concepts interview (Individual exercise) 20%
  • Podcast (Individual or collaborative exercise) 25%
  • Curriculum design (Individual or collaborative exercise) 35%

NOTES:

SYNCHRONOUS and/or ASYNCHRONOUS CLASS SCHEDULING

We will meet in synchronous sessions Fridays from 9:30-11:30 weekly. We will use primarily Canvas (Blackboard Collaborate) and Zoom as a back-up. Asynchronous work will be expected using the discussion space on Canvas, hypothes.is, and other open source online platforms. One optional field trip to UBC Farm may be organized during class time.

Access to internet and a computer with camera and microphone will be required.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

• Ingrid Waldron, There’s Something in the Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous & Black Communities. Fernwood Press, available as an e-book from: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/there8217s-something-in-the-water • Big, Bright, Dark podcast https://bigbrightdark.org/ • Various content (handouts, journal articles, films, etc.) available on Canvas and/or via SFU library databases.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

TEACHING AT SFU IN FALL 2020

Teaching at SFU in fall 2020 will be conducted primarily through remote methods. There will be in-person course components in a few exceptional cases where this is fundamental to the educational goals of the course. Such course components will be clearly identified at registration, as will course components that will be “live” (synchronous) vs. at your own pace (asynchronous). Enrollment acknowledges that remote study may entail different modes of learning, interaction with your instructor, and ways of getting feedback on your work than may be the case for in-person classes. To ensure you can access all course materials, we recommend you have access to a computer with a microphone and camera, and the internet. In some cases your instructor may use Zoom or other means requiring a camera and microphone to invigilate exams. If proctoring software will be used, this will be confirmed in the first week of class.

Students with hidden or visible disabilities who believe they may need class or exam accommodations, including in the current context of remote learning, are encouraged to register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112).