Spring 2012

ANTH 148, Ecological Anthropology

Focuses on the complex and dynamic interactions between human beings and their physical environment. Examines ecological thinking in anthropology and the various theoretical approaches within the discipline that have developed from the coalescence of natural and social sciences.

ANTH 164, The Origins of Complex Societies

Why and how complex societies developed from simple, egalitarian societies in some areas of the world. Course surveys major theories and evidence surrounding the origins of states and urban societies in New and Old World.

ANTH 168, Ethnology in Rural California: Transformations in Agriculture, Farm Labor, and Rural Communities

Provides a systematic review of research by anthropologists and other social scientists on the development of agriculture and its effects on rural society. Special emphasis is given to the settlement of immigrant farm workers and the formation of new communities.

ARTHI 136J, Landscape of Colonialism

Examination of architecture, urbanism and the land scape of British and French colonialism between 1600 and 1950. Introduction to the different forms of colonialism, colonial ideology and the architecture of colonial encounter in North America, Asia, Africa and Australia.

BL ST 154, Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice

This course investigates environmental injustice—that some people, especially poorer people, bear a disproportionate burden of living in communities with environmental hazards—and environmental racism—that a high coincidence exists between the location of toxic waste sites and Black and Brown communities, even when they are predominantly middle class.

ECON 115, Environmental Economics

Provides a rigorous treatment of environment economics. Topics include welfare analysis, ethical dimensions of economic criteria for protecting the environment, measuring the demand for environmental goods, property rights, economic incentives, including marketable permits and emission fees, and regulating risk.

ENGL 122CD, Cultural Representations: California Dreaming

A study of literary works, paintings, films, and other representational forms as they influence cultural attitudes. The courses offered will focus on such topics as the body, the city, the everyday, the marketplace, and the machine.

ENGL 122WE, Cultural Representations: Water Imaginations

A study of literary works, paintings, films, and other representational forms as they influence cultural attitudes. The courses offered will focus on such topics as the body, the city, the everyday, the marketplace, and the machine.

ENGL 197, Upper-Division Seminar: What is Ecocriticism?

ENV S 3, Introduction to the Social and Cultural Environment

An introduction to the relationship of societies and the environment from prehistorical times to the present. The course is global in perspective, and includes history, literature, philosophy, economics, science, and culture as evidence for examining the human social environment.

ENV S 108O, History of the Oceans

Explores how people have experienced, understood, transformed, and attempted to conserve the world’s oceans throughout human history. Interdisciplinary approach includes aspects of science, technology, politics, law, culture, and material biophysical relationships.

ENV S 175, Environmental Economics

Provides a rigorous treatment of environmental economics. Topics include welfare analysis, ethical dimensions of economic criteria for protecting the environment, measuring the demand for environmental goods, property rights, economic incentives, including marketable permits and emission fees, and regulating risk.

ENV S 189, Natural Resource Economics

Theory and capital theory applied to problems of conservation and management of natural resources. Analysis of public policy with special emphasis on nonrenewable resources, management of forests, deforestation and species extinction, and use of fish and game resources.

ENV S 189, Religion and Ecology in the Americas

An overview of the growing field of religion and ecology in the Americas. Focus on spiritual traditions and landbased knowledge indigenous to the Western hemisphere.

GEOG 5, People, Place, and Environment

Survey of spatial differentiation and organization of human activity and interaction with the Earth’s biophysical systems. Sample topics include human spatial decision-making behavior, migration, population growth, economic development, industrial location, urbanization, and human impacts on the natural environment.

HIST 108O, History of the Oceans

Explores how people have experienced, understood, transformed, and attempted to conserve the world’s oceans throughout human history. Interdisciplinary approach includes aspects of science, technology, politics, law, culture, and material biophysical relationships.

INT 94HU, Food and Religion

This seminar is an introduction to the study of religion based on the role food plays in myths and rituals. Attention will be given to the place of food in religions of hunting and gathering people, ancient civilizations, India, and in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

INT 94LV, Biotechnology and Society

This course will cover topics including the high cost of drugs, genetically modified organisms, genetic profiling, gene therapy, cloning, stem cells, forensic biology, biotechnology and global warming, and will conclude with a “field trip” to a research lab.

RG ST 193, Religion and Ecology in the Americas

An overview of the growing field of religion and ecology in the Americas. Focus on spiritual traditions and landbased knowledge indigenous to the western hemisphere.

SOC 134EC, Earth in Crisis

Explores the causes and consequences of climate change on a global scale, covering the state of the science in layman’s terms, the current and future social impacts of climate change, the global negotiations process, and climate justice activism.

SOC 134G, Green Movements and Green Parties

Examines how environmental organizations and green political parties are shaping policy formulation on environmental issues in different developed and developing countries, with a focus on the US experience.

WRIT 105S, Writing About Sustainability

Analysis and practice of various forms of writing that address sustainability in interdisciplinary contexts. Students will research, write, and reflect on concepts and practices of sustainability, examining the role of words and images in communicating sustainability ideas to diverse audiences.

WRIT 109ES, Writing for Environmental Studies

Analysis and practice of various forms of writing for environmental studies, both academic and professional. Attention to research methods, design of papers, development of graphics, stylistic clarity, and editing strategies.

Winter 2012

ANTH 139, Indigenous Peoples

Survey of indigenous societies, including: resistance, response, and adaptations to colonial incursions; colonial and postcolonial politics; ethnic and cultural assimilation; indigenous ethnic resistance; indigenous political movements. Other topics explored include ethnocide and ecocide; indigenous property rights; effects of globalization.

ANTH 141, Agriculture and Society in Mexico: Past and Present

The evolution of rural Mexico: from origins of Mesoamerican agriculture to the rise of high civilization; from the establishment of the colonial system to the demise of colonial agricultural institutions; from the revolution of 1910 to the enactment of land reform and development programs. Emphasis will be made on the role of peasantry in the making of the modern state.

CH ST 109, Indigenous Peoples

Survey of indigenous societies, including: resistance, response, and adaptations to colonial incursions; colonial and postcolonial politics; ethnic and cultural assimilation; indigenous ethnic resistance; indigenous political movements. Other topics explored include ethnocide and ecocide; indigenous property rights; effects of globalization.

ECON 115, Environmental Economics

Provides a rigorous treatment of environment economics. Topics include welfare analysis, ethical dimensions of economic criteria for protecting the environment, measuring the demand for environmental goods, property rights, economic incentives, including marketable permits and emission fees, and regulating risk.

ENV S 108W, Wildlife in America

Explores the turbulent, contested, and colorful history of human interactions with wild animals in North America from the Pleistocene to the present. Readings will explore historical changes in science, politics, law, management, and cultural ideas about nature.

ENV S 118, Industrial Ecology: Designing for the Environment

Industrial Ecology is a philosophical and methodical framework interwoven with concepts in ecology and economics used to aid in understanding of how industrial systems interact with the environment. Capital, energy, and material flows are examined and viewed in cultural context.

ENV S 125A, Principles of Environmental Law

An introduction to the history and methodology of law as it relates to human use of the environment. Case studies are used to examine common law, constitutional and modern environmental laws, with an emphasis on current theories and principles.

ENV S 129, Ecopsychology

Course explores the theories and practices of psychologists, educators, and others whose work is focused on the connections between “inner” human nature and “outer” nature within which humans experience themselves and the rest of the world.

ENV S 135A, Principles of Environmental Planning

Introduction to the history, theory, and trends of urban, regional, and environmental planning in both California and the United States. Field trips to local urban areas.

ENV S 157, Santa Barbara County Agrifood System

Investigates current agricultural system and potential benefits and costs of localization. Covers theory, data collection, analysis methods, key indicators (greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, migrant labor, nutrition, community health), policies and actions for change. Students conduct and present research as team.

ENV S 161, Environmental Communications: Contemporary Strategies and Tactics

Surveys strategies and tactics for communicating about the environment and sustainability in various organizational, political, cultural, business, mass media and social media contexts. Students will analyze, evaluate and practice communications methods using a spectrum of communications channels.

ENV S 166BT, Biotechnology, Food, and Agriculture

Social, cultural, ethical, biological, and environmental issues surrounding biotechnology (BT) and the food system. Includes theory and method of BT; scientific, social and political control of BT; effect of BT on genetic diversity, small-scale farmers, the environment, food supply, consumer health.

ENV S 175, Environmental Economics

Provides a rigorous treatment of environmental economics. Topics include welfare analysis, ethical dimensions of economic criteria for protecting the environment, measuring the demand for environmental goods, property rights, economic incentives, including marketable permits and emission fees, and regulating risk.

ENV S 188, The Ethics of Human-Environment Relations

Survey of contemporary environmental ethics, focusing on both philosophical and applied issues. Topics include anthropocentrism and its alternatives, the role of science and aesthetics, multicultural perspectives and the problem of relativism, and the conflict between radical and reformist environmentalism.

GEOG 171BT, Biotechnology, Food, and Agriculture

Social, cultural, ethical, biological, and environmental issues surrounding biotechnology (BT) and the food system. Includes theory and method of BT; scientific, social and political control of BT; effect of BT on genetic diversity, small-scale farmers, the environment, food supply, consumer health.

GLOBL 171, Global Environmental Politics

A focus on global environmental problems in our time, particularly climate change and its impact on resource scarcity, human security, energy geopolitics, and democracy in an unevenly structured world system, including the search for world order solutions.

HIST 108W, Wildlife in America

Explores the turbulent, contested, and colorful history of human interactions with wild animals in North America from the Pleistocene to the present. Readings will explore historical changes in science, politics, law, management, and cultural ideas about nature.

HIST 178B, American Urban History

A study of the political, economic, social, and intellectual impact of the city upon American history, and the impact of history upon the growth of American urbanization.

INT 94BZ, Genetic Modification of Food Crops

The seminar will explore the implications of genetic modification of our food crops with special emphasis on the application of recombinant DNA technology for crop improvement. The scientific basis of these technologies will be explained at the level of a non-science major. Course materials will include a critical review of articles from the popular scientific press concerning the dangers and benefits of GM crops. The potential impact (both good and bad) on agriculture in developing countries will also be covered.

INT 94JS, A Walk in the Woods

This seminar will introduce students new to UCSB and the Santa Barbara area to the landscape and flora of the Santa Ynez Mountains. These mountains provide a spectacular backdrop, reaching just over 4,000 feet in elevation, and yet few UCSB students take advantage of the incredible recreational and natural history opportunities they offer. This all-day seminar will begin with a stop at the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden to introduce students to some of the plants we will see on our hike. We will then drive to the Tunnel trailhead and begin our hike. One focus of the hike will be to monitor changes in plant communities, landscapes, and the geological substrate as we ascend.

INT 94OV, Introduction to Sustainability

The Seminar will introduce the students to the concept of Sustainability and its implementation on campus and in the local community by various groups including student organizations. Various topics will be addressed such as Energy, Recycling, Water, Food, Land use etc.

INT 94PD, Understanding the Global Energy and Climate Systems to Best Invest in Our Future

The need for energy independence for economic and political reasons and plans to mitigate climate change is influencing the US energy policy for the upcoming decades. The choices made now will impact many aspects of our lives, and more importantly our future economic growth and environmental well being. These decisions will require a population with a solid knowledge and understanding of the various options available and their potential consequences. This seminar will discuss these options.

LIT CS 103, Environmental Media

The study and practice of environmental media. Students study the ways and means of how to inform the world on environmental problems and issues, then learn the techniques of writing and shooting DOCUMENTARY media. Students either write a research paper on media and environmental issues (climate change, pollution, population, etc.) or write and/or make a short documentary video. In-class viewing and discussions of environmental documentaries (Food, Silent Spring, Fuel, An Inconvenient Truth, etc.) and feature films (Erin Brockovich, China Syndrome, etc.).

SOC 105E, Environmental Sociology

Traces the history of environmentalism and applies social science theories, concepts, and methods to analyze critical contemporary environmental issues and societal responses to them.

WRIT 109ES, Writing for Environmental Studies

Analysis and practice of various forms of writing for environmental studies, both academic and professional. Attention to research methods, design of papers, development of graphics, stylistic clarity, and editing strategies.

Fall 2011

ANTH 130C, Global Food Systems and Human Food Security

Examines history of global food systems and its impacts on ecosystems, ecologies, and human nutrition and food security. How agricultural, capture fisheries, and aquacultural industries were integrated into the global food system. Provides information to make more informed decisions about consuming these products.

ANTH 149, World Agriculture, Food, and Population

Evolution, current status, and alternative futures of agriculture, food, and population worldwide. Achieving environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable food systems; soil, water, crops, energy, and labor; diversity, stability, and ecosystems management; farmer and scientist knowledge and collaboration; common property management.

ARTHI 5A, Introduction to Architecture and Environment

Architecture is an act of place-making with which man has intertwined ever closer his world with the natural one. The course discusses basic architectural construction methods, discipline-specific terminology, design strategies, and interpretative concepts. Students must keep a visual, architectural journal.

ARTHI 121A, American Art from Revolution to Civil War: 1700-1860

Painting, sculpture, architecture and decorative arts in the original 13 colonies, through the formation of the United States, to the crisis of the Civil War. Particular attention paid to environmental and social issues.

ARTHI 137EE, Deviant Domesticities

The suburban landscape, particularly the single-family detached house and the nuclear family, is both an architectural and a social pattern. Despite its ubiquity in North America, it now poses an acute challenge to ecological and economic sustainability.

ECON 115, Environmental Economics

Provides a rigorous treatment of environment economics. Topics include welfare analysis, ethical dimensions of economic criteria for protecting the environment, measuring the demand for environmental goods, property rights, economic incentives, including marketable permits and emission fees, and regulating risk.

ECON 127, Climate Change

Economic and policy issues underlying threat of global climate change, in particular, role of economics in designing efficient climate policy. Present some of scientific methods in assessing climate change processes. Topics include externalities, taxation, valuation, discounting, and cost- benefit analysis.

ENGL 100LE, Honors Seminar: Introduction to Literature and the Environment

A seminar course for a select number of students. Designed to enrich the lecture experience for the motivated student. Enrollment instructions: enroll for any class section. Meet with professor for instructions after first lecture.

ENGL 122CS, Cultural Representations: Cityscapes

This seminar examines different representations of the modern metropolis from the 19th to the 21st century, by turning to literature, cinema, and urban theory. The city and urban life crucially shaped the experience of modernity. From fin de siècle Paris to 1920s Berlin, to mid-twentieth century Algiers to contemporary London, New York, Dubai, and L.A., we will study urban space in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Emile Zola, J.G. Ballard, Hanif Kureishi, Buchi Emecheta, Roland Barthes and Georges Perec, together with current critiques of urbanism (David Harveym Rem Koolhaas, Mike davis, Henri Lefebvre, Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord). Topics for discussion will include: the crowd, walking in the city, looking and the spectacle of consumption, shopping, public vs. corporate space, women in the city, colonialism, the multicultural city, and the immigrant experience. Films: Berlin Symphony of a City, Playtime (1967), The Battle of Algiers, Unknown Code, and The Matrix.

ENGL 122LE, Cultural Representations: Introduction to Literature and the Environment

Environmental survey of Western literature that explores the often-ignored literary history of the natural world.

ENGL 197, Upper-Division Seminar: Human Rights and Literature

This course will explore human rights discourse, foregrounding the humanities-based contributions made to human rights study. Given the considerable attention garnered by Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” thesis, it is clear that deep-rooted cultural assumptions have played a tremendous (at times very problematic) role as analysts and the general public alike have struggled to evaluate U.S. international policy in the context of evolving ideas about global justice and governance.

ENV S 1, Introduction to Environmental Studies

“Environmental Studies” requires insights from many disciplines, including the social as well as biophysical science and the humanities. This introduction offers an overview of the field, examining both our planet and the ways in which we humans depend on it.

ENV S 116, Building Sustainable Communities

Examines sustainability, communities, and urban systems in a global context. Covers impacts cities have on the environmental systems that support them, and explores ways to improve urban systems through technology, policy, and design.

ENV S 122LE, Cultural Representations: Introduction to Literature and the Environment

Environmental survey of Western literature that explores the often-ignored literary history of the natural world.

ENV S 130C, Global Food Systems and Human Food Security

Examines history of global food system and its impacts on ecosystems, ecologies, and human nutrition and food security. How agricultural, capture fisheries, and aquacultural industries were integrated into the global food system. Provides information to make more informed decisions about consuming these products.

ENV S 149, World Agriculture, Food, and Population

Evolution, current status, and alternative futures of agriculture, food and population worldwide. Achieving environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable food systems; soil, water, crops, energy and labor; diversity, stability and ecosystems management; farmer and scientist knowledge and collaboration; common property management.

ENV S 172, Waste Management: Product Stewardship, Recycling and Renewable Energy

Overview of policy, technology, and economic dimensions of managing wastes in the twenty-first century. Covers the emergence of product stewardship, domestic and international recycling, composting of organic materials, conversion of organic materials to renewable energy, waste incineration and land filling.

ENV S 173, American Environmental History

Traces the history of American attitudes and behavior toward nature. Focus on wilderness, the conservation movement, and modern forms of environmentalism.

ENV S 179, Natural Resource Economics

Theory and capital theory applied to problems of conservation and management of natural resources. Analysis of public policy with special emphasis on nonrenewable resources, management of forests, deforestation and species extinction, and use of fish and game resources.

ENV S 185, Human Environmental Rights

Introduction to human environmental rights. Examines the expansion of human rights to include human environmental rights, abuses of human environmental rights, associated social conflicts, and emergent social movements including environmental justice and transnational advocacy networks.

GEOG 5, People, Place, and Environment

Survey of spatial differentiation and organization of human activity and interaction with the Earth’s biophysical systems. Sample topics include human spatial decision-making behavior, migration, population growth, economic development, industrial location, urbanization, and human impacts on the natural environment.

GEOG 108, Urban Geography

Introduction to the study of the economic geography of cities and regions and its relation to planning: urbanization, internal structure of cities, settlement systems, regional growth and development, migration, transportation, housing.

GEOG 148, California

The unique landscapes of California and the physical, cultural, and biotic processes which have produced them.

GEOG 161, World Agriculture, Food, and Population

Evolution, current status, and alternative futures of agriculture, food and population worldwide. Achieving environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable food systems; soil, water, crops, energy and labor; diversity, stability and ecosystems management; farmer and scientist knowledge and collaboration; common property management.

GLOBL 161, Global Environmental Policy and Politics

The evolution of international environmental negotiations, agreements, and organizations, and the role governmental and non-governmental actors are playing in shaping them are examined. Climate change, biodiversity conservation, and equitable global sustainable development are among the critical policy challenges considered.

HIST 173T, American Environmental History

Traces the history of American attitudes and behavior toward nature. Focus on wilderness, the conservation movement, and modern forms of environmentalism.

LIT CS 114, Borderlands: Revisions & Reimaginings U.S.-Centered Media And The Transnational Imaginary

In this course we will follow the thread of “U.S.-produced” texts as they engage the idea of “borders” – chiefly after World War II. We will interrogate the sociopolitical and spatial formation of the region produced by the U.S.-Mexico boundary (among other boundaries), examining the imaginative and “real” parts of this border. By focusing on the contradictions associated with border militarization, immigration and environmental racism we will look at media to investigate the ways in which globalization and the flows of people, capital, and ideologies has shaped the borders of the United States. How are borders imagined by the writers/artists at hand? What is at stake in the reclamation of “lost” and “mythical” lands? Lastly, how do the most current of writers and directors re-present some of these issues?

RG ST 156EE, Environmental Ethics

Environmental Ethics probes questions of duty and policy regarding human impact on the natural world. Topics such as climate change, sustainable economics, population explosion, and the standing of non-human animals are examined from various perspectives.