CCOL-UH 1082
Multispecies Living and the Environmental Crisis
Spring 2021
Untitled #3, 2014/ Fabrice Monteiro
Location: Abu Dhabi
Email Address: gj29@nyu.edu
Credits: 4.0
Faculty: George Jose
Class time: Tue - Thu 9.00 – 10.15 am GST
Office hours: Thu 10.30 to 12 noon GST
This course counts toward the following NYUAD degree requirements:
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Core Curriculum > Colloquia
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Course Description: How do we understand and make sense of the consequences of what has
clearly become a climate emergency? What conditions catalyzed this moment of crisis? Why and
how might we consider re-orienting our habits of thought and action to engage this global
challenge? What are the limits of anthropomorphism or the anthropomorphic imagination, of
assigning human attributes to nonhuman others? Our notions of "development" and "progress,"
our conception of natural resources, our relationship to the technocratic imagination have all
contributed to the making of the Age of the Anthropocene, in which human agency reshapes our
environment. This course will engage with a range of approaches that re-conceptualize the
relationship of humans with nature. It will study the environmental consequences of
urbanization, resource frontiers, extractive industries, the quest for sustainable energy, humananimal conflict, and the politics of conservation. It will conclude by asking what constitutes
environmental justice as students explore the need to recalibrate multiple disciplines to generate
a "multispecies" perspective on our world.
The course is structured around four major goals: On successful completion of the course you
will be able to identify and plot the (global) genesis and growth of environmental consciousness.
This includes an introduction to the key ideas and theories of the ‘first canaries in the coal-mine’.
You will be familiar with the critique of “development”, and become conversant with a range of
debates that sought to pit environment preservation against (human) progress. You will engage
deeply with the discussions on climate change and global warming. And finally, you will explore
the manner in which the human sciences are beginning to (re)adjust our mental constructs and
conceptual vocabulary to birth a ‘multispecies’ understanding of our world.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of the course students will
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Become familiar with a broad range of concepts, paradigms, and debates that have
shaped our understanding of the environment across disciplines, particularly in the human
sciences.
Grasp the environmental consequences of human action.
Recognize the need to recalibrate the social and human sciences to generate fresh ‘multispecies’ perspectives of our world.
Acquire the necessary conceptual background and analytic insight to articulate and
undertake their own examination of the environmental crisis.
Develop a critical understanding of aspects of crisis including the naming and dating of
our time, and the climate change debate.
Enhance their ability to develop research questions and research designs, and strengthen
their data collection practices
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Teaching Methodologies:
The course will introduce students to key historic texts that inaugurated the more-thanhalf-a-century-old field of environmental studies, and current literature that engender
multiple perspectives. It will equip you to respond coherently to a range of questions. It
will enable students to “connect the dots” between multiple (disciplinary) stand-points –
and do it rigorously and well. It surveys a considerable span of literature, with the
objective of generating a “big picture” view. You will learn to recognize distinct and
multiple perspectives that inhabit the field. It is a course designed to grasp the wood,
even as we pause regularly to admire the trees. A key learning outcome of the course will
be the ability to engage morally challenging and politically fractious debates in an
academic and research-informed manner.
This course will pay conscious attention to building reading and writing abilities.
Students will summarize arguments of authors they read regularly. The writing
assignments are designed to nurture and strengthen a range of writing forms – the
personal essay, the engaging op-ed, the evidence-based, data-driven and rigorously
researched article.
This course will equip the student with a range of concepts and diverse perspectives that
will help frame this (continuing) debate. We will draw from and across distinct social
sciences, including anthropology, development studies and demography, among others.
We will read select texts carefully, and in advance, and discuss it seminar-style. The
objective is to work across disciplines to develop a focus on the environmental crisis.
And indeed, to recognize that formulating the question is a significant intervention.
How do we formulate the questions? How do questions lay the ground for possible
answers? And what does it mean to step outside the frame of the question itself?
My teaching style is dialogic, from the get-go. We will subject two-to-three articles or
essays to a close reading during the class, with each reading being led by you (we will
detail the manner in which this is to be conducted at the beginning of the course). By
discussing the essays in class, by listening to the presentations of your colleagues and
classmates, my expectation is that you build a ‘studio environment’ or a workshop-space
to engage with the concepts that we will learn in the course. I expect you to, in this
course, learn the ability to engage morally challenging and politically fractious debates in
an academic and research-informed manner.
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Graded Activities:
You will practice and learn three forms of writing – keeping reflective, personal diaries;
exploring creative writing; and producing critical analytical essays. You will be required to hand
in one of each, in the course of the module.
The ‘personal essay’ – a form of writing that melds experience and reflection. This is between
750 and 1500 words, worth 15%. This essay is due Thu, Feb 11.
You will write a response paper in advance of each session. This will include a critical question
that engages or arises from the readings for that week. Students should contextualize their
questions and the caliber of submissions should demonstrate that the required reading has been
completed, and that the student has given the authors’ arguments careful consideration. This
paper will be an essay crafted as an analysis of the readings assigned for the session. It should
identify the salient features of the debate, and build an argument. You will pay particular
attention to understanding and expressing your own perspective or point of view, even as you
summarize the frameworks deployed by the authors you engage with. The response paper is due
5pm the day before the session. Early submissions are highly encouraged. Av. Length: 300
words. Approx. 25 of these over the course of the module. (15%)
Each of you will lead two seminar presentations during the course of the semester. Two of you
will come together to present the readings and lead the discussion for each session. You will also
serve as peer discussants for the session. You will go over the questions submitted, consider
them collectively, and identify common issues, threads, or blind spots. Discussants should come
to class prepared to present their thoughts on the points raised by their peers, and, if and when
appropriate, help steer the discussion in directions that may address or advance those concerns.
Discussant Role (20%) Due: Variable, twice in the semester.
During the course of the semester, students will work in pairs or groups to explore a specific
(environmental) theme or concern, and develop a class presentation (approx. 10-15 mins). The
presentations should be well-reasoned, compelling arguments that illustrate the specific approach
to the issue or topic that you have selected. Scheduled through March 2021
You will discuss the theme for your long essay, negotiate the parameters and framework of
his/her project with me before 25 March. This essay will be around 3000 words in length, due
April 29. 30%
Academic Integrity: At NYU Abu Dhabi, a commitment to excellence, fairness, honesty, and
respect within and outside the classroom is essential to maintaining the integrity of our
community. By accepting membership in this community, students, faculty, and staff take
responsibility for demonstrating these values in their own conduct and for recognizing and
supporting these values in others. In turn, these values create a campus climate that encourages
the free exchange of ideas, promotes scholarly excellence through active and creative thought,
and allows community members to achieve and be recognized for achieving their highest
potential.
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All potential violations to this community academic integrity standard (including plagiarism)
will be taken seriously and reviewed through NYUAD’s Academic Integrity Procedure.
Mental Health Awareness: As a University student, you may experience a range of issues that
can interfere with your ability to perform academically or impact your daily functioning, such as:
heightened stress; anxiety; difficulty concentrating; sleep disturbance; strained relationships;
grief and loss; personal struggles. If you have any well-being or mental health concerns please
visit the Counseling Center on the ground floor of the campus center from 9am-5pm Sunday Thursday, or schedule an appointment to meet with a counselor by calling: 02-628-8100, or
emailing: nyuad.healthcenter@nyu.edu. If you require mental health support outside of these
hours call NYU's Wellness Exchange hotline at 02-628-5555, which is available 24 hours a day,
7 days a week. You can also utilize the Wellness Exchange mobile chat feature, details of which
you can find on the student portal. If you need help connecting to these supports please contact
me directly.
Day-by-Day Schedule:
Date
Topic
Reading
Other
1
Introductions
https://ccworld.hkw.de/turbulence/
Introduction.
Getting to know
our expectations
of each other,
and as a group;
discussing the
design of the
course; signing
off on
commitments.
2
Sounding the
Alarm
Ghosh, Amitav, 2012, Confluence and Crossroads: Europe
and the Fate of the Earth
3
Carson, Rachel, 1962, The Obligation to Endure in Silent
spring Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
pp 5-14
White, L., 1967, The historical roots of our ecologic crisis,
Science, 155(3767), pp.1203-1207
Hardin, Garrett, 1968, The Tragedy of the Commons,
Science 162: pp. 1243-1248
4
Invention of
Development
Ferguson, James with Lohmann, Larry, 1994, Anti-Politics
Machine “Development” and Bureaucratic Power in
Lesotho, The Ecologist, Vol. 24, No. 5, September/October
Kothari, Smitu, 2004, Revisiting the Violence of
Development: An Interview with Ashis Nandy,
Development, 47(1), (8–14), March, Palgrave Macmillan,
5
Society for International Development 1011-6370/04
www.sidint.org/development
Ziai, Aram, 2011, Some reflections on the concept of
‘development’, ZEF Working Paper Series, No. 81,
University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF),
Bonn
Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2020, GDP Is the Wrong Tool for
Measuring What Matters, Scientific American 1 Aug 2020
5
Escobar, Arturo, 1999, The Invention of Development,
Current History; Nov 1999; 98, 631; ProQuest pg. 382
Escobar, Arturo 1998. Whose knowledge, whose nature?
Biodiversity, conservation, and the political ecology of
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Robbins, Paul. 2012 Political Ecology: a critical
introduction pp 1-24
Robbins, Paul, Peet, Richard and Watt, Michael, 2011,
Global Nature in Global Political Ecology, Edited by
Richard Peet, Paul Robbins, and Michael Watts
Philip Mcmichael (2009) Contemporary Contradictions of
the Global Development Project: geopolitics, global
ecology and the ‘development climate’, Third World
Quarterly, 30:1, 247-262
6
Carrying
Capacity
Malthus, T. R., (1798) 1803, Statement of the subject. Ratios
of the increase of population and food in An Essay on the
Principle of Population: Text, Sources and Background,
Criticism.
Ehrlich Paul, 1968, The Population Bomb, Ballantine New
York
Cohen, Joel E., 1995, How Many People Can the Earth
Support?
Füredi, Frank, 1997, Population and Development: A
Critical Introduction
Ehrlich, P.R. and Ehrlich, A.H., 2009, The population bomb
revisited, The electronic journal of sustainable development,
1(3), pp.63-71
Wolfgram A F & Aguirre M S, 2005, Population, Resources
and the Environment: A Survey of the Debate
Watch: Dhanraj, Deepa, 1991, Something like a War
(documentary film)
7
Hardin, G., 1974, Living on a lifeboat BioScience, 24(10),
pp.561-568
6
Dhondt A 1988 Carrying Capacity - A Confusing Concept
Acta Oecologica
Daily, Gretchen C. and Ehrlich, Paul R., 1992, Population,
Sustainability, and Earth's Carrying Capacity,
BioScience, Vol. 42, No. 10 (Nov), pp. 761-771, American
Institute of Biological Sciences
Cohen, J.E., 1995. Population growth and earth's human
carrying capacity. Science, 269(5222), pp.341-346.
Sayre, N.F., 2008. The genesis, history, and limits of
carrying capacity. Annals of the Association of American
Geographers, 98(1), pp.120-134.
Guha, Ramchandra. 2002. How Much Should a Person
Consume?
Angus, I and Butler, S, 2011, Too Many People: Population,
Immigration, and The Environmental Crisis, Haymarket
Books, Chicago
8
Wilderness
Snyder, Gary, 1990, The Place, The Region and the
Commons in The Practice of the Wild
Cronon, W., 1996, The Trouble with Wilderness: Or,
Getting Back to the Wrong Nature, Environmental history,
1(1), pp. 7-28.
Turner J M 2012, The Promise of Wilderness: American
Environmental Politics since 1964 (Foreword by William
Cronon; and Epilogue: Rebuilding the Wilderness Movement)
University of Washington Press
Ghosh, Amitav, Wild Fictions
9
Guha, R., 1989, Radical American Environmentalism and
Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique.
Environmental ethics, 11(1), pp.71-83
Guha R 1996 Two Phases of American Environmentalism –
A critical History in Decolonizing Knowledge: From
Development to Dialogue edited by Frédérique ApffelMarglin, Stephen A. Marglin (downloaded from NYUA L)
Oelschlaeger, M. 1991. Wild Nature: Critical Responses to
Modernism in The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to
the Age of Ecology (pp. 97-132). New Haven; London: Yale
University Press
Marris, Emma, 2011, Rambunctious Garden: Saving
Nature in a Post-Wild World - An exploration of ecology
and conservation in the Anthropocene, Bloomsbury USA
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Human/Nature
McKibben, B, 1989, The End of Nature, Anchor Books
Cronon, William (ed.), 1996, Introduction: In search of
nature in Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human
Place in Nature, New York: W. W. Norton
Descola P & Palsson G, 2013, Introduction in Beyond
Nature & Culture University of Chicago Press
11
Jedediah Purdy, 2015, Prologue & Introduction in After
Nature: Politics for the Anthropocene, Harvard University
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Vogel, Steven, 2015, Democracy and the Commons in
Thinking like a Mall: Environmental Philosophy after the
End of Nature, MIT Press
Merchant, Carolyn, 2004, Adam as Hero & Eve as Nature in
Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western
Culture, Routledge
12
The Dating
Game
Crutzen, P.J. and Steffen, W., 2003, How long have we been
in the Anthropocene era? Climatic Change, 61(3), pp.251257
Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer, ‘The
Anthropocene’, IGBP [International Geosphere−Biosphere
Programme] Newsletter, 41 (2000), pp. 17–18
Syvitski, James, 2012, Anthropocene: An Epoch of our
Making, Global Change, 78, pp. 12–15
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Smith B D and Zeder, M A, 2013, The Onset of the
Anthropocene, Anthropocene
Swanson, H.A., 2016. Anthropocene as political geology:
Current debates over how to tell time. Science as Culture,
25(1), pp.157-163.
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The Proper
Name
Crutzen, P.J., 2002, Geology of Mankind: The
Anthropocene, Nature, 415, 23
Steffen, W., Crutzen, P.J. and McNeill, J.R., 2007, The
Anthropocene: are humans now overwhelming the great
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Environment, 36(8), pp.614-622
Steffen, W., Grinevald, J., Crutzen, P. and McNeill, J., 2011,
The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical
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Malm & Hornborg, 2014, Is the Anthropocene
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The Science of
Climate Change
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Energopolitics
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9
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End of Nature
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Stripple, Per Ove Eikeland, 2011, The missing link:
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Pp 1117–1128
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19
Carbon
footprints &
Food Miles
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global food supply Cambridge: South End Press.
20
Shiva, V, 2014, Science and Politics in the Green Revolution
in The Vandana Shiva Reader Foreword by Wendell Berry
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Environmentalism in India and the United States
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Gretchen Daily, Paul Ehrlich, Geoffrey Heal, Simon Levin,
Karl-Go ̈ran Ma ̈ler, Stephen Schneider, David Starrett and
Brian Walker Are We Consuming Too Much? Journal of
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the world food system, Melville House
21
Urban / Nature
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the nature of cities: urban political ecology and the politics
of urban metabolism. Routledge
10
Tredici Peter Del 2017 Urban Nature/ Human Nature in
Living in the Anthropocene – Earth in the Age of
Humans, Kress & Stine
22
Capitalism
in/and The
Anthropocene
Klien Naomi, 2014, This changes everything: Capitalism
v/s the Climate, Simon & Schuster
Moore, Jason W. 2014a, The Capitalocene Part I: On the
Nature & Origins of Our Ecological Crisis
Moore, Jason W. 2014b. The Capitalocene Part II:
Abstract Social Nature and the Limits to Capital
Chakrabarty, D., 2017, The politics of climate change is
more than the politics of capitalism, Theory, Culture &
Society, 34(2-3), pp.25-37
Latour, B., 2014, Agency at the Time of the Anthropocene,
New literary history, 45(1), pp.1-18
23
Multispecies
Living
Haraway, D.J., 2003, The companion species manifesto:
Dogs, people, and significant otherness, Chicago: Prickly
Paradigm Press
Daston, Lorrain and Greg Mittman, 2005, Thinking with
Animals: New Perspectives on Anthropomorphism, New
York: Columbia University Press
Tsing, A.L., 2015, The mushroom at the end of the world:
On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton
University Press
24
Haraway, D., 2015, Anthropocene, capitalocene,
plantationocene, chthulucene: Making kin, Environmental
humanities, 6(1), pp.159-165
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Interspecies Relatedness in India's Central Himalayas.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
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Minnesota Press.
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Place, politics, and identity in the nature-culture
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Conclusion
Visvanathan, Shiv, 1991, Mrs Brundtland’s disenchanted
cosmos. Alternatives 16/3: 377–384
Chakrabarty, D., 2016. Humanities in the Anthropocene:
The crisis of an enduring Kantian fable. New Literary
History, 47(2), pp.377-397
11
Raworth, K., 2017. A Doughnut for the Anthropocene:
humanity's compass in the 21st century. The Lancet
Planetary Health, 1(2), pp.e48-e49
26
Latour, B., 2017, Why Gaia is not a god of totality. Theory,
Culture & Society, 34(2-3), pp.61-81
Eduardo Kohn, How Forests Think: Toward an
anthropology beyond the human
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