STUDY ABROAD IN GERMANY
(no knowledge of German required)
Water, Wind & Weeds:
From the Rio Grande to the Rhein
Study abroad in Germany for 3 weeks (May 12 – 31, 2015):
 Explore the Rhein River, the economic and mythical heart of Germany
 Study the comparative history and economics of water politics, land use, and solar,
wind, and nuclear energy across national contexts
 Travel to the Netherlands for four days to tour the Oostvaardersplassen (a modernday Jurassic Park), Keukenhof Gardens and Kinderdijk (a UNESCO site)
 Stay at a monastery “Nikolauskloster” and study at the historic castle “Schloss Dyck”
 Earn 6 UNM credits in 2 linked courses, HIST 300/500 and ECON 395/542, or take
both courses through Sustainability Studies (SUST 402). The courses can also count
towards the Water Resources Program (WRP) policy/management credits – contact
the WRP director, Prof. Robert Berrens, rberrens@unm.edu.
NOTE: Courses meet for 5 joint sessions at UNM from April 10 – May 8, 2015.
Estimated program cost: $1,900-2,100 plus airfare, GEO application fee, insurance, and
UNM spring tuition. Scholarships available (Regents’ International Travel Grants, ISI
Summer Scholarships).
For more information, visit our website http://schlossdyckunm2015.weebly.com or contact:
 Prof. Luis Campos, History Department, luiscampos@unm.edu
 Prof. Shana McDermott, Economics Department, mcdermott@unm.edu
 Prof. Christine Sauer, Associate ISI Director, sauer@unm.edu
Course Descriptions
New Mexico and Germany might seem worlds apart—endless sunshine and arid landscapes
against abundant clouds and well-watered forests. And economics and history, as disciplines, might
seem similarly distant from each other—quantitative modeling, numbers, and deductions on the
one hand, as opposed to narratives, contingency, and culture. But in looking at questions of
environmental policy and environmental management—central features of the histories and
economies of both New Mexico and Germany—rarely are matters so black and white.
Through a series of case studies we will critically engage with the differing disciplinary
approaches, and see how quantitative economic analyses of environmental policy are
fundamentally incomplete without larger considerations of cultural and historical contexts, and
vice versa. Rather than assume an easy interdisciplinarity where history adds “local color” to a
fundamentally economic concern, or economics adds “rigor” to a fundamentally historical
narrative, we will see how even the very establishment of knowledge of “nature” has been
integrally related to the establishment of political and economic order, in both New Mexico and
Germany.
ECON 395/542: Environmental Economics (3 credits, cross-listed as SUST 402)
Taught by Shana McDermott, Assistant Professor of Economics, mcdermott@unm.edu
This first course in environmental economics seeks to explore the unexpected resonances
between the historical, social, political, and cultural contexts of New Mexico and of Germany.
Specifically, we will cover a basic introduction to environmental and natural resource issues of both
global and local scale. Our analysis will investigate basic causes and consequences of environmental
problems including interrelated physical and social science dimensions. We will focus on both
exhaustible and renewable natural resources, including problems in energy, water/fisheries, forestry,
and endangered/invasive resources. We will use various texts/academic readings, in-class
applications, and field trips to illustrate these environmental problems and current policy
considerations.
HIST 300/500: Environmental History (3 credits, cross-listed as SUST 402)
Taught by Luis Campos, Associate Professor of History, luiscampos@unm.edu
The second course in this study-abroad program seeks to explore the unexpected resonances
between the historical, social, political, and cultural contexts of New Mexico and of Germany. From
early modern imperialism to the rise of forestry, to the very development of sciences of ecology in
the twentieth century and contemporary efforts to solve our environmental problems through
green technologies, markets, and tax structures, “the environment”—and concern about how best
to manage it—has always existed at an essentially contested boundary between politics, economics,
and science. Themes to be explored include the history of “wilderness” and “landscape”; nationalism
and nature; indigenism, colonialism, and biological imperialism; vernacular green architectures;
shifting visions of nature (romantic, engineered, exploited, managed); conservation and
environmentalist movements; immigration and invasion biology; and green technological solutions
ranging from hydro and solar power to nuclear and biotech. Readings will be drawn from both
classic and contemporary sources.