Cosmopolitics in the Americas
Nadia Lucia Peralta
Kresge College
Cosmopolitics, a term that can trace its roots to Kant, is a word re-articulated by Isabelle
Stengers, Philosophy of Science, at the University of Belgium, in order to refer to the “cosmos”
or the, unknown, as constituted by multiple, divergent, perspectives of both humans and nonhumans living in the anthropocene. The anthropocene is a geologic term that connotes
chronology but is now being used to generate conversations about how humans shape the earth’s
landscape. The anthropocene is both a social relationship and a geographical signifier in the
fields of current anthropology and geography. Both these words speak to the uniqueness of what
this major accomplishes at UCSC, for at the heart of this major is a kind of social geography that
neither Anthropology, Latin American and Latino Studies, nor Environmental Studies can fully
offer. Not just because this major requires all of these disciplines in order to be completed, but
because this major creatively demands that in order to consider multiple perspectives of human
and non-humans in the anthropocene, the student must be grounded in philosophical notions of
ontology, creative fiction and non-fiction writing, and a rigorous grounding in power,
representation and modern feminist theory. The lower division courses of this major speak to the
creative requirement of philosophy, writing, power/ representational politics and feminist theory
while the upper division courses develop the large ideas of what is meant by the anthropocene.
This major prepares the student to be a critical, slow, thinker rather than assumes that to “know”
anything. This major’s completion comes to fruition through a beautiful senior thesis paper,
which grounds itself in the curriculum explained above by way of two field quarters the student
participates in during her time at UCSC.
The undergraduate lower-division courses are as follows, and as explained, from the
disciplines of philosophy, Feminist Studies and Kresge College. They form coherency for the
theoretical critical thinking of the upper-division courses by laying a solid foundation about the
intellectual, social and community phenomena in the Americas. Through these courses the
student becomes a proficient writer and is able to take the upper-division courses in Latin
American and Latino Studies, Anthropology, and Environmental Science that require such rigor
of thought. The Disciplinary Communication requirement is satisfied through Science and
Human Values because it acts as the synthesis class of the lower and upper division courses in
the context of its writing intensive nature about both social and scientific issues, further
preparing the student for a senior exit thesis.
KRESG 15A. The Writer as Witness
KRSG 24. Imagining Utopias
PHIL 28. Environmental Ethics
KRSG 80A. Introduction to University Discourse: Power and Representation
LALS 80E. Latin American Philosophy
HISC 80U. Modernity
HISC 80H. Marxism
FEM 80E. Feminism and Social Justice
Disciplinary Communication Requirement: CRWN 123 Science and Human Values
The committee may note that the student became an academic assistant for the course,
Kresge 80A, and has been an academic assistant for the past three years.
The upper-division courses are supported by the lower-division courses by way of critical
thinking. As a body they support the student in thinking through what is meant by the
anthropocene as well as support the student in writing about her field study in the Ecuadorian
Amazon as a 2011 NSF scholar in Ecuador.
FMST 100. Feminist Theories
LALS 146. Urban Crisis in the Americas
LALS 147. Land and Peasants
LALS 167. Amazonian Societies and the Environment
NSF Undergraduate Research Scholar Field Study 2011
ANTH 130N. Native Peoples of North America
ANTH 146. Anthropology and the Environment
ENVS 138/138 L (lab). Field Ethnobotany
ENVS 107 A. Natural History Field Quarter
ENVS 107 B. Natural History Field Quarter
ENVS 107 C. Natural History Field Quarter
I hope that the committee will make an exception to the requirement of providing 5 additional
courses should the classes not be possible. I have completed all of these courses save the
Feminist Theories 100 course that I will take in the Fall of 2012 as well as an additional ten units
of Thesis writing credit. I am a unique case in that I am writing you as I near my graduation,
having taken these courses already, I do not see it necessary to provide alternatives since as you
can see in my transcript they have been successfully completed.
Senior Exit Requirement:
A total of 12 units of independent research towards a thesis paper will be completed in Summer
and Fall of 2012.
Should this major meet the standards of the CEP I will walk with my graduating class this Spring
2012 and officially graduate in Fall of 2012. I am a fourth year at Kresge College.
Thank you,
Nadia Peralta