Course Syllabus
WMNST 540:
Women and the Environment
Dr. Sara Giordano
Spring 2013
Wednesdays, 7:00 - 9:40pm
Hardy Tower – Room 183
Office: AL 342
Office hours: M 1-2pm, W 3-4pm, and by appointment
Phone: 619-594-6460
E-mail: sgiordano@mail.sdsu.edu
Course Description:
This course will focus on the intersections between feminism and environmental
justice. We will use feminist and queer theory to interrogate binary categories such as
natural/unnatural, nature/culture, normal/abnormal as they relate to our understanding of
“the environment”. We will examine how racism and colonization shape the environments
in which we live. In this course we will survey several key environmental topics such as
climate change, food justice, water justice and toxic chemicals from feminist perspectives.
Course materials will include academic and activist texts as well as fiction and film.
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
 Explain the roots of present day eco-feminist and other environmental justice
movements
 Challenge binary representations of nature and culture
 Understand and critique essentialist notions of the relationships between nature and
race, gender and sexuality
 Critically analyze mainstream and feminist environmental discourses
 Understand how racism, sexism, heterosexism and other forms of oppression shape
our environments
 Identify and evaluate competing claims to knowledge about “the environment”
Required Texts:
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring.
Castillo, Ana. So Far from God.
Claire, Eli. Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation.
Mortimer-Sandilands, Catriona and Bruce Erickson, eds. Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics,
Desire.
Shiva, Vandana. Staying Alive.
Silliman, Jael and Ynestra King, eds. Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on
Population, Environment and Development.
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* Additional readings will be posted on Blackboard (BB). You must print out the readings
and bring them to class on the date indicated or bring a copy on your laptop.
Students with disabilities:
Students with disabilities should contact me to discuss specific accommodations. If
you have a disability and would like to register with disability services you can contact them
at Student Disability Services at 619-594-6473 (Calpulli Center, Third Floor, Suite 3101).
Major and Minor in Women's Studies:
Thinking about a Major or Minor in Women's Studies? The program offers exciting
courses, is committed to women's issues and social justice and is adaptable to your interests
and concerns. Women's Studies is not impacted! For more information please contact the
Undergraduate Advisor, Dr. Irene Lara, at ilara@mail.sdsu.edu, Arts and Letters 353, 5947151.
Grading:
Attendance will be taken at each class session. If you miss more than one session
your final grade will be negatively affected and you may receive an F if you miss too many
classes. Attendance is not optional; it is required! If you have a legitimate reason for
missing additional class sessions please discuss this with me as soon as possible. If you are
planning to miss classes for sports teams or religious reasons you must give me a list of dates
during the first week of class. Lateness or leaving early from class will also negatively affect
your final grade. You are expected to be at class on time and stay until the end.
Participation 10% (participating in class discussions)
Attendance (both physical “showing up” and presence) is crucial. About “good”
class participation: “Good” class participation does not necessarily mean talking the most.
There are many ways to promote dialogue in class, including asking questions, noticing if
others are silent and making space for those voices, allowing silences just to “be” for a few
moments (often silence is not emptiness but rather intense thinking), talking to each other
and not just to the instructor, reminding yourself that the goal is not to be “right,” but to
collaboratively work through issues and problems.
Leading a class discussion 10% (in groups)
You will sign up with 2-4 other people to generate a reading guide and facilitate a
discussion on the week’s readings once during the semester. Your group will be responsible
for posting a “reading guide” with discussion questions and additional sources on the
Sunday before class (by midnight). Your group will have 10-15 minutes to introduce the
material and an additional 10-15 to begin discussion with the class.
Introductory Essay 5% (due Jan 31st, midnight)
In this 1-2 page essay, you will share what you know about the topics of feminism,
ecofeminism and environmental justice and how you came to know it (previous
coursework, independent reading, activism, etc.) Be sure to make clear how you currently
define these terms (but do not limit your paper to these): “nature”, “racism”, “gender”,
“sexuality”, “science”, and “feminism.” Also include a paragraph reflecting on your
strengths and weaknesses as a student and as a writer.
End-of-Semester Final Thoughts Essay 5% (due May 8th, midnight)
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In this 1-2 page essay you should re-read your introductory essay and reconsider
your views and reflect on the course. You should answer the following: what is the most
important thing you have learned this semester?; have any of your definitions changed and
if so, how?; who were your favorite authors and why?; which authors would you replace
and why?
Reading Response Papers 45%
You will write 3 short (3-4 page) response papers engaging the readings over the
course of the term. You will receive writing prompts at least one week before responses are
due on Feb 20th, Mar 27th and May 1st.
Final Project 25% (hard copy during exam period in classroom May 15th)
For your final project you will analyze the use of environmentalism and feminism A)
by an activist organization, B) in popular film, television or music, or C) in a government
policy document. You will be required to submit a proposal and annotated bibliography
(5%) after spring break, a 10-12 page research paper (15%) and a 5-7 minute oral
presentation (5%).
More detailed guidelines for the final project will be distributed in March.
A note on laptops, cellphones and other distractions
You may only use your laptops in class if you are using it to pull up readings. That
means that you may only use it during times that we are actively going over a reading.
Bring a notebook and a pen to take notes. If you are using your laptop at other times or are
looking at websites, games or other work instead of the readings, you will no longer be
permitted to bring your laptop to class and must instead print out all readings. Do not use
your cellphones in class. I will ask you to leave the class and it will count as an absence.
My policy is the same on other electronic distractions.
Schedule of Readings
Week 1: Introductions
Wed, Jan 23
Course introduction
Film (in-class): Ecofeminism NOW, Greta Gaard
Gaard, Greta. 2004. “Toward a Queer Ecofeminism.” In New Perspectives on Environmental
Justice: Gender, Sexuality, and Activism, ed. Rachel Stein. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press. (BB)
Week 2: Definitions of nature, the environment and justice
Wed, Jan 30
Verchick, Robert RM. 2004. “Feminist Theory and Environmental Justice.” In New
Perspectives on Environmental Justice: Gender, Sexuality, and Activism, ed. Rachel Stein.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. (BB)
Evans, Mei Mei. 2002. “‘Nature’ and Environmental Justice.” In The Environmental Justice
Reader. Tuscon: The University of Arizona Press, 181-193. (BB)
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Queer Ecologies, Introduction
Week 3: Definitions of nature, the environment and justice (cont’d)
Wed, Feb 6
Queer Ecologies, Ch 2, 3, 4, 10
Week 4: Contesting dualisms: natural/unnatural, normal/abnormal, nature/culture, etc
Wed, Feb 13
Guest speaker: Eli Clare
Reading: Exile and Pride
Week 5: Environmental Justice movements
Wed, Feb 20 (Response paper #1 due)
Queer Ecologies, Ch 5, 6, 7, 8
Week 6: Environmental justice movements (cont’d)
Wed, Feb 27
Guest speaker: Diana Wu
Readings (TBD)
Week 7: Food Justice
Wed, Mar 6
Guthman, Julie. (on-line 2012) “Doing Justice to Bodies? Reflections on Food Justice,
Race, and Biology.” Antipode. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.01017.x. (BB)
Harper, Amie Breeze. “Connections: Speciesism, Racism, and Whiteness as the Norm,” in
Kemmerer, Lisa (ed.), Sister Species: Women, Social Justice, and Animal Advocacy.
University of Illinois Press 2011. (BB)
Seager, Joni. 2003. “Pepperoni or Brocolli? On the Cutting Wedge of Feminist
Environmentalism.” Gender, Place and Culture 10(2):167-74. (BB)
Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed, selections (BB)
Film (in-class): A. Breeze Harper. Compassionate Talk About Whiteness in Veganism
(Farm Sanctuary). (http://sistahvegan.com/page/4/). 26 min.
Fri, Mar 8th: International Women’s Day
Week 8:
Wed, Mar 13
Shiva, Vandana. Staying Alive (selections)
Philip, Kavita. 2008. “Producing Transnational Knowledge, Neoliberal Identities, and
Technoscientific Practice in India.” In Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Activism, and
Technoscience. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 243-268. (BB)
Week 9: Land justice: Colonization, greenwashing, and indigenous resistance
movements
Wed, Mar 20
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Queer Ecologies, Chapter 11
Braverman, Irus. 2009. “Planting the Promised Landscape: Zionism, Nature, and
Resistance in Israel/Palestine.” Buffalo Legal Studies Research Paper Series: Natural
Resources Journal.
Dangerous Intersections, Ch. 10 – Native Sovereignty and Social Justice: Moving Toward an
Inclusive Social Justice Framework, pg. 202-213.
Idle No More movement, (readings TBD)
Week 10:
Wed, Mar 27 (Response Paper #2 due)
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring
SPRING BREAK --- NO CLASS on Wed, Apr 3
Week 11:
Wed, Apr 10 (Final project proposal due)
Castillo, Ana. So Far from God
Platt, Kamala. “Ecocritical Chicana Literature: Ana Castillo’s ‘Virtual Realism’”. In
Ecofeminist Literary Criticism, ed. by Greta Gaard and Patrick D. Murphy. Pg. 139157. (BB)
Week 12: Women, population, and climate change
Wed, Apr 17
Dangerous Intersections, Introduction, pg. viii-xxiv and Ch. 1 - Population, Environment and
Security: A New Trinity, pg. 1-23.
Dangerous Intersections, Ch. 2 – Population and Development: Toward a Social Justice
Agenda, pg. 24-38.
Dangerous Intersections, Ch. 3 – Taking Population Out of the Equation: Reformulating
I=PAT, pg. 39-73.
Monday, Apr 22nd: Earth Day
Week 13: Women, population, and climate change (cont’d)
Wed, Apr 24
Guest speaker (TBD)
Dangerous Intersections, Ch. 4 – Christian Responses to the Population Paradigm, pg. 74-88
and Ch. 5 – The Ecological Crisis in Tanzania, pg. 89-107.
Week 14: Case study: Hurricane Katrina, natural or unnatural disaster?
Wed, May 1 (Response paper #3 due)
Film (in class): Beasts of the Southern Wild, 93 min
Film (in class): When the Levees Broke, (excerpts)
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Clay, Andreana. July 17 2012. “Man or Beast?: Revisiting the White Male Gaze” Crunk
Feminist Collective blog. (BB)
http://crunkfeministcollective.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/man-or-beast-revisitingthe-white-male-gaze/
‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’: Gender, Race and a Powerful Female Protagonist in the
Most Buzzed About Film. July 13 2012. Blog. (BB)
http://opinionessoftheworld.com/2012/07/13/beasts-of-the-southern-wild-genderrace-and-a-powerful-female-protagonist-in-the-most-buzzed-about-film/
DeBerry, Jarvis. July 16 2012. “An Unexpected, Enduring Lesson From ‘Beasts of the
Southern Wild’” (BB)
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/07/beasts_of_the_southern_wild.html
Week 15: Case study: Hurricane Katrina, natural or unnatural disaster? (cont’d)
Wed, May 8
Continue with case study discussion
AND
Final project presentations
Final exam period:
Wednesday, May 15, 7:00-9:00pm
Final project presentations
---------Cheating and plagiarism:
Cheating and plagiarism are serious offenses. You are plagiarizing or cheating if you:

For written work, copy anything from a book, article or website and add or paste it
into your paper without using quotation marks and/or without providing the full
reference for the quotation, including page number

For written work, summarize / paraphrase in your own words ideas you got from a
book, article, or the web without providing the full reference for the source (including
page number in the humanities)

For an oral presentation, copy anything from a book, article, or website and present
it orally as if it were your own words. You must summarize and paraphrase in your
own words, and bring a list of references in case the professor asks to see it

Use visuals or graphs you got from a book, article, or website without providing the
full reference for the picture or table

Recycle a paper you wrote for another class

Turn in the same (or a very similar paper) for two classes

Purchase or otherwise obtain a paper and turn it in as your own work

Copy off of a classmate

Use technology or smuggle in documents to obtain or check information in an exam
situation
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In a research paper, it is always better to include too many references than not enough.
When in doubt, always err on the side of caution. If you have too many references it might
make your professor smile; if you don’t have enough you might be suspected of plagiarism.
If you have any question or uncertainty about what is or is not cheating, it is your
responsibility to ask your instructor.
Consequences of cheating and plagiarism
Consequences are at the instructor’s and the Judicial Procedures Office’s discretion.
Instructors are mandated by the CSU system to report the offense to the Judicial Procedures
Office. Consequences may include any of the following:

failing the assignment

failing the class

warning

probation

suspension

expulsion
For more detailed information, read the chapter on plagiarism in the MLA Handbook for
Writers of Research Papers (6th edition, 2003); visit the following website
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml and talk to your professors
before turning in your paper or doing your oral presentation if anything remains unclear.
The University of Indiana has very helpful writing hints for students, including some on
how to cite sources. Please visit http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets.shtml for more
information.
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