HAS Courses in Geography
Clark University
Jody Emel
Feminism, Nature and Culture
The purpose of this course is to expose students to major currents of contemporary social theory that have developed around "nature" and "woman" or nature and gender. We will explore a number of important contemporary topics including: biotechnology and "life," food and identity, the body/science/fashion, human and nonhuman animal relations, and the manner in which conceptualizations of nature and of women (or gender roles) mutually constitute and reinforce one another. Our principal goals are to analyze and critique the normative idea of what is "nature" or what is "natural" as it pertains to gender, environmental processes, other life forms, and human social and economic existence in general. Because feminists have been instrumental in leading much of this analysis and critique, we lean heavily on feminist theories. We will explore these ideas through science fiction, magical realism, cartoons, movies, other fiction, social histories and biographies. By the end of the semester, students should be adept at decoding representations of nature and gender in the popular media as well as in academic scholarship. Students should also have a reasonable understanding of the development of and debates surrounding biotechnology and gender, identity and gender, and ecofeminist thought.
Clark University
Douglas Johnson
Keeping of Animals: Patterns of Use and Abuse
Animals play a prominent role in human life. They sustain us, entertain us and provide companionship and solace. Pests and predators compete with humans for food, while harmful diseases lurk unseen in animal reservoirs. Images of goodness and evil reflect the ambivalent attitudes and cultural prejudices that govern human responses to animals. This course explores the cultural, historical and ecological interactions between people and animals, and balances utilitarian and ethical perspectives on current patterns of animal use and abuse. Fulfills the Global Comparison Perspective. One weekly discussion section.
University of Texas
Sharon Adams
Nature and Culture
The investigation of nature-culture relationships
lies at the core of academic geography. This course introduces students to the
study of the complex interactions and interrelationships between human society
and the natural world from a geographic perspective, with an emphasis on
nonhuman animals. Consideration of the more-than-human world is a rapidly
emerging field, and one in which geographers play an important and meaningful
role. Animals challenge and compliment our notions of identity and humanity; they
share our homes; they are present on our dinner tables; and they are
omnipresent in our popular culture. Animals also animate the world around us, "personifying" nature. As we examine the ways in which boundaries are
constructed, enacted, practiced, and challenged between the human and the
nonhuman animal, we undermine taken-for-granted dichotomies, and collapse the
distances constructed between human society and the natural world. By
broadening our discussion of "natures" and "cultures," and bringing the animal
alongside the human, we cross through a rich terrain of interrelationships and
interactions that can expand our understandings of ourselves and our �place�
within the world around us.
