2008–2009 Geography Courses
Food, Agriculture, Environment, and Development
Level: Open,Lecture
Semester: Fall
Where does the food we eat come from? Why do some people have enough food to eat and others do not? Are there too many people for the world to feed? Who controls the world’s food? What are the environmental impacts of our food production systems? How do answers to these questions differ by place or the person asking the question? How have they changed over time? This course will explore the following fundamental issue: the relationship between development and the environment focusing in particular on agriculture and the production and consumption of food. The questions above often hinge on the contentious debate concerning population, natural resources, and the environment. Thus we will begin by critically assessing the fundamental ideological positions and philosophical paradigms of “modernization,” as well as critical counterpoints, which lie at the heart of this debate. Within this context of competing sets of philosophical assumptions concerning the population-resource debate, we will investigate the concept of “poverty” and the making of the “third world,” access to food, hunger, grain production and food aid, agricultural productivity (the Green and Gene Revolutions), the role of transnational corporations (TNCs), the international division of labor, migration, globalization and global commodity chains, and the different strategies adopted by nation-states to “develop” natural resources and agricultural production. Through a historical investigation of environmental change and the biogeography of plant domestication and dispersal, we will look at the creation of indigenous, subsistence, peasant, plantation, collective, and commercial forms of agriculture. We will analyze the physical environment and ecology that help shape but rarely determine the organization of resource use and agriculture. Rather, through the dialectical rise of various political-economic systems such as feudalism, slavery, mercantilism, colonialism, capitalism, and socialism, we will study how humans have transformed the world’s environments. We will follow with studies of specific issues: technological change in food production; commercialization and industrialization of agriculture and the decline of the family farm; food and public health, culture, and family; the role of markets and transnational corporations in transforming the environment; and the global environmental changes stemming from modern agriculture, dams, deforestation, grassland destruction, desertification, and biodiversity loss. Case studies of particular regions and issues will be drawn from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the United States. The final part of the course examines the restructuring of the global economy and its relation to emergent international laws and institutions regulating trade, the environment, agriculture, resource extraction treaties, the changing role of the state, and competing conceptualizations of territoriality and control. We will end with discussions of emergent local, regional, and transnational coalitions for food self-reliance, alternative and community-supported agriculture, community-based resource management systems, sustainable development, and grassroots movements for social and environmental justice. Films, multimedia materials, and a number of distinguished guest lectures will be interspersed throughout the course. One field trip is possible if funding permits. Please mark your calendars when the dates are announced as attendance is expected. Attendance is also required at special guest lectures and film viewings in the Geography Lecture Series approximately once per month on Wednesday evening from 6-8 p.m. The Web board is an important part of the course. Regular postings of assignments will be made here, as well as follow-up commentaries. There will be in-class essays and two exams during the semester. Group conferences will focus on in-depth analysis of certain course topics and will include debates and small-group discussions. In addition, you will be required to prepare a poster project on a topic of your choice, related to the course, which will be presented at the end of the semester in group conference.
The Geography of Water: Global Rivers and “Saving the Homeland”
Level: Open
Semester: Spring
How are water resources being managed globally and specifically in the Mississippi Delta, the Narmada Valley, the Hudson River Valley, and southwestern Madagascar? What are the main challenges concerning access, distribution, and allocation of freshwater resources within these areas? What are the driving forces that shape current and future demands for water? What are the solutions being developed by communities, policymakers, private sector, and environmental activists? What are water scientists and international donor organizations contributing? This open seminar focuses on the role of community activism in water resource management. This topic is of ever-increasing importance in the twenty-first century due to the privatization of water, unprecedented pollution levels, and sea level rise. Students will be given opportunities to learn research design and methodology, as well as conduct a fieldwork trip. Research may include interviews of (1) community leaders, (2) NGO employees, (3) residents, (4) entrepreneurs, (5) government officials, and (6) legal scholars. This interview data will function as the basis for a proposed (and collective) written report. We will use the seminar structure as an opportunity to discuss and further the formalization and implementation of water strategies in the twenty-first century global context. Weekly films, mass media, books, and selected readings will be used to inform debate and discussion. A structured conference project will integrate closely with one of the diverse topics of the seminar.
Introduction to Development Studies: The Political Ecology of Development
Level: Intermediate
Semester: Fall
In this seminar, we will begin by examining competing paradigms and approaches to understanding “development” and the “third world.” We will set the stage by answering the question, What did the world look like 500 years ago? The purpose of this part of the course is to acquaint us with and to analyze the historical origins and evolution of a world political-economy of which the third world is an intrinsic component. We will thus study the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the rise of merchant and finance capital, and the colonization of the world by European powers. We will analyze case studies of colonial “development” to understand the evolving meaning of this term. These case studies will help us assess the varied legacies of colonialism apparent in the emergence of new nations through the fitful and uneven process of decolonization that followed. The next part of the course will look at the United Nations and the role some of its associated institutions have played in the post-World War II global political-economy, one marked by persistent and intensifying socioeconomic inequalities as well as frequent outbreaks of political violence across the globe. By examining the development institutions that have emerged and evolved since 1945, we will attempt to unravel the paradoxes of development in different eras. We will deconstruct the measures of development through a thematic exploration of population, resource use, poverty, access to food, the environment, agricultural productivity, and different development strategies adopted by third world nation-states. We will then examine globalization and its relation to emergent international institutions and their policies, for example the IMF, World Bank, and WTO. Throughout the course, our investigations of international institutions, transnational corporations, the role of the state, and civil society will provide the backdrop for the final focus of the class—the emergence of regional coalitions for self-reliance, environmental and social justice, and sustainable development. Our analysis of development in practice will draw on case studies primarily from Africa, but also Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States. Conference work will be closely integrated with the themes of the course, with a two-stage substantive research project. Project presentations will incorporate a range of formats, from traditional papers to multimedia visual productions. Where possible and feasible, you will be encouraged to do primary research during fall study days.
Intermediate: sophomore and above. Some experience in the social sciences desired but not required.
Gender and Development: Politics, Violence, and Livelihoods in South Asian and African Societies
Level: Intermediate
Semester: Spring
In this spring seminar, we will examine and discuss key issues of gender and development as they are relevant for rural and urban communities in African and South Asian countries. To what extent are gender politics used to include or exclude community members in the development process? How are genders associations used symbolically, and in what ways are these associations detrimental to gender equality? What limitations do community members face due to gender bias as they develop their livelihoods? To what extent is gender-based violence “learned” in schools and other institutional settings? What work is being done to improve gender equality in the development process? In Africa and South Asia, the geographical foci of the course, we will explore how gender has played a significant role in development, politics, violence, and livelihood strategies. We will begin with an overview of general themes and topics of gender and development, discussing issues of identity, misconception, and prejudice. We will discuss how the body is used metaphorically by societies and how this affects the roles of all individuals in various cultural contexts. We will explore specific case studies of gender politics, livelihoods, and violence in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, South Africa, the Gambia, and other African and South Asian countries. Complicated and sensitive issues such as HIV/AIDS, cultural initiation rights, and sexual violence will be discussed. This seminar will conclude with a hopeful look forward with an examination of work being conducted toward gender equality and analysis of projects using gendered approaches to the peace process. Weekly films, mass media, books, and selected readings will be used to inform debate and discussion. A structured conference project will integrate closely with one of the diverse topics of the seminar.
Some social science experience preferred.