ENVR304

What is nature and what does it mean to say that it has a politics? In one common understanding, nature is precisely that which stands apart from political dynamics, indicating a world of objective "facts" beyond human influence. Yet the concept of nature has long been implicated in relations of power, whether by making certain social relationships such as race, gender, and class seem inevitable or by lending strength to movements for liberation. This course examines the politics of nature through various lenses of poststructuralist, postcolonial, feminist, and Marxist political theory, ultimately seeking to imagine how nature itself might become a site for transformative democratic practice. Prerequisite(s): two of the following: AN/ES 242; ENVR 203, 204, or 205; ES/PL 214; ES/PT 272; GS/PL 262; GSS 100; PHIL 150 or 211; PLTC 191 or 202; or SOC 204.