Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization

CEGU 30061. Ancient Landscapes I. 100 Units.

This is a two-course sequence that introduces students to theory and method in landscape studies and the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to analyze archaeological, anthropological, historical, and environmental data. Course one covers the theoretical and methodological background necessary to understand spatial approaches to landscape and the fundamentals of using ESRI's ArcGIS software, and further guides students in developing a research proposal. Course two covers more advanced GIS-based analysis (using vector, raster, and satellite remote sensing data) and guides students in carrying out their own spatial research project. In both courses, techniques are introduced through the discussion of case studies (focused on the archaeology of the Middle East) and through demonstration of software skills. During supervised laboratory times, the various techniques and analyses covered will be applied to sample archaeological data and also to data from a region/topic chosen by the student.

Instructor(s): Mehrnoush Soroush     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 20061, ANTH 26710, ANTH 36710, GISC 20061, GISC 30061, CEGU 20061, NEAA 30061

CEGU 30062. Ancient Landscapes II. 100 Units.

This is a two-course sequence that introduces students to theory and method in landscape studies and the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to analyze archaeological, anthropological, historical, and environmental data. Course one covers the theoretical and methodological background necessary to understand spatial approaches to landscape and the fundamentals of using ESRI's ArcGIS software, and further guides students in developing a research proposal. Course two covers more advanced GIS-based analysis (using vector, raster, and satellite remote sensing data) and guides students in carrying out their own spatial research project. In both courses, techniques are introduced through the discussion of case studies (focused on the archaeology of the Middle East) and through demonstration of software skills. During supervised laboratory times, the various techniques and analyses covered will be applied to sample archaeological data and also to data from a region/topic chosen by the student.

Instructor(s): Mehrnoush Soroush     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): NEAA 20061
Equivalent Course(s): GISC 30062, CEGU 20062, GISC 20062, NEAA 30062, ANTH 26711, NEAA 20062, ANTH 36711

CEGU 30180. Writing the City. 100 Units.

How do great writers convey sense-of-place in their writing? What are the best ways to communicate scientific and social complexity in an engaging, accessible way? How can we combine academic rigor with journalistic verve and literary creativity to drive the public conversation about urgent environmental and urban issues? These are just some of the questions explored in WRITING THE CITY, an intensive course dedicated to honing our skills of verbal communication about issues related to the built and natural environments. Students will research, outline, draft, revise, and ultimately produce a well-crafted piece of journalistic writing for publication in the program's new annual magazine, Expositions. Throughout the quarter we will engage intensely with a range of authors of place-based writing exploring various literary and journalistic techniques, narrative devices, rhetorical ​approaches, and stylistic strategies.

Instructor(s): Evan Carver     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): At least one CEGU or ARCH course; or one PBPL, ARTH, ANTH, or SOCI course with an urban focus; or instructor permission. Please contact ehc@uchicago.edu with questions.
Note(s): Restricted to 3rd and 4th years.
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 20180, CEGU 20180

CEGU 30700. Global Health, Environment, and Indigenous Futures. 100 Units.

The global coronavirus pandemic has made evident the significance of ecological (im)balances for the well-being of societies. The relationship between structural inequalities, changing environments and health, especially for historically and socio-economically marginalized communities, is now well established. At the same time, a growing body of literature links the material conditions of marginalized communities-for instance, spaces of dwelling and conditions of labor-to health status, globally. Based on a set of interdisciplinary literature arranged through anthropological theories, this course will critically engage with notions of health and well-being for indigenous communities, tracing injustices that stem histories of racial, caste- and ethnicity-based, and environmental exclusions. The readings are organized around one central question: What does it mean to be indigenous in a changing planet where social, political, and economic systems are marked by enduring legacies of systemic violence? This graduate and undergraduate level course will introduce contexts within which structural exclusions lead to ill-health and loss of well-being among indigenous communities across the globe. The aim is to develop critical thinking on the political economy and political ecologies of indigenous health as imbricated with issues of social, economic, and environmental justice.

Instructor(s): Sanghamitra Das
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 20700, CHDV 20700, SALC 26501, ANTH 30700, SALC 32704, CHDV 30750, CEGU 20700, RDIN 30700, RDIN 20700

CEGU 30702. Introduction to Environmental Ethics. 100 Units.

This course will examine answers to four questions that have been foundational to environmental ethics: Are religious traditions responsible for environmental crises? To what degree can religions address environmental crises? Does the natural world have intrinsic value in addition to instrumental value to humans, and does the type of value the world has imply anything about human responsibility? What point of view (anthropocentrism, biocentrism, theocentrism) should ground an environmental ethic? Since all four of the above questions are highly contested questions, we will examine a constellation of responses to each question. During the quarter we will read texts from a wide variety of religious and philosophical perspectives, though I note that the questions we are studying arose out of the western response to environmental crises and so often use that language. Some emphasis will be given to particularly influential texts, thinkers, and points of view in the scholarship of environmental ethics. As the questions above indicate, the course prioritizes theoretical issues in environmental ethics that can relate to many different applied subjects (e.g. energy, water, animals, climate change) rather than emphasizing these applied issues themselves. Taking this focus will give you the background necessary to work on such issues later.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students. Undergraduates must petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 30702, RETH 30702

CEGU 31406. Britain 1760-1880: The Origins of Fossil Capitalism. 100 Units.

Britain rose to global dominance after 1760 by pioneering the first fossil-fuel economy. This course explores the profound impact of coal and steam on every aspect of British society, from politics and religion to industrial capitalism and the pursuit of empire. Such historical investigation also serves a second purpose by helping us see our own fossil-fuel economy with fresh eyes through direct comparison with Victorian energy use. How much does the modern world owe to the fossil capitalism of the Victorians? Assignments include short essays that introduces students to primary sources (texts, artifacts, and images) and a longer paper that examines in greater depth a specific aspect of the age of steam.

Instructor(s): F. Albritton Jonsson     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 21406, CHSS 31406, HIPS 21406, HIST 31406, HIST 21406

CEGU 31501. Theory and Practice in Environmental Organizing and Activism. 100 Units.

This course explores how organizations-civic, private, governmental-working in the field of environmental advocacy construct, deploy and are shaped by distinct discourses governing relationships between nature and society. The environment is a field of social action in which organizations attempt to effect change in large domains like resource conservation, access, stewardship, and a basic right to environmental quality in everyday life. The work of effecting change in these complex domains can assume a variety of forms including public policy (through the agencies of the state), private enterprise (through the agency of the market), 'third sector' advocacy (through the agency of nonprofit organizations) and social activism (through the agency of social movements and community organizations). State, market, civil society and social movement organizations are where ideas are transmitted from theory to practice and back again in a recursive, dialectical process. These contrasting forms of organization have different histories, wellsprings and degrees of social power. Moreover, they bring different epistemologies to their claims about being legitimate custodians of nature-that is to say they can be understood genealogically. As such, organizations working to effect environment change are at once animated by and constitutive of distinct discourses governing the relationships between nature and society. The course explores how those distinct discourses are associated with a suite of different organizational realms of social action; the goal is trying to connect the dots between discursive formations and organizational forms.

Instructor(s): Mary Beth Pudup     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): MAPS 31101, GLST 21501, SSAD 21501, CEGU 21501, HMRT 21501, RDIN 21501, SSAD 41501

CEGU 31720. Climate Change and Human Health. 100 Units.

Climate change is one of the greatest global health threats facing the world in the 21st century. Through this course, students will gain foundational knowledge in the health effects of climate change. We will begin with several lectures on climate science as it related to the patterns of weather extremes experienced by populations. We will then identify the varying health outcomes linked to different climate-related exposures, emphasizing the specific impacts in vulnerable and high-risk populations. Specific topics include the effects of air pollution, extreme heat and heat waves, droughts, tropical cyclones, changes in vector habitats, and sea-level rise. Finally, we will discuss strategies for public health practitioners to aid communities in preventing or alleviating these adverse effects.

Instructor(s): K. Burrows     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): PBHS 32100 or STAT 22000 or introductory statistics
Equivalent Course(s): PBHS 31720, HLTH 21720, CEGU 21720

CEGU 32100. Disease, Health, and the Environment in Global Context. 100 Units.

Recent concerns about infectious diseases and the environmental determinants of health have attracted renewed attention to previous accounts of disease, many of which have significantly shaped human political, social, economic, and environmental history. Former examples include: respiratory diseases and sexually transmitted infections among Indigenous communities during the age of European exploration and colonial settlement; nutritional deficiencies resulting from the forced relocation and labor of enslaved Africans throughout the Atlantic World; "filth" diseases and urban sanitary reform during the Bacteriological Revolution; zoonotic diseases and pest control campaigns during imperial expansion projects across the Caribbean; and cancers borne of industrial pollutants in the modern era. Through readings, in-class discussions, and written assignments that culminate in a final project, students in this course will explore how natural and human-induced environmental changes have altered our past experiences with disease and future prospects for health. First, we will examine how early writers understood the relationship between geography, environment, hereditary constitution, race, gender, and human health. We will then analyze the symbiotic relationship among pathogens, human hosts, and their physical environments. Finally, we will explore how social factors and human interventions have influenced the distribution of infectious diseases and environmental health risks.

Instructor(s): Christopher Kindell     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HLTH 22100, CEGU 22100, HIST 25033, GLST 22101, RDIN 22100, HIPS 22210

CEGU 32146. Ecology & Governance in Israel and the Middle East. 100 Units.

Ecological governance has emerged as an aspirational concept in recent years in political science, philosophy, and anthropology in response to concerns over the increasing likelihood of an unprecedented global ecological crisis as a result of human driven climate change. This course will trace the conceptual genealogy of ecological governance in Western and Eastern political theory and environmental history as it explores the political ecologies of Israel and the Middle East. In so doing, the course embarks from the assertion that environmental justice and the struggle for justice overall are inseparable challenges. Of central concern will be to understand how Israel's politics, culture, and history technological development together with its particular environmental conditions provide conceptual and methodological interventions into current and historical articulations of ecological governance. Note: Enrollment in this class is by consent only. Please request via the enrollment site.

Instructor(s): Michael Fisch
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 32146

CEGU 32211. Riding about the South Side. 100 Units.

This course is based on bicycling through the South Side neighborhoods surrounding the University of Chicago. There will be some readings, but the primary input will be from riding-from seeing things at street level and speaking with people who are committed to living in places that often have been abandoned by others. We can read and theorize about the community surrounding us, but the premise in this class is that our work should begin with experience in that world, with direct contact and in conversation. My approach in this class is less to teach than to lead you to where things are waiting to be learned and to people who can teach you about their world better than I. Some of the themes we will cover include land rights and exploitation, architecture, town planning, placemaking, urban farming and ecology, sustainability, grass roots organization, labor rights and exploitation, immigration, social work, and street art. Each ride is organized around a set of key concerns and includes a conversation with a local insider who can help us better understand them.

Instructor(s): William Nickell
Note(s): This course includes weekend morning bicycle rides 2.5-3 hours in length. Weekend flexibility is required, rides happen on either Saturday or Sunday dependent on weather conditions.
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 22211, CEGU 22211, KNOW 22211, CHST 22211

CEGU 32301. Digital Geographies of Climate Justice. 100 Units.

Struggles for climate and environmental justice are increasingly mediated by digital technologies and geospatial data, especially in the Global South. In Amazonia, for example, the plight of indigenous groups bearing the brunt of ecological dispossession and political violence by deforestation is frequently represented through remotely-sensed data showing time-series of canopy loss; in turn, these data are often prompted, groundtruthed, and mobilized by indigenous communities and affiliated activists in legal and political campaigns. In parallel, across the world ocean, countries across the Global South- from Papua New Guinea and Ecuador to Ghana- are partnering with watch-dog organizations using satellite imagery and GPS data to track illegal fishing and human rights abuses at sea, acting as an auxilliary ecological police force to identify and provide data to prosecute offending vessels. The proliferation of these digital geographic technologies and techniques pose a number of complex questions. Drawing on contemporary cases, experimental projects in "forensic" approaches to activism, and recent work in critical geography, aesthetics, STS, and political theory, this seminar will attempt to map out these digital geographies of climate justice as they emerge. The course will also involve introduction to entry-level remote sensing + GIS workflows (no prior experience required) in a pair of intensive workshops led by guest lecturers/practitioners.

Instructor(s): Alexander Arroyo     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Undergraduate/Graduate Course - only open to 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students. This course counts toward the 4th year ENST capstone requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): GLST 29301, CEGU 22301, MAPH 32301

CEGU 33017. Wild" Easts. 100 Units.

Imaginaries of the "wild" have long been employed as part of colonial projects, from the conquest of lands of the Great Eurasian Steppe to modern conservation initiatives. In this course, we examine ideas about the "wild" with a focus on the easts of "Europe" and easts of Russia, whether Ukraine, Qazaqstan, or Bulgaria, and ways in which these lands have been constructed as "wild" territories. We discuss ecologies and cultures of the steppe, nuclear and (post)industrial wastelands, and contemporary practices of re-wilding to study the violence of being framed as "wild", as well subversive and liberatory potentials of (re)claiming all things "wild". The course takes on an interdisciplinary approach, examining works of fiction alongside history books, and films alongside memoirs; additionally, a possibility of a field trip to Site A/Plot M Disposal Site, where the world's first nuclear reactor is buried, is to be confirmed.

Instructor(s): Darya Tsymbalyuk     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 23017, REES 23017, CEGU 23017, REES 33017

CEGU 33201. American Monsters: An Ecocritical Look at Cryptozoology. 100 Units.

Cryptids are everywhere. From household monsters like Bigfoot and Mothman to local creatures like the Wisconsin Hodag and the Illinois Piasa Bird, folkloric animals appear across the United States in advertisements, star in TV and film, and even feature in conspiracy theories. Despite their ubiquity, yet perhaps unsurprisingly, cryptozoological animals have received little scholarly attention. This course aims to change that! By taking cryptozoology seriously, or at least as a serious object of study, students in American Monsters will study the history of cryptid folklore to unearth the historical context surrounding each creature and apply ecocritical methodologies to these tales in order to uncover the cultural values that cryptozoological stories hold. This course will think primarily about the place of cryptids in American understandings of wilderness, extinction, settler colonialism, and race. Course materials will come from a variety of disciplines including history, animal studies, material culture studies, and Indigenous studies, and include film, primary sources, and experiential learning activities.

Instructor(s): Jessica Landau     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 23201, CEGU 23201

CEGU 34555. Ecological Explorations of the Francophone World. 100 Units.

The environmental humanities - that is, the study of nature through humanistic disciplines such as literature and history - has long been dominated by texts and theories from privileged sections of Europe and North America. However, alternative understandings of our natural world, including the role of living beings within it, have always existed. In this course, we will explore how contemporary francophone literature can renew, expand and complicate our perceptions of the oceans, deserts, mangroves and forests that surround us. Particular attention will be paid to questions of race, gender, language and indigeneity; course material may include theoretical texts, fiction, poetry, songs, podcasts, film, graphic novels and social media material.

Instructor(s): Nikhita Obeegadoo     Terms Offered: Course not taught in 2025-26
Prerequisite(s): For students seeking French credit, FREN 20500 or equivalent.
Note(s): Taught in English or French, based on course composition
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 34555, FREN 34555, FREN 24555, RDIN 24555, CEGU 24555

CEGU 34660. Urban Geography. 100 Units.

This course examines the spatial organization and current restructuring of modern cities in light of the economic, social, cultural, and political forces that shape them. It explores the systematic interactions between social process and physical system. We cover basic concepts of urbanism and urbanization, systems of cities urban growth, migration, centralization and decentralization, land-use dynamics, physical geography, urban morphology, and planning. Field trip in Chicago region required. This course is part of the College Course Cluster, Urban Design.

Instructor(s): M. Conzen     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement. This course offered in even years.
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 24660, ARCH 24660

CEGU 35027. Infrastructure Histories. 100 Units.

Dams, sewers, container ships, water pipes, power lines, air conditioning, and garbage dumps: the critical infrastructures that enable modern life are so often invisible, except when they fail. This course explores the historical role of infrastructure as a set of planet-spanning systems of resource extraction and crucial conduits of social and political power. Looking at cases from apartheid South Africa and the Suez Canal to Mumbai and Chicago itself, we will consider the relationship of infrastructure with capitalism, settler colonialism, and postcolonial development. We will see how forms of citizenship and exclusion have been shaped and negotiated via wires, leaky pipes, and improvised repairs, and we will consider perhaps the biggest question of all: In this age of ecological crisis, do energy-guzzling infrastructural systems have a strange form of more-than-human agency all of their own?

Instructor(s): E. Chatterjee     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 25027, HIST 25027, HIPS 25270, CEGU 25027, CHSS 35270, HIST 35027

CEGU 35909. Histories of Environment and Technology in the Modern Middle East. 100 Units.

Over the past decade, the field of Middle East history has undergone a surge of scholarly interest in a broad range of "new materialisms." Alongside, and sometimes in conversation with, a marked revival of political economy, this new work has explored, in multiple directions, the mutual constitution and co-evolution of social formations in the region with the tangible materials of the world around them. After revisiting a number of earlier, classic works that examined similar questions under different guises, this course will cover a range of new studies that represent the diversity and promise of these new approaches to histories of environment and technology.

Instructor(s): A. Jakes     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 35909, HIST 35909, NEHC 25909, HIST 25909, CEGU 25909

CEGU 36100. Roots of the Modern American City. 100 Units.

This course traces the economic, social, and physical development of the city in North America from pre-European times to the mid-twentieth century. We emphasize evolving regional urban systems, the changing spatial organization of people and land use in urban areas, and the developing distinctiveness of American urban landscapes. All-day Illinois field trip required. This course is part of the College Course Cluster, Urban Design.

Instructor(s): M. Conzen     Terms Offered: Autumn. Offered 2021-22
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement. This course offered in odd years.
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 26100, ARCH 26100, HIST 28900, CEGU 26100, HIST 38900

CEGU 36106. Tropical Commodities in Latin America. 100 Units.

This colloquium explores selected aspects of the social, economic, environmental, and cultural history of tropical export commodities from Latin America-- e.g., coffee, bananas, sugar, tobacco, henequen, rubber, vanilla, and cocaine. Topics include land, labor, capital, markets, transport, geopolitics, power, taste, and consumption.

Instructor(s): E. Kourí     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 26106, HIST 36106, HIST 26106, LACS 36106, LACS 26106

CEGU 36180. Caring for the Earth: Nature and Ecology Before Modernity. 100 Units.

What do we mean by nature, and how do humans relate to it? A recent French translation of Virgil's "Georgics" was titled anew: "Le souci de la terre" ("care for the earth") What does it mean to care? Is care disinterested, or does it serve a purpose? What logics of dominion or obligation shape it? This course traces ideas of nature and care from Antiquity to early modernity. How did humans conceive of their place in the world? How did they understand its resources and their impact? From the commons to enclosures, from caretaking to exploitation, from interpreting nature to organizing it (aménagement), we will question linear narratives of progress (humans caring more) and degradation (humans caring less). Focusing on France and French texts while engaging classical and theological sources, we will also consider exploration and exploitation beyond France. We will examine how religious ideas, canonical texts, and philosophical concepts have shaped discourses on nature, as well as the relevance of contemporary ecological terms. Attending closely to the multiple ways in which human beings variously have articulated their relationship to nature or the environment permits us to ask, instead of assume, what might be the conditions and practices of care incumbent upon human beings today.

Instructor(s): Daisy Delogu, Pauline Goul     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 26180, FREN 36180, MDVL 26180, CMLT 36180, CEGU 26180, FREN 26180, CLAS 36181, CLCV 26181, RLST 26180

CEGU 36907. Into the Unquiet Woods: The Environmental History of South Asia. 100 Units.

Today South Asia is the world region perhaps most acutely threatened by climate change, air pollution, water scarcity, and extreme weather. At the same time, the Indian subcontinent has long been the source of the most vibrant and innovative research in environmental history beyond the West. Drawing on this rich body of scholarship, this course explores the deep historical roots of South Asia's contemporary environmental crises. How have the Asian monsoon, the Indian Ocean, and the Himalayas shaped human history? What were the environmental consequences of British colonial rule? How have South Asian intellectuals and protesters pushed forward the boundaries of green thought and political action, from M. K. Gandhi to the "tree hugging" Chipko movement and anti-dam activists of the 1970s and 1980s? We will investigate both the South Asian avatars of classic topics in environmental history (like the plantation, mineral extraction, industrialized agriculture, and chemical toxicity) as well as place-specific issues like the environmental history of caste and Hindu nationalism. On the way, we will pay particular attention to how historians have wrestled with the conceptual and aesthetic challenges of incorporating non-human agency at diverse scales, from El Niño and unruly rivers to opium poppies and mollusks.

Instructor(s): E. Chatterjee     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHSS 36907, HIPS 26907, HIST 36907, HIST 26907, CEGU 26907, SALC 36907, SALC 26907

CEGU 39917. Rights to the City: Latin American and the History of a Global Framework for Urban Citizenship. 100 Units.

From its origins in 20th century urban social movements and French urban theory, the "right to the city" has become one of the globe's most important urban policy frameworks, adopted by the United Nations Habitat III conference in 2016 as the paradigm most able to address urban poverty, social exclusion, human rights and sustainable development. Among world regions, Latin America has been a pioneer both in grassroots social movements for the right to the city and in developing legal frameworks that purport to support their demands. Yet few would argue that most everyday citizens across Latin America's cities have experienced this remarkable institutionalization of "rights to the city" as an effective pathway to greater levels of inclusion and justice. Why? Focusing on Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, this course explores the limits of urban law as an instrument of urban justice, exploring how and why even the most creative and deeply rooted legal frameworks have not overcome either the historical legacies of urban exclusion or the contemporary challenges of informality, globalization, criminal governance, and environmental degradation.

Instructor(s): B. Fischer     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 29917, HIST 39917, GLST 29917, CEGU 29917

CEGU 40000. Adventures in Speculative Environments - Readings in Anthropology and Environment. 100 Units.

This graduate seminar explores topics in environmental anthropology and science and technology studies through instances of ecological experimentation. By reading ethnographic accounts of experimentation alongside speculative ecosophies and climate fiction, it will consider the ways in which such ecological experimentations pose conceptual, methodological, and ethical challenges that help us develop an anthropological engagement adequate to an era dominated by concerns with the constant threat of pandemics and the declining condition of our global ecology. It will aim, as well, to elaborate the implicit possibilities born of thinking not only in terms of relation but also in relation to a politics and ethics of process. Of particular concern will be a number of questions, such as: how to (re)imagine the conceptual currency of nature as an analytic category or even object of inquiry; how ethnography might reshape technologies of nature; and what sort of social transformations might this reshaping render imaginable.

Instructor(s): Michael Fisch
Equivalent Course(s): AASR 40000, ANTH 40000

CEGU 44000. Inhabiting in the Renaissance. 100 Units.

In a seventeenth-century manuscript map of Brazilian coast, the cartographer wrote, in the middle of an empty space, "pays inhabitué que par des sauvages," emphasizing-among other things-the phonetic and semiotic confusion between inhabiting, habituating or settling, and the uninhabitable as a concept. This seminar will look at the French Renaissance through the lens of inhabiting, in a wide sense of the term, whether it is the house, a plot of land, your local zone or the earth. As a time that is confronted with narratives of other, distant ways of making a home, the French Renaissance deserves to be reframed as a critical moment in defining how the humans of Humanism approached and apprehended their environment and their way of life, as well as their dependence on resources and on other beings. Students will read canonical texts such as Montaigne's "Essais," Rabelais's "Gargantua" and "Pantagruel," Jean de Léry's "Histoire d'un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil," Marguerite de Navarre's "Heptaméron," as well as the rustic manuals of Charles Estienne and Jean Liebault and of Olivier de Serres. Aside from recent scholarship on early modern French literature and ecocriticism, we will turn to an interdisciplinary corpus of thinkers of ecology (from theory to psychology and nonfiction) to give new depth to the primary sources, as well as dive into the vibrant and recent French ecological thought of Bruno Latour, Emanuele Coccia, Isabelle Stengers, and Emilie Hache.

Instructor(s): Pauline Goul     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Taught in English. Materials available in English and French.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 44000

CEGU 45000. Latin American Environmental Humanities. 100 Units.

The environmental humanities have emerged in the past couple of decades as a crucial field to understand the multifaceted history of environmental thought and culture around the world as well as to grapple with the intractable challenges wrought by the current environmental crisis. In Latin America, the field has flourished in dialogue with Anglophone ecocriticism at the same time as it has expanded its thematic, theoretical, a critical reach. This course provides an overview of the environmental humanities in the context of Latin American literature and culture. We will delve into key concepts and problems in the field, from the debates on the Anthropocene and alternative terms to the cultural history of forests and deserts, subfields such as ecofeminism, plant studies, animal studies and energy humanities, as well as concepts particularly productive in the region such as (post)extractivism and multinaturalism. This course will combine primary sources, including works of literature, cinema and visual arts, with a robust attention to influential scholarship on the field.

Instructor(s): Victoria Saramago     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 45000, SPAN 45000

CEGU 47000. Leveraging Sensors and Mobile Technologies for Population Health Research. 100 Units.

This course explores the use of wearable devices, mobile technologies, and environmental sensors in population and precision health research, with a focus on mental health and well-being. Students will learn how to integrate physiological, behavioral, and environmental data to measure health outcomes and exposures in real-world settings. The course covers key topics such as study design, data collection methods like ecological momentary assessment, data analysis techniques for mobile health data, and challenges related to adherence and health disparities. By the end, students will gain the practical skills to design and analyze studies using these advanced technologies for health research.

Instructor(s): Laura McGuinn     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): None
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 27000, HLTH 27002, MSPH 47000

CEGU 51802. Climate Ethics. 100 Units.

Anthropogenic climate change is the largest challenge facing human civilization. Its physical and temporal scale and unprecedented complexity at minimum require extensions of existing ethical systems, if not new ethical tools. This course includes studies of natural and social-scientific studies of climate change and its current and predicted effects. Most of the course will examine how religious and philosophical ethical systems respond to the vast temporal and spatial scales of climate change. For instance, common principles of environmental ethics such as justice and responsibility are often reimagined in climate ethics even as they are central to the ethical analysis of its effects. In the course, we will take a comparative approach to environmental ethics, examining perspectives from secular Western philosophy, Christianity (Catholic and Protestant), Buddhist, and Indigenous thought. We will also look at a variety of ethical methods. Throughout the course we will focus on communication about climate change as well as articulating rigorous ethical arguments about its causes and implications.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor. This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): CHSS 51802, RETH 51802, KNOW 51802

CEGU 57100. Fossil Life. 100 Units.

Making human life safe and secure has been a political value at least since the early-modern period in Europe. Furthermore, the human desire for and their myths around the idea of immortality has a history that goes far beyond Europe and its ancient legends. It is only after the onset of industrialization and urbanization, however, that it has been possible for humanity to increase human longevity and to support growing number of human beings, thanks to new technology and fossil fuel energy. This course examines the historical causes of human flourishing and longevity along with its social and intellectual consequences. How did concerns with reproduction and public health shape the transition to modern society? Has the increase in longevity meant human alienation from death? Why are birth rates now plummeting across the world? Readings will draw on literature from various disciplines including history, anthropology, philosophy, science, and economics.

Instructor(s): F. Albritton Jonsson and D. Chakrabarty     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 57100, SALC 57100, CCCT 57100

CEGU 57102. The Capitalocene in Theory and History. 100 Units.

In recent years, in the face of ever-more-spectacular manifestations of worldwide ecological crisis, public discourse about human relations with the rest of nature has coalesced around the master concept of "the Anthropocene." On this understanding, humankind has brought about a new geological epoch in which the human species has assumed a decisive role in transforming the planet Earth as a whole. This co-taught, reading-intensive course takes up an alternative proposition, namely that it is not human beings in general but a historically specific social formation characterized by its own distinctive ways of organizing nature that has precipitated the cascading crises of the present. More often criticized and rejected in existing scholarly literatures, this alternative concept-the Capitalocene-has to date been the subject of neither theoretical nor historical elaboration. Drawing together works from several different disciplines, the seminar will therefore seek to explore the potential and limitations of this alternative approach to our shared planetary condition. Readings will include Jason W. Moore, Nancy Fraser, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Andreas Malm, Kohei Saito, and Soren Mau. Course open to PhD students only. Others may enroll with instructors' permission.

Instructor(s): A. Jakes and N. Brenner     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 57102, SOCI 50142

CEGU 57201. Introduction to the Historiography of Global Science. 100 Units.

Is all science global, and if so, how did it get that way? Are some sciences more global than others? What has been at stake historically in describing scientific activity as variously local, transnational, international, or global, and how have these constructions influenced the historiography of the field? In this seminar, we will explore different approaches to writing and examining scientific knowledge production as a global phenomenon, as well as considering different historiographic attempts at grappling with science's simultaneously local and global qualities, poly-vocal nature, and historical coproduction with global political and economic power.

Instructor(s): E. Kern     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 57201, CHSS 57201

CEGU 57300. Colloquium: Environmental History. 100 Units.

This graduate colloquium provides an advanced introduction to the vibrant field of environmental history, and is particularly designed for PhD students seeking training in the field's increasingly diverse approaches. Alongside classic texts, we will discuss recent examples of methodologically innovative research. Some of these works contribute to emerging subfields like animal history, evolutionary history, climate history, ocean history, and Anthropocene history; others find novel uses for more established historical approaches, like commodity history, labor history, and urban history. Some rely on traditional archival sources, while others draw on oral history, archaeological and linguistic evidence, and insights borrowed from the natural sciences. Through close reading, we will examine how environmental historians have addressed new analytical and aesthetic challenges: negotiating relationships with science and scientists, incorporating non-human agency, and writing history at the unfamiliar scales of deep time, the pathogen, and the planetary. A happy side effect is that we will be reading some of the most vivid and eloquent historical work being penned today. Many (though far from all) environmental historians aim to reach broader audiences by experimenting with style and narrative. While encountering the conceptual and empirical range of environmental history as a discipline, we will also pay attention to the craft of writing history.

Instructor(s): E. Chatterjee     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CHSS 57300, HIST 57300

CEGU 59700. Histories from Below. 100 Units.

Latin America's historiography has long been defined by an unusual degree of commitment to "history from below" -- defined variously as history that is rooted in the Global South; history that takes poor, Indigenous, Black, and working class people as its subjects; history with a political commitment to social change; or history that is committed to intensive, bottom-up archival methods. In this colloquium we will critically assess this multifaceted tradition, focusing especially on the links between historical method and historical argument, the impact of history from below on critical historiographical debates, and uneasy political exchanges about the place of history from below in larger conversations about inequality, imperialism, development, citizenship, environment, governance, and epistemology. Prior knowledge of Latin American history is not required.

Instructor(s): B. Fischer and E. Kourí     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 59700

CEGU 69400. Climate Change and Human Mobility. 100 Units.

A 2021 UN report estimated that 21.5 million people have been forced to move, each year, for over a decade, due to climate change. The report states: "weather-related crises have triggered more than twice as much displacement as conflict and violence in the last decade" (UNHCR, 2021). In spite of mounting evidence that climate change is to blame for these catastrophic weather-related events and associated increases in migration, the UNHCR eligibility criteria for refugee status doesn't include climate change. Due to political challenges involved in considering such a definition change, the UN convened member states to establish a global compact for migration that takes the effects of climate change into consideration. The Global Compact suggests rights and obligations of climate change migrants, and standards to guide sovereign states in protecting these rights. Given the growth in climate change related migration over the last decade, and the complicated nature of implementation with such a broad international instrument such as the Global Compact, there is much room for development within the climate change and human mobility sector. This course will: examine the issue of climate change and its relationship to human mobility using human rights, political ecology, and social policy perspectives; consider how these different perspectives for understanding the problem suggest different types of policy solutions; and consider the impact of these solutions for those affected.

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): SSAD 69400, CEGU 29400, HMRT 39401, HMRT 29400, CHST 29400, SSAD 29400