Courses at Williams College
Colleagues, friends and students have contacted me about the courses I will teach at Williams College. A brief description of each course follows below. I’ll update this list and repost it as needed.
If you would like to see the other courses in the Environmental Studies program visit the Williams College Course Catalogue.
cheers, Bill
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Envi 101 (F) Humans and the Biosphere: An Introduction to Environmental Studies
This course introduces environmental studies as an interdisciplinary field drawing from the natural and social sciences, as well as the arts and humanities. We will look at the root topics of the field — what nature is, how it works, and how humans interact with nature for better or for worse. We will also read from core ethical, political and scientific texts that have informed environmental studies over the years. By the end of the semester, students should be able to recognize and investigate the causes, consequences and responses to humanity’s impact on the environment. This interdisciplinary understanding is indispensable to developing sustainable societies that promote the well-being of people, animals and their habitats.
The format is lecture and discussion. Evaluation is based on tests, a final exam, and active participation in class. There is no enrolment limit.
The course satisfies one semester of the Division II requirement for Williams, and a required core course for Environmental Studies.
Envi 306 (F) Interpreting Nature: Meaning and Method in Environmental Studies
This course is not about interpreting the natural world as a work of art or literature. Rather we will learn to interpret how people think about and act towards nature. Nature is not simply a set of facts to be measured and modeled. It is a domain of ideas and relationships whose meaning for people must be understood. We cannot explain or resolve environmental problems without exploring the values and worldviews that inform how individuals and communities relate to nature. Qualitative research is indispensable in this exploration. We will examine a range of qualitative theories and methods, use examples that emphasize environmental issues, and learn how to identify, collect and analyze qualitative data.
The format is lecture and discussion. Evaluation is based on tests, a research paper (in lieu of a final exam), and active participation in class. Enrolment is limited to 20, or with the permission of the instructor.
The course satisfies one semester of the Division II requirement for Williams, and one semester of the humanities, arts and social science requirement for Environmental Studies.
Envi 309 (S) Understanding Policy: Science, Politics and Ethics
This course looks at environmental (and other) policies in light of the critical, interpretive and ethical turns in the social sciences. These turns emphasize the role of agency, meaning, power, discourse, and justice in the policy process, and are indispensable to understanding what policy is and how it works. We shall look at the theory, method and practice of this broadly ‘critical’ approach to policy, and apply its insights and tools to a set of empirical cases where the well-being of people, animals and nature is at stake.
The format is lecture and discussion. Evaluation is based on tests, a research paper (in lieu of a final exam), and active participation in class. Enrolment is limited to 20, or with the permission of the instructor.
This course satisfies one semester of the Division II requirement for Williams, and one semester of the environmental policy requirement for Environmental Studies.
Envi 402 (S) Senior Seminar
(Same as Maritime Studies 402)
This seminar focuses on the ethical and conceptual dimensions of environmental studies. It does so to facilitate our individual reflection and collective deliberation about humanity’s relationship to nature, the framing of environmental issues in scientific, political and moral debate, and the implications this has for the resolution of environmental problems. Students integrate what they learn in this seminar with their prior coursework and experience, and produce a policy-relevant research paper on an environmental issue of their choice. Environmental Studies and Maritime Studies provide students with an opportunity to explore nature-society relations from local to global scales, and with particular emphasis on terrestrial and aquatic contexts. The possible topics that one might research in this course are boundless.
The format is seminar-based. Evaluation is based on tests, a research paper (in lieu of a final exam), and active participation in class. Enrolment is limited to Envi or MAST students, or with the permission of the instructor. Prerequisites are Envi 302 or MAST 351.
This course satisfies a required course for the Environmental Studies or Maritime Studies concentrations.
William Lynn :: Sep.01.2008 :: Student Space :: Comments Off