Dr. Guillen was competitively selected for the inaugural cluster program at UCLA on environmental studies. Serving as a Teaching Fellow for the first two quarters of the year, he then designed and taught this course in the final quarter introducing students to environmental issues as they pertain to women and people of color.
The course objectives are to:
- Develop scientific literacy within the context of social policy.
- Utilize, or modify, a cultural studies approach towards analyzing scientific data.
- Develop research and writing skills needed for in-depth investigations in ecofeminism and environmental racism.
- Contextualize ecofeminism and environmental racism within wider environmental philosophy.
- Experience environmental conditions by visiting a L.A. community with irritating/hazardous toxic levels
- Utilize faculty, library, and colloquia resources from the UCLA Center for the Study of Women, Center for African American Studies, the American Indian Studies Center, the Asian American Studies Center, and the Chicano Studies Research Center.
- Critically examine the strengths of ecofeminism and environmental racism positions.
The weekly syllabus entailed:
Week 1: INTRODUCTION
What does “marginalized” peoples mean? How does this course fit or follow within the environment 1a/1b sequence? What are the major topics examined in ecofeminism and environmental racism? introduction to topics; theories of social difference; assignments—journal, research paper, bibliography; Research workshop: document and resource research techniques.
Week 2: PHILOSOPHY OF ENVIRONMENTALISM
What are the major ideas in the history of modern environmentalism? How is environmental crisis a social phenomenon as well as a physical one?Research workshop: research paper contents and research questions.
Week 3: ECOFEMINISM LITERATURE
What is the history of ecofeminism? Is ecofeminism monolithic?
Week 4: ECOFEMINIST THEORY:
What is deep ecology? Why and how does ecofeminism challenge deep ecology?
Week 5: ECOFEMINISM AND FEMINIST STUDIES
What are major topics in ecofeminism? What is a critique of radical ecofeminism?
Week 6: ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM IN LOS ANGELES:
What is the difference between environmental racism and environmental justice? What analytical techniques are used to prove claims of environmental racism? How do industry and city planners produce environmental racism in Torrance and East L.A.? How is environmental racism researched?
Week 7: FIELD TRIP
Week 8: ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM IN THE U.S.
How have the uranium mines in the Four Corners area of the United States affected the Navajo reservation, and what is the U.S. government’s response? How are other hazardous sites located within the U.S.?
Week 9: ECOFEMINISM, ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM, AND SCIENCE STUDIES
Why do race, class, and gender issues constructively impact the environmental sciences? How do you conduct a multicultural study of science?
Week 10: ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Copies of the syllabus or references used for this program are available upon request. Email us.