HIST 2492A: Warren Center Seminar: Alternative Ecologies

Welcome to Alternative Ecologies! There are eight graduate student spots reserved in this Warren Center seminar. Please see the course guidelines below and visit "Files" for a look at the draft syllabus.

Course Description

This bi-weekly seminar, run in conjunction with the Charles Warren Center, will convene scholars, writers, and practitioners whose work falls under the broad umbrella of ecological study and care rooted in community-minded thought, culture, and history. This flexible thematic has been chosen to inspire new questions, highlight key issues, structure constructive dialogue, spark fresh ideas, and support works in progress in the academic arenas loosely deemed “black ecologies” and “racial ecologies.”

Alternative Ecologies grows out of the ecological turn in African American and Afro-diasporic studies, as well as ethnic studies, critical geography, Black and Indigenous feminist studies, and American studies, while recognizing that the field of Indigenous and Native American studies has always centered relationship with land, water, and multiple beings. The intellectual and political roots of the seminar is the notion of “Black Ecology,” a phrase introduced by the sociologist and founding editor of The Black Scholar, Nathan Hare, in 1970. In recent years, scholars in Black studies have revived the term and applied it to an exploration of Black experience, Black environmental history, and Black thought that proposes a long and radical relationship to “nature” in the context of environmental racism and struggles for environmental (inclusive of climate) justice. A related and equally useful emergent term, “racial ecologies,” entwines our inquiries with ethnic studies and the histories of marginalized, racialized, and colonized populations studied in relation to place and environment. Our seminar will open outward from a “Black ecologies” starting point to broader engagement with the histories of various peoples and the landscapes they have inhabited and shaped.

Topics taken up in Black ecologies / African American environmental history have often included: plantation and maroon landscapes; gardening, provisioning, and food security; the commons; rural life and subsistence practices, urban life and green spaces; animals in history and literature (including the role of Indigenous and Black people as early theorists of animal rights); womanist/ feminist eco-theory and eco-criticism; and material experimental engagements in maintaining collective land bases and operating working, life-sustaining farms.

This seminar brings together some of the leading American scholars working on these topics. They will present their works-in-progress and allow us to discuss cutting edge research and future directions in the fields that collectively produce “alternative ecologies.” In preparation for in-depth discussions of in-progress work, the seminar participants will read and discuss a sampling of key readings in this rich area of scholarship and related community-based practice. Readings will be drawn from a wide range of disciplines and fields, including: history, theory, memoir, policy, geography, food studies, and more. Authors will include Dipesh Chakrabarty, Dorceta Taylor, Judith Carney, Robin Wall Kimmerer, William Cronon, and Christina Sharpe, among others. Enrolled graduate students can expect to be guided in developing an original research project with the goal of producing a publishable piece by the end of the academic year.

Course Requirements

The course will consist of three required components. First, graduate students will be expected to attend our bi-weekly meetings, where scholars interested in environmental research and writing will present their works-in-progress. Active participation in these discussions is required, as is reading the main paper to be discussed and any assigned background readings for these sessions.

Second, each student is expected to deliver a prepared comment (no more than seven minutes in length) on one of the papers to be presented by the guest speakers. Third, students are expected to complete a potentially publishable work of original writing. This must be an article-length or a dissertation chapter-length piece of writing based on original research and related to the theme of the course. (Research-based memoir may be acceptable for this assignment with prior permission of the instructors.) To help guide student progress on this major project, the co-instructors will periodically schedule additional meetings with students who are taking the course for credit.

Students are expected to develop a topic for the final paper on the following timeline. They should be ready to hand in a one-page proposal outlining their topic, its significance, their driving question(s), and their proposed methods on Nov 7, 2024. These will be discussed in small group meetings by the end of November. By January 27, 2025 participants will submit an extended research proposal (5 pages) via Canvas that explains their research problem in some detail, discusses the relevant secondary literature, and lists the (locally or digitally accessible) primary sources they will consult. The final paper draft is due on May 8, 2025. The final seminar session will offer an opportunity (optional) for students to present their research to the wider group. On-time assignment submission is expected. Any student in need of an extension due to life emergencies is encouraged to contact one of the instructors as soon as possible.

Many readings will be available via links in the syllabus and on the course Canvas website.

Collaboration and Attribution

The culture that we build together in our seminar should reflect active listening, intellectual openness, respect for the diverse experiences of others, and respect for what can be gleaned and understood through scholarly inquiry and earnest conversation.

We encourage creative collaboration, as discussion and the open exchange of ideas are essential to academic work. For assignments in this course, you are encouraged to consult with your classmates on the choice of paper topics and to share sources. You may find it useful to discuss your chosen topic with your peers, particularly if you are working on the same topic as a classmate. However, you should ensure that any written work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own research and writing and that it reflects your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices in your home discipline and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc. that have helped you with your work. If you received any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, etc.), you must also acknowledge this assistance.

For a provisional list of readings, see the draft syllabus under "Files."