Description

Evolutionary thinking provides useful new insights into the origins of diseases and contemporary health problems. This course will explore the...

Environmental Politics|International Relations and Politics|Political Ecology|Politics

How does a consideration of nature and the non-human world change the ways we think about politics? How does nature shape politics and how are politics shaped...

How does a consideration of nature and the non-human world change the ways we think about politics? How does nature shape politics and how are politics shaped by nature? What is non-human nature and does it make us think differently about what it means to be human? How do scholars think about the natural world in their analyses of nationalism, colonialism, power, violence, belonging, spirituality, ethics, care, time, nourishment and embodiment? How are ideas about nature gendered and racialised? Is nature queer? How is nature represented in scholarly, political and popular discourse and with what consequences for the political choices and policy options that are possible and thinkable? Who gets to take solace and enjoyment from nature and in what ways? Who is excluded from or threatened by the natural world? How is nature involved in the construction of relationships, communities and hierarchies?

 

If you are intrigued by these questions, you will enjoy this module and by the end you will be able to develop your own answers to some of them. You will be encouraged to draw on and analyse your own relationships with the natural world. Nature is not understood to be ‘out there’ in the wilderness, but part of our everyday lives in ways that we will notice, analyse and discuss. You will also be encouraged to feel and experience, as well as think about, your involvement in the natural world.

 

The module will be delivered through weekly seminars as well as object-based learning and trips to outdoor spaces in class time. Alongside this, there will be approximately 2 hours per week hours of tutor-led e-learning. Alongside the final written assessment, you will be expected to engage in e-learning activities and to write a weekly reflective response linking the module materials to your own relationship with the natural world.