This class is an opportunity to explore in-depth how different land-uses and conservation approaches intermingle in one particular region: the South of Costa Rica. The purpose of the field trip is to obtain critical direct experience and knowledge of important natural resources management issues in a developing country, given the real political, economic and ecological context of the same. This course enables students to assess the contextual factors that affect natural resource management. Over the course of the trip, we will visit and be exposed to projects and issues with various resources, different actors involved in the management and different institutional settings.
In this course we will become familiar with contemporary issues in sustainable agriculture and critically analyze key debates in the field. To provide context to our discussions, we will situate the emergence of sustainable agricultural practices within their historic contexts. To identify contemporary issues in sustainable agriculture and key debates, we will be guided by a United Nations report for the post-2015 development agenda. Throughout our course students will examine contemporary issues through a critical review of the published literature and through hands-on experience with farmers and representatives of agribusiness. To ensure we relate theory to real world sustainability issues, we will engage in multiple field visits and examine international case studies during our sessions.
This course uses the emergence of two dominant framings of water – water security and integrated water resource management – as an opportunity to examine the social nature of water. First the course introduces both concepts and critical evaluates their meanings and histories. The course then examines water through their lenses, which are carried through the rest of the course: water and the co-construction of culture, water and the construction of the state, and the gendered dynamics of water management. We the turn our attention to critically evaluating whether and how water and peace are interrelated, focusing on interventions at multiple scales to improve the sustainability and equity of water use and allocation. Students will produce a publishable report that examines water security in one global basin. We will also take a multi-day field trip to learn about water policy and management in Costa Rica. The syllabus and course format draw heavily from the work and ideas of the former instructors of this class, Mahmoud Hamid and Brian Dowd-Uribe.
This course will take a close look at the linkages between environment and development. We will discuss the different root causes of environmental and social or development crises as they come forward in the literature, focusing on a series of highly contested concepts and narratives around overpopulation, economic growth, and free market capitalism and globalization. Part of this discussion will be an analysis of the responses to these crises and what can, should and is being done to stop them.
We will take a closer look at the different linkages between environment and armed conflicts. We will discuss the literature on environmental security, going from older frameworks of scarcity induced conflicts to more complex notions of natural resource abundance, ecological limits, limits to growth, and ecological security, integrating globalization, and historical, political, ecological and economic issues that influence development, environment, and peace and conflicts.
In this course, students will be introduced to
the fundamental concepts and principles of food security. The course begins by examining
contemporary issues in global food security and looking at the historical
events that have shaped our current food security landscape. In our first week,
we will critically analyze different frameworks used to study food security
including an analysis of food sovereignty. In our second week, we will look at
innovative solutions to food security; we will do so through hands-on workshops
regarding urban gardening and food security. The outcome of these workshops
will be a UPEACE garden. In our third week, we will examine food waste and
gender– key issues to address to achieve our food security sustainable
development goals. Lastly, students will present their results form their group
research project to assess food security in Villa Colon, Costa Rica.