SHUM 4683 - Disturbing Settlement - Engaged

(crosslisted) AMST 4683, ANTHR 4183
(ALC-AS, CA-AS)

Spring. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Permission of instructor required. Co-meets with AMST 6683/ANTHR 7183/SHUM 6683.

A. Bize.

How have land and its inhabitants been transformed through processes of settlement? How might alternatives to settlement persist and be reactivated in ecologies profoundly shaped by capitalism and colonialism? In this course, students will work with a community partner to develop a research-based design project that explores how a specific plant or animal has been affected by processes of settler colonial capitalism. Students will conduct in-depth interviews with community partners and regularly consult with them as they work to articulate a problem and create a design concept in response. Final projects will be grounded in ethnographic research, but students will be also encouraged to brainstorm outside the realm of the possible or the practical to engage in imaginations of alternatives.