In this course you will explore nature-culture interactions, in particular how people relate to non-human nature and how we form and communicate our environmental values and concerns. During the semester you will evaluate texts and other media from a variety of fields – think art, anthropology, economics, history, geography, literature, politics, philosophy, and the sciences. Together we will address four essential questions:

• What are the origins and implications of your own environmental attitudes and values?
• How do environmental values vary across place and time, and how have such values developed in relation to particular economic, historic, geographic, and political processes?
• How do social inequalities shape environmental values and affect decision-making?
• How can multiple valuations of the environment be incorporated into environmental and natural resources decision-making, from local to global scales?

In this class some of your own theories, knowledge, and ideals about the environment will be challenged, disrupted, or complicated. I’ll ask you to track those changes through analytical and creative writing, presentations, and discussion. At the end of the semester, I hope you will leave this course feeling better equipped to interpret and address nebulous environmental questions and better able to articulate (in written and verbal forms) the complexities of your own perspectives on the environment.