Teaching and Learning Guide for: Environmental Justice
Authors: Sze Julie , London Jonathan 
Published: November 2009

Author’s Introduction

Over the last 25 years, the environmental justice movement has emerged from its earliest focus on US social movements combating environmental racism to an influential global phenomenon. Environmental justice research has also undergone spectacular growth and diffusion in the last two decades. From its earliest roots in sociology, the field is now firmly entrenched in several different academic disciplines including geography, urban planning, public health, law, ethnic studies, and public policy. Environmental justice refers simultaneously to a vibrant and growing academic research field, a system of social movements aimed at addressing various environmental and social inequalities, and public policies crafted to ameliorate conditions of environmental and social injustice. Academia is responding to this social problem by offering courses under various rubrics, such as ‘Race, Poverty and the Environment, Environmental Racism, Environmental Justice’, ‘Urban Planning, Public Health And Environmental Justice’, and so on. Courses on environmental justice offer students opportunities to critically and reflexively explore issues of race and racism, social inequality, social movements, public/environmental health, public policy and law, and intersections of science and policy. Integrating modules on environmental justice can help professors engage students in action research, service learning, and more broadly, critical pedagogy.

This article offers an overview of the current state of the field and offers a range of resources for teaching concepts of environmental racism, inequality and injustice in the classroom.

Author recommends

Pellow, D. and R. Brulle 2005. Power, Justice and the Environment : a Critical Appraisal of the Environmental Justice Movement. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

The primary focus of this edited collection is to offer a ‘Critical Appraisal’ of the environmental justice movement. The articles in this book are strong, focused on broad areas of: critical assessment, new strategies, and the challenge of globalization.

Downey, L. and B. Hawkins 2008. ‘Race, Income, and Environmental Inequality in the United States.’Sociological Perspectives51: 759–81.

This article is an effective overview of the current sociological literature on environmental inequality using quantitative methods.

L. Cole and S. Foster 2001. From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Ris of the Environmental Justice Movement. New York: New York University Press

The primary focus of this book is an overview of the US Environmental Justice Movement. Unique in itself, the authors, an activist lawyer and law professor, offer a well‐written overview of the movement.

Taylor, Dorceta E. 2000. ‘The Rise of the Environmental Justice Paradigm: Injustice Framing and the Social Construction of Environmental Discourses.’American Behavioral Scientist43: 508–80.

A leading environmental justice scholar discusses the issue of injustice framing.

Morello‐Frosch, R. A. 2002. ‘Discrimination and the Political Economy of Environmental Inequality.’Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 20(2002): 477–96.

In a critique that focuses on the political economy of place, geography, and ethnic studies, Morello‐Frosch integrates relevant social and legal theories with a spatialized economic critique to formulate a more supple theory of environmental discrimination that focuses on historical patterns of industrial development and racialized labor markets, suburbanization and segregation, and economic restructuring.

Pastor, Manuel, Rachel Morello‐Frosch, James Sadd, Carlos Porras and Michele Prichard 2005. ‘Citizens, Science, and Data Judo: Leveraging Secondary Data Analysis to Build a Community‐Academic Collaborative for Environmental Justice in Southern California,’ in Methods For Conducting Community‐Based Participatory Research For Health, edited by Barbara A. Israel, Eugenia Eng, Amy J. Schulz and Edith A. Parker. San Francisco, CA: Jossey‐Bass.

Exemplary reflexive analysis of the power of research as intervention in environmental justice struggles.

Online materials

 25 stories from the Central Valley: http://twentyfive.ucdavis.edu

 Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta: http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/

 US EPA Environmental Justice: http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/

 Environmental Justice of Field Studies: University of Michigan: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/environmentaljusticefieldstudies/home

 Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment: http://www.crpe‐ej.org/

 National Black Environmental Justice Network: http://www.nbejn.org/

 Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative: http://www.ejcc.org/

 Environmental Justice Project: http://ej.ucdavis.edu/

Sample syllabus

Ethnic Studies 103: Environmental Racism

Fall 2008

Instructor: Traci Brynne Voyles

Contact Information:
tvoyles@ucsd.edu

Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday 11:00‐12:30, SSB 240 and by appointment

Purpose: This course is designed to explore issues germane to environmental racism and environmental injustice, particularly focusing on the theoretical and material implications of social constructions of identity (race, class, gender, sexuality, etc.) and nature that lead to the degradation of racialized environments, bodies, and communities. In this course, we will explore case studies of environmental injustice, theories of body, space, nation, and colonialism; and think through possibilities for resistance, sovereignty, and environmental justice. The course materials are derived from ethnic studies, environmental justice studies, and feminist theory to provide multiple interdisciplinary perspectives on the state of race, inequality, and environment.

Logistics: You can reach me by email, in my office hours, or by appointment at any time during the quarter. I respond to students’ emails by 10 am every weekday; I do not answer students’ emails on weekends.

 I do not accept late assignments or assignments submitted electronically.

 This syllabus is subject to change; any changes will be announced well in advance in class or by email.

 Please refer to the UCSD Principles of Community (http://www.ucsd.edu/principles) for guidelines on standards of conduct and respect in the classroom. I reserve the right to excuse anyone from my classroom at any time for violating these principles.

Required Texts

1. Luke Cole and Sheila Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement, NYU Press, 2000.

2. Andrea Smith, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide, South End Press, 2005.

3. Rachel Stein, Ed., New Perspectives on Environmental Justice: Gender, Sexuality, and Activism, Rutgers University Press, 2004.

4. Al Gedicks, Resource Rebels: Native Challenges to Mining and Oil Corporations, South End Press, 2001.

5. Ana Castillo, So Far from God, Tandem Library Books, 1994.

These texts are available on campus at Groundwork Books.

Assignments and Evaluation

 30 points: Attendance and reading responses

 20 points: Unit 1 Case Study Project and Paper

 20 points: Unit 2 Paper

 10 points: The View from UCSD Project

 20 points: Unit 3 Paper

Unit 1 Project For this project, you will work both in a group (4 people MAX) and individually. Ten points will be earned by doing a group presentation of your assigned case, explaining to the class in 4–6 minutes the who, what, when, where, and how of your case. Your group will produce a 1 page, bullet‐pointed informative analysis of the case in a style that could or would be distributed publicly. NO POWERPOINTS OR MEDIA THAT DOES NOT FIT ONTO THE 1 PAGE—on the 1 page, however, you can use graphics to convey major points about the case.

 The remaining 10 points will be earned by turning in a 500‐word paper that links this case to the course readings and lectures. A prompt for this paper will be distributed one week before it is due.

Unit 2 Paper (1000–1250 words) The prompt for this paper will be distributed one week before it is due. The prompt will require you to critically analyze course readings, lectures, and discussions from Unit 2.

The View from UCSD For this project, you will present a creative project of your choosing that explores themes of environmental racism and injustice from your viewpoint – that is, of a UCSD student. What is the relationship of UCSD as an academic institution to environmental injustice? How can (or how have) UCSD students contest and resist the perpetuation or funding of environmental injustices by their academic institutions? This project can be poetry, visual art, activist literature (i.e. brochures, web sites, pamphlets, etc.), political cartoons, activist alert bulletins, journalistic articles or photographic essays, etc.

Unit 3 Paper (1000‐1250 words) The prompt for this paper will be distributed one week before it is due. The prompt will require you to think cumulatively about the course and apply materials and key themes from Units 1 and 2 to the readings, lectures, and discussions from Unit 3.

Unit 1: What’s the Problem Here? Case Studies in Environmental Racism and Environmental Injustice In this unit, we will explore cases of environmental injustice through four major frameworks that will be used throughout the course:

 1. The social construction of identity and power (of race/racism, gender/patriarchy, sexuality/heteronormativity, etc.);

 2. The intersectionality of identity and power;

 3. The relationality of privilege and inequality; and

 4. The transnational or global nature of modern political–economic structures

9/26 Fri: 1st DAY – Introductions

 No reading due

Week 1 ER Frameworks: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation

9/29 Mon:

 Cole and Foster, pp. 1–33

10/1 Wed:

 Cole and Foster, pp. 34–53

10/3 Fri:

 Cole and Foster, pp. 54–79

Week 2 Relationality and Globalization

10/6 Mon:

 Cole and Foster, pp. 80–102

10/8 Wed:

 Cole and Foster, pp. 103–133

10/10 Fri:

 Cole and Foster, pp. 134–166

Week 3

10/13 Mon: Environmental Racism Case Studies

 Due: Unit 1 case study project and paper

Unit 2: A User’s Guide to Environmental Justice Studies: Analytic Frameworks and Theoretical Possibilities This unit moves us from the material effects of environmental racism and injustice to the analytic frameworks and theoretical possibilities of environmental justice studies. In this unit, we will read, discuss, and develop theories about how racialization and naturalization work together, what role the environment plays in colonial encounters, and how to re‐imagine what we mean by ‘nature’, ‘race’, and ‘body’.

10/15 Wed:

 Stein, pp. xiii‐20

10/17 Fri: ss

 Stein, pp. 21–62

Week 4 Ecocriticism

10/20 Mon:

 Stein, pp. 63–77

10/22 Wed:

 Stein, pp. 78–108

10/24 Fri:

 Stein, pp. 109–138

Week 5 Colonialism

10/27 Mon:

 Stein, pp. 225–248

10/29 Wed:

 Smith, pp. ix‐34

10/31 Fri:

 Smith, pp. 55–78

Week 6 Indigeneity and Sovereignty

11/3 Mon:

 Smith, pp. 137–176

11/5 Wed:

 Smith, pp. 177–192

11/7 Fri:

 Due: Unit 2 paper

UNIT 3: Decolonize This! Modes of Resistance to Environmental Injustice This unit is dedicated to the all‐important question of where to go from here? Now that we understand the material and theoretical ins and outs of environmental racism and injustice, how can and how is it being contested, resisted, and undone?

Week 7 Social Movements

11/10 Mon:

 Geddicks, pp. vi‐14

11/12 Wed:

 Geddicks, pp. 15–40

11/14 Fri:

 Geddicks, pp. 127–158

Week 8 The Politics and Poetics of EJ Resistance

11/17 Mon:

 Geddicks, pp. 159–180

11/19 Wed:

 Geddicks, pp. 181–202

11/21 Fri:

 Castillo, pp. TBA

Week 9 Poetics

11/24 Mon:

 Castillo, pp. TBA

11/26 Wed: NO CLASS

11/28 Fri: NO CLASS

Week 10 Conclusions and EJ Futures

12/1 Mon:

 Castillo, pp. TBA

12/3 Wed:

 Castillo, pp. TBA

12/5 Fri: LAST DAY—Conclusions

 Due: View from UCSD Project

Unit 3 Paper due on or before Tuesday, December 9, at 11am, in my office (SSB 240)

Guidelines for written assignments:

*Please note: more specific requirements for content, quality, and style will be included with each prompt.

The three papers required for this course must be:

 –Typed

 –Stapled

 –Submitted on time

Please include a header with:

 –Your name

 –The name of the assignment (e.g. ‘Unit 2 Paper’)

 –A word count

Please do not include:

 –A title

 –The assignment prompt

Majoring or Minoring in Ethnic Studies at UCSD

Many students take an Ethnic Studies course because the topic is of great interest or because of a need to fulfill a social science, non‐contiguous, or other college requirement. Often students have taken three or four classes out of ‘interest’ yet have no information about the major or minor and don’t realize how close they are to a major, a minor, or even a double major. An Ethnic Studies major is excellent preparation for a career in law, public policy, government and politics, journalism, education, public health, social work, international relations, and many other careers. If you would like information about the Ethnic Studies major or minor at UCSD, please contact Yolanda Escamilla, Ethnic Studies Department Undergraduate Advisor, at 858‐534‐3277 or yescamilla@ucsd.edu.

Optional

Focus questions

 What are the roots of environmental inequality? What are the major policy debates within the field of environmental justice?

 How has environmental justice academic writing and environmental justice activism changed since the 1980s? What accounts for these changes?

 What are the relationships between academic research, environmental justice, and the politics of knowledge production, more broadly? How are these relationships complicated by factors such as race, class, and gender?

 What challenges do researchers interested in environmental justice face and why?

 What are the challenges faced by environmental justice activists that can be informed by EJ research?

Seminar/project idea

25 Stories Project: Teaching Tools available in the Summer 2009

http://www.twentyfive.ucdavis.edu

Use these teaching tools to introduce the environmental justice movement in classroom settings. Tools may be used individually or in combination with one another.

Below, you will see that we have organized the tools by the intended purpose of the activity. In considering which to use, it may be helpful to look over the ‘Why Do It’ section of the directions for the tool you are looking at for an indication of how this activity might fit within your course material.

Purpose
Teaching tool

Getting to know the group’s experience of the environment
Share squares Environmental experience in pictures Circles of my self

Defining environmental justice
Where is the environment and what do people do there? Environmental justice defined

Researching your place in the environment
Mapping your community My town, your town Data detective

Learning from the life‐stories of others
Environmental justice stories Circles of my self

Combining tools for lesson planning

Each teaching tool fits into one (or more) of the categories above. Combine tools from different categories to create lesson plans for your class or workshop.

For example, in a 50‐min class session you could combine the following tools:

Help the group get to know each other with ‘Share squares’.

Explore various understandings of the environment with ‘Where is the environment and what do people do there?’ and then

Analyze women’s real‐life experiences with stories and questions relevant to your class with ‘Environmental Justice Stories’.