ANTH 304 - The Anthropocene

Credits: (3)
College Curriculum: COLL 350
The ‘Anthropocene’ is a word that has gained traction in contemporary conversations about the severe problems that threaten life on earth- including environmental decay, atmospheric toxicity, fossil fuel extraction, sustainable living, and global warming- pointing to the irreversible effects of human activities to our planet’s existence. This course interrogates the category of the ‘Anthropocene’: What debates surround it? What are its conceptual and political stakes? What does it say about our notions of ‘nature’, agency, and accountability? What does anthropological analysis contribute to these conversations? As we engage with the term, we will examine its intersection with a host of related conversations: about temporality, race, gender, poverty, sovereignty and the security-state, the atomic age, late industrialism, as well as environmental disasters.