UMass Boston

Course Overview

Description

In this course, students will learn how the process of communication constructs our values and relationships with the biophysical world and each other. We explore the contested meanings of nature and the environment and the communication practices that challenge dominant Western notions of the environment individually, ideologically and institutionally. We foreground how racial, ethnic, socioeconomic class, and gender groups experience ecological disasters intensified by climate change. In addition to examining the disproportionate impact on low-income, communities of color, and Indigenous peoples, we will examine how these communities are leading resistance to ecological disasters and environmental violence. We will examine the power dynamics of environmental issues via media and film, journalism, public relations, advertising, rhetoric, and public participation and activism to understand how communication can create a more just and sustainable world. Students will interpret and analyze the voices of individuals and groups struggling to define major environmental topics, such as: climate change and pollution, energy, water, food and agriculture, biodiversity and extinction, ocean life, wilderness habitat, war, and consumerism.