On this trip, students live with the Daughters of Charity on a Navajo reservation. They spend time engaging in environmental justice work, as well as hearing the stories of Navajo and Hopi people.
Topics: Indigenous People's Rights, Environmental Justice
Related Courses by Subject
- ANT 102: Cultural Anthropology (SCBI)
An introduction to current anthropological theories and methods for understanding human cultures from a comparative perspective; includes an analysis of human institutions such as religion, politics, and kinship, and the forces that change them in a variety of societies, small and large scale.
- ENG 209: Topics in Writing
Travel writing
- ENG 309: Advanced Topics in Writing
Travel writing
- ENG 367: Topics in American Studies
Literature and the Environment (note: this course is offered with mutiple subtopics; Literature and Environment is the most relevant)
- ENG 374: Native Literature
This course provides an introduction to a wide range of Native and First Nations literature. Students will read a selection of work, including some early contact and expansion texts, but will focus on the prose and poetry of mid-to-late 20th century and contemporary writers. Students will examine, compare and contrast the ways in which Native literary writing approaches agendas and ideas such as personal and community identity; racial and cultural stereotypes; social and cultural obligations and duties; self-expression and humor as acts of survival; re-appropriation and redefinition; and encounters with a dominant culture.
- GEO 205: Urban Environmental Justice
A theoretical and applied investigation of the social, political, and economic processes influencing the spatial distribution of environmental amenities and harms across the U.S. urban landscape, with particular focus on urban structure and the role of environmental justice struggles in shaping urban policy and the urban landscape.
- HST 279: Westward Expansion in U.S. (UP)
This course examines the competition among Native American nations, European empires, and the emerging governments of the United States and Mexico to control the North American region from roughly the Appalachian Mountains to the Pacific Ocean from approximately 1775 to 1890. The class will examine environmental changes, military campaigns, trade links, settlement patterns, and government policies.
- The American West in the 20th Century
This course explores cultural, social, and political interaction in the American West during the 20th century. Themes include popular culture, state-federal relationships, environmental changes, urbanization, political and social movements, immigration, and cultural formation.
A C- or better in HST 199 (or HST 298) or instructor consent is a prerequisite for this course.
- SPN 374: Literature of the Conquest
This advanced course in Latin American literature explores the early encounters between Europe and the Americas. Students will analyze letters, reports, histories, and political tracts from European, Amerindian, and Mestizo sources. Students will also consider some visual documents, such as images from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala and early maps. Typical areas of focus include the initial contact (Columbus), Mexico (Cortes, Diaz del Castillo, the Florentine Codex), Peru (Xerez, "El Inca" Garcilaso, Guaman Poma de Ayala), and the sixteenth-century debates over the wars of conquest (Las Casas, Sepulveda). Topics include the role of these texts as instruments of empire, strategies of representation, strategies of resistance to imperialism, the role of women in the conquest, debates over what constitutes a "just" war, and the relevance of these texts for modern Latin American identities. (Literature category #3: Latin American literature from origins through Romanticism). SPN 106 or equivalent, including placement test or permission of instructor, is recommended.
- WRD 265: Social Movement, Social Media, and American Identities (SCBI)
From civil rights and black power movements to women?s liberation and gay rights judicial activism, Americans have participated in social movements to protest precarious conditions and achieve a more livable life. This course introduces students to the study of social movements from a rhetorical perspective and explores ways that social media has reoriented American political participation by democratizing access to information, disrupting old models of power distribution, and allowing for rapid, broad coalition building and immediate moments of multimodal protest. WRD 103 (C- or better required) or HON 100 is a prerequisite for this course.
- WRD 286: Writing with Photographs (AL)
This course explores how writers can use photographs and photography in their writing process and in their texts. Students will use writing to engage with photographs from their personal archives and from public collections, as well as shoot their own photographs and write accompanying text. The course also introduces literary, documentary, and theoretical works that model how photographs and language can work together. No prior experience with photography is necessary, though students must have access to a camera or camera phone.
- WRD 288: Community Digital Storytelling (EL)
This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of digital storytelling, a workshop-based community arts process in which trained facilitators help individuals to write and produce short videos that combine personal photographs with a meaningful personal narrative. In recent years, communities and organizations worldwide have used digital storytelling initiatives to start important community discussions and create powerful media for outreach and advocacy. Students will read and discuss foundational digital storytelling texts, create their own digital story, and facilitate a digital storytelling workshop for members of a Chicago-area community group.