Instructor

David Rossiter: office – AH 232; tel. – 360 650 3603; email – david.rossiter@wwu.edu

Office hours: MW 12-2pm or by appointment.

Catalogue description and course overview

“This course focuses on the relationship between the metaphorical nature of language and discourse, with an end to better understand different views of the natural environment and their political and material effects.”

We will begin by examining the ways in which environmental discourses are constructed around the core themes of politics, science, economy, and culture. Armed with this conceptual background, we will then investigate issues of sustainability, nature and place, and environment and identity as they intersect with language and discourse. By the end of the quarter, students should be able to deconstruct the use of language and metaphor across a broad range of environmental practices and politics.

Course readings

Reading is a fundamental part of this course. Students are expected to complete the assigned readings before we meet each week – they will provide the foundation for our discussion. Some of the readings are difficult – don’t let this get you down. Come to class prepared to ask about sections that seem unclear – this is a great way to participate in the discussion! All of the readings are academic journal articles that are available electronically through WWU’s library catalogue.

Evaluation

Seminar attendance and participation – 30%

Review of reading (~1000 words), with discussion leadership – 30%

Essay (~2500-3000 words); proposal due Oct. 30; final draft due Dec. 4 – 40%

SEMINAR SCHEDULE and READINGS

Week 1: September 25 – Welcome and introduction

No reading

Week 2: October 2 – Language, discourse, and the politics of meaning

Schlosser KL, “US national security discourse and the political construction of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” in SOCIETY & NATURAL RESOURCES 19 (1): 3-18 JAN 2006

Dixon DP, Hapke HM, “Cultivating discourse: the social construction of agricultural legislation” in ANNALS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN GEOGRAPHERS 93(1), 2003, pp. 142-164

Week 3: October 9 – Science and environmental discourse

White DD, Hall TE, “Public understanding of science in Pacific Northwest Salmon recovery policy” in SOCIETY & NATURAL RESOURCES 19 (4): 305-320 APR 2006

Kirsch S, “Ecologists and the experimental landscape: the nature of science at the US Department of Energy's Savannah River Site” in CULTURAL GEOGRAPHIES 14 (4): 485-510 OCT 2007

Week 4: October 16 – Economies and environmental discourse

Milne MJ, Kearins K, Walton S, “Creating adventures in wonderland: the journey metaphor and environmental sustainability” in ORGANIZATION 13 (6): 801-839 NOV 2006

Rossiter D, Wood PK, “Fantastic topographies: neo-liberal responses to aboriginal land claims in British Columbia” in THE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER 49(4), 352-366 2005

Week 5: October 23 – Cultures and environmental discourse

Cantzler JM, “Environmental justice and social power rhetoric in the moral battle over whaling” in SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY 77 (3), 483–512 2007

Palmer L, “'Nature', place and the recognition of indigenous polities” in AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHER 37 (1): 33-43 MAR 2006

Week 6: October 30 – Discourses of sustainability ESSAY PROPOSAL DUE

King L, “Charting a discursive field: environmentalists for U.S. population stabilization” in SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY 77 (3), 301–325 2007

Kurz T, Donaghue N, Rapley M, et al., “The ways that people talk about natural resources: discursive strategies as barriers to environmentally sustainable practices” in BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 44: 603-620 Part 4 DEC 2005

Week 7: November 6 – Constructing nature and place

Warren WA, “What is a healthy forest?: definitions, rationales, and the lifeworld” in SOCIETY & NATURAL RESOURCES 20 (2): 99-117 FEB 2007

Keskitalo C, “International region-building: development of the arctic as an international region” in COOPERATION AND CONFLICT 42 (2): 187-205 JUN 2007

Week 8: November 13 – Constructing environment and identity

Baldwin A, "The white geography of Lawren Stewart Harris: whiteness and the performative coupling of wilderness and multiculturalism in Canada" ENVIRONMENT & PLANNING A 41(3): 529 – 544 2009

Week 9: November 20 – Limits to discourse

Brulle RJ, Jenkins JC, “Spinning our way to sustainability?” in ORGANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT 19 (1): 82-87 MAR 2006

Week 10: November 27

Thanksgiving break – no class

Week 11: December 4 – Tying up loose ends… ESSAY DUE

TBD

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