Class Schedule

The Fall 2023 iteration of Climates of Resistance will be examining the themes below. Click on the session titles to access the Learning Log or Course Materials.

Syracuse students: Each week’s asynchronous Learning Log must be submitted by midnight on Monday, and points will be deducted for lateness. The professor will regularly review your entries, and is happy to provide you with an indicative grade at any time. You may make changes to your initial responses anytime until Friday, 15 December, at which point the Learning Log will be assigned a final grade using this rubric.

Week 1: Positioning Ourselves

A photograph of Uman's piece titled "I'll Sit Here and Wait for You." The piece features a black chair with the titled words written in white placed in front of a black and yellow patterned wall.

Learning Log 1 (due 4 September)

Gaining Familiarity

to introduce the class and prepare ourselves for a semester of shared learning in a new environment

artwork by Uman

Jessica Matier's painting titled "Give and Take." Water colors of reds, pinks, whites, yellows, and blacks splattered in the center of a neutral canvas. Black emerges from the left and right sides of the canvas.

Session 1A (5 September)

Creating Community

to recognise our various perspectives and agree upon shared principles for engagement with contentious issues

artwork by Jessica Matier

Session 1B (5 September)

Unravelling Empire

to situate our study of environmental racism within the United Kingdom’s long history of colonial violence

artwork by Nancy Cepero Dominico

Week 2: Confronting Oppression

Jeffrey Gibson's piece titled "American History." The piece, made of arranged yarn, wool, and beads, has the message "American History is Longer Larger More Beautiful and More Terrible than Anything Anyone Has Ever Said About It J B." The message is stitched in beaded capital letters in different colors including black, green, pink, white, yellow, and blue, along different colored blocks. A black to tan to grey to white beaded gradient flows across the top of the piece with a stitched black and white pattern borders the left and right sides. A patterned black and white fringe borders the bottom.

Learning Log 2 (due 11 September)

Institutionalising Racism

to acknowledge how political, social, economic, linguistic & environmental structures marginalise communities

artwork by Jeffrey Gibson

Session 2A (12 September)

Recognising Injustice

to build a shared awareness of and vocabulary for various forms of systemic and interpersonal inequity

artwork by Dapper Bruce Lafitte

Inga Bard's painting titled "#Intersectionality." The piece features a woman in the center of the piece with a red flower in her mouth and green vine in her hand covered with a white glove. The paintings message is "Feminism without Intersectionality is Still Patriarchy." "Feminism" is written with capitalized blue letters; "without" is written as "W/OUT" just below "Feminism" in capitalized black letters with a white background. Further to the right is "intersectionality" written down the side also in capitalized black letters with a white background. Across the center bottom reads "is Still Patriarchy" in black, red, and green capitalized letters with a white background.

Session 2B (12 September)

Navigating Intersectionality

to explore complex identities amidst overlapping patterns of privilege and discrimination around the world

artwork by Inga Bard

UNIT 1 ASSIGNMENT: Identity Introspection Part I, due 15 September

Week 3: Measuring Inequality

Indigenous Beaders with UIHI. This piece shows a collection of lotus flowers that emerge from the bottom of the image up through the top. Each lotus is made entirely of multicolored beads.

Learning Log 3 (due 18 September)

Studying Demographics

to gain familiarity with methods and challenges for population studies, including data collection and analysis

artwork by Indigenous beaders with UIHI

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum's piece. In this illustration a large, almost sculpture-esque faceless woman cloaked in white sits outside. Small silhouettes watch and examine her through a glass mirror. On the white headpiece and clothes that she wears are several numbers.

Session 3A (19 September)

Understanding Statistics

to appreciate the need for evidence-based policymaking and advocacy around environmental justice issues

artwork by Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum

Calida Rawles' painting titled "Pillar." The painting features a Black female with a stern look on their face wearing a white shirt and wading in a pool of clear water. In this moment they hold a brownish grey vase atop their head. The dark blue - nearly black sky is riddled with white stars.

Session 3B (19 September)

Appraising Access

to identify realities in the (mis)use and provision of food, water, energy, and other environmental resources

artwork by Calida Garcia Rawles

Week 4: Segregating Risks

John Feodorov's painting titled "Desecration 1." The image is painted on a Navajo rug. The painting features a black factory outlined in white with dark smoke coming out of the factory chimneys. The outermost border is a thick white. The inner border along the bottom of the piece is yellow and creeps up the right and left sides of the rug about a quarter of the way. On the left side of the painting is an animal with long upright ears outlined in yellow. Above the animal is a dark cloud with a faint image of a face. On the right side of the painting is what appears to be a mine outlined in yellow with burgundy stripes. The background of the piece is dark - grey and black riddled with white and yellow closer to the bottom of the piece.

Learning Log 4 (due 25 September)

Exposing Hazards

to determine how environmental harms are unequally experienced by groups, often with systemic intent

artwork by John Feodorov

A piece by Sergio Maciel. The image features a circle in the center with two young children with their backs to one another, each facing different realities on their backgrounds. The child on the left is white wearing a white shirt with red long sleeves and looks out to a clear skies while they blow bubbles. Behind them are green pastures and exciting city in the distance with clear and calm waters below. On the right is a Black child wearing an oversized pink t-shirt. While wearing a black hazmat mask they look out to a wasteland. There appears to be a landfill in the background and a run down baseball field. Outside of and surrounding this circle are clear skies and a group of people walking with signs in protest of the location of the landfill.

Session 4A (26 September)

Calculating Harms

to realise how racialised patterns feed into unjust outcomes as the direct result of environmental risks

artwork by Sergio Maciel

Session 4B (26 September)

(Dis)Regarding Dangers

to remember the devastation that can occur without adequately enforced environmental regulations

artwork by Tyrone Deans

Week 5: (De)Colonising Land

Sabiyha Prince's piece titled "Crossing Borders." The painting is both oil, ink, and watercolor on canvas. A thick black, blue, and purple line flies down the piece with similar stripes horizontally near the top and bottom of the canvas. Two more of these stripes emerge from the right side jutting and fading out toward the edge of the right side of the painting. On the left an orange horizontal stripe emerges. Different colored stripes including orange, yellow, pink, and red are riddled throughout the piece. Still there remains a large amount of white or "unclaimed" space.

Learning Log 5 (due 2 October)

Demarcating Territory

to address the connections between colonisation, redlining, borders, and control over environmental spaces

artwork by Sabiyha Prince

Session 5A (3 October)

Controlling Spaces

to understand spatial politics and how geographical histories of power have shaped access to land

artwork by Demian DinéYazhi´ and Noelle Sosaya

Alyssa Osasere's poster titled "Color of Change." The image depicts a bifurcation through two sides of a hill. To the left the image becomes darker. The land is reminiscent of a wasteland. Atop the hill looking down into the valley is a person covered in dark, treacherous vines with thorns with bruises. A black bird sits on their right shoulder. To the right, down in the valley are light and clear skies with a lush valley. A person in a vibrant red has vines from flowers and the grass creeping up their arm.

Session 5B (3 October)

Constructing Divisions

to investigate how marginalised communities are disproportionately disadvantaged by infrastructures

artwork by Alyssa Osasere

UNIT 2 ASSIGNMENT: Statistical Story, due 13 October

Week 6: Acknowledging Actors

Harold Newton's "Untitled (Crashing Waves on Shore)." In this piece waves are seen rolling up and crashing on a small beachy area. On the beach are a few palm trees but nothing more. The crashing waves splatter up in white, while the rolling water is greenish blue.

Learning Log 6 (due 9 October)

Diversifying Agency

to challenge traditional conceptions of power that undermine the voices of underrepresented actors

artwork by Harold Newton

Session 6A (10 October)

Appreciating Power

to value the various capabilities held by oft-overlooked actors, including non-human beings and beliefs

artwork by Niviaksiak

Allison Janae Hamilton's photograph "The peo-ple cried mer-cy in the storm," 2018. In this photograph the viewer sees a still body of water. In the center of the image is a small island with large and draping trees. A tall greyish white sculpture sits in the center of that island. The water is so clear that the trees and grass on the surrounding land is reflected onto it.

Session 6B (10 October)

Hearing Voices

to acknowledge the diverse range of actors who should be involved in environmental decision-making

artwork by Allison Janae Hamilton

Week 7: Dismantling Dichotomies

Subhankar Banerjee's photograph titled "Oil and the Caribou." The photograph is an overhead shot of several caribou making their way across the land. The migration path begins at the top of the photograph and moves downward through the photo. The path begins out of the frame and ends out of the frame, as well.

Learning Log 7 (due 16 October)

(Un)Building Binaries

to break down false dichotomies that reproduce unequal power dynamics in human-nature relations

artwork by Subhankar Banerjee

Session 7A (17 October)

Thinking Relationally

to recentre cosmologies that have been sidelined by dualistic thinking, modernisation, and globalisation

artwork by Zhang Huang

Abe Odedina's "Is There Anyone There," 2019. In this painting a Black person dressed in white stands at the center looking upwards toward the black night sky through a gold telescope. There is a soft yellow, golden glow on their forehead from the moon and stars, which surround them in the background.

Session 7B (17 October)

Spotlighting Complexities

to express multifaceted connections among ecosystems and communities through unconventional storytelling

artwork by Abe Odedina

Week 8: Study Break

Week 9: Changing Stories

Harmonia Rosales' piece "The Creation of God." This is Rosales' re-imagining of Michelangelo's "Creazione di Adamo" or "Creation of Adam." Here God is portrayed as a dark skin Black female. They lay naked in the bottom left corner on a bed of red and yellow in the sky with one hand extended and one finger pointed to reach for the creator who is depicted as an elderly dark skin Black female who emerges from the top right. They are covered in a pink tunic on a deep pink, violet colored silk sheet. Crowded behind them are several naked dark skin Black children and women. The background of this painting is mostly white to signify the sky and clouds.

Learning Log 9 (due 30 October)

Examining Portrayals

to unpack the way racism and anthropocentrism are reflected in and reproduced by entertainment

artwork by Harmonia Rosales

Session 9A (31 October)

Questioning Representation

to critique the media’s poor handling of identity politics while appreciating the potential for new narratives

artwork by Alice X. Zhang

Roberto Lugo's “Pottery Saved My Life.” This splatter paint piece shows a pattern three thick stripes of red, white, then red again. On the first red stripe reads "Pottery" in all caps. On the white stripe below reads "Saved My" in black capital letters. Finally, in the last red stripe reads "Life" in all caps in white.

Session 9B (31 October)

Redefining Art

to value the transformative effect that diverse forms of creative expression can have on society

artwork by Roberto Lugo

Week 10: (Re)Writing History

Ioyan Mani's art card titled "Not Forgotten." In this card, a woman in the center looks off into the distance on the left as she is cloaked is multicolored feathers of red, yellow, white, and blue. The foreground of the illustration is a orange and yellow color. The background are various shades of green, blue, and white. Small orange, red, and brown feathers and leaves float around her. Outlines of people also surround her in the background.

Learning Log 10 (due 6 November)

Debunking Disney

to discover uncomfortable truths behind stories that have been whitewashed in popular retellings

artwork by Ioyan Mani

Session 10 (7 November)

Politicising Memorials

to decode public commemorations, considering whose version of events are preserved through infrastructure

artwork by WA Partridge

UNIT 3 ASSIGNMENT: Agency Artwork, due 10 November

Week 11: Advocating Systems

EDUCA's digital illustration of Samir Flores Soberanes. This illustration is of the Mexican environmental activist Samir Flores Soberanes, who was assassinated just days before an important referendum. The illustration takes an actual photo of him and digitizes it. Behind him is a brown background the color of the earth. Around his head reads "Quien lucha por la vida nuna muere. No a la termoeletrica en Morelos," which translates in English as "Whoever fights for life never dies. No to the thermoelectric in Morelos."

Learning Log 11 (due 13 November)

(Dis)Enfranchising People

to evaluate the protections – and gaps – found in formal systems for civic engagement in decision-making

artwork by EDUCA

Sonaksha Iyengar's painting. The painting shows seven women doing essential household work in what appears to be a river or some body The top left corner is a brown color, depicting the land. The water is a deep turquoise. At about the midpoint of the painting is a woman in pink and yellow catching fish. Below this a red streak flows to the bottom the painting and a pink streak slightly to the right does the same. At the bottom of the painting are three women, one in green holding a red basket and holding a black cane, another in green and yellow reaching down into the red, and a final woman in black with pink drifting from her skirt.

Session 11A (14 November)

Utilising Law

to support community involvement in planning and be able to protect environmental activists from reprisal

artwork by Sonaksha Iyengar

Jared Yazzie's poster. In this poster two people sit on the ground. One person emerges from the left of the frame. They have on a brown t-shirt and blue pants. Emerging from the right of the frame is another person in a purple long sleeve shirt with blue pants wearing a hat. On the ground is a wha appears to be a hat or plate with an intricate black, red, and white design. At the top of the illustration is the message "Support Water Protectors and Land Defenders."

Session 11B (14 November)

Seeking Redress

to hold governments & corporations accountable for environmental harms they commit and/or allow to happen

artwork by Jared Yazzie

Week 12: Leveraging Grassroots

Daniel Chang Christensen's illustration. In this illustration the viewer sees several rooftop gardens in a city. Emerging from the left a person stands at the edge of the building smiling and waving to a neighbor emerging from the bottom right corner.

Learning Log 12 (due 20 November)

Taking Action

to intervene for environmental justice when governments and formal infrastructures have failed

artwork by Daniel Chang Christensen

Tiffany Lenoi Jones' illustration titled "Healing Our Past Present and Future." This illustration depicts several generations of a family. In this center and front near the bottom of the illustration is a Black child looking down and smiling at the butterfly in their hands. Behind the child are several rows or layers of generations of people. At the top, in a yellowish haze are images of two people likely from an old photograph. At the bottom of the illustration in blue reads the message "Healing our past present & future."

Session 12 (21 November)

Planting Seeds

to invest in sustainable change through holistic approaches to environmental action projects

artwork by Tiffany Lenoi Jones

Week 13: Empowering People

Christi Belcourt's painting "Our Lives are in the Land." This acrylic painting has a black background with white lines throughout in the shape of a spider web. In the center of the painting and web, is a large and colorful spider. Throughout the web are smaller spiders crawling.

Learning Log 13 (due 27 November)

Engineering Justice

to equip marginalised areas with enhanced resource access through community-led engineering projects

artwork by Christi Belcourt

Ricardo Levins Morales' poster titled "Environmental Justice." This poster displays several high reaching waves approaching a beach where a community stands at the water. In the right corner of the poster stands the community. One person stands tall in front of the others with a child in on arm and the other arm and hand raised as if to say, "no," to the approaching polluted waves. In the background in red letters reads the message, "Environmental justice is our cry of defiance against the onslaught of oppressive toxins and toxic oppressions that threaten to submerge our homes.”

Session 13A (28 November)

Organising Communities

to assess strategies for effective intervention in environmental injustice through collective action

artwork by Ricardo Levins Morales

Nourie Flayhan's poster. In this poster we saw several young environmental activists, including what appears to be a cameo of Greta Thunberg with her sign for climate justice. The whole poster and background is a neutral brown color and all of the activists are outlined and detailed on top of that brown base color. The only distinguishing features of them are their clothes, hair, accessories, and posters which are in color.

Session 13B (28 November)

Designing Campaigns

to develop projects with attention to inclusive diversity that will result in effective, justice-centric change

artwork by Nourie Flayhan

UNIT 4 ASSIGNMENT: Community Campaign, due 8 December

Week 14: Reclaiming Rights

Lindsay Adams' piece "Justice." This sketch shows five people in the front of the image. One in the middle in a white dress with long and curly hair holds a white sign that reads "Justice" in all capital letters. To their right are two more people, one in a pink shirt and red skirt, and another in a white dress. To the center person's left is a person with a beard in grey t-shirt and jeans and another in a black top and a black and white skirt. Behind all of them are the outlines of a city with a solid orange-ish red as a the base color.

Learning Log 14 (due 4 December)

Producing Results

to take stock of what we’ve learned and where the world stands in terms of achieving environmental justice

artwork by Lindsay Adams

Session 14A (5 December)

Making Reparations

to redistribute resources and reshape norms through policies that take responsibility for past harms

artwork by Everett Spruill

Chief Lady Bird's piece. In this digital painting a dark brown muskrat off center holds a tiny piece of an orange-ish brown mud. It's eye is a red circle with a yellow dot in the middle. On its ears are two blue circles and on its back is a blue streak. Further down the muskrat white veins begin to appear as roots that are connected to the green circle in the middle of the picture, likely a turtle, with an image of a tree on it. In the top right corner are waves of red, orange, and yellow.The message in the center of the image reads "We have to be The Muskrat In A New Creation Story."

Session 14B (5 December)

Redistributing Power

to analyse claims and aims for sovereignty amidst imperialism, gerrymandering, and colonisation

artwork by Chief Lady Bird

Ryan Spence's illustration. In this illustration the background holds the colors of a sunset with deep oranges and reds with a goldish hue. There appear to be silhouettes of soldiers in the background as well. In the center of the illustration sits a woman cloaked in white with a small purple crown atop her head sitting in a red and gold chair. She holds two keys in her left hand that rest on her lap while she holds her right hand gently in the air. She looks off and out of frame to the left and into the distance.

Special Event (Tuesday, 5 December)

Showcasing Insights

to celebrate our class community and share our learning from the semester with a wider audience

artwork by Ryan Spence

Week 15: Repositioning Ourselves

Shirien Damra's Instagram poster. A blue background is detailed with several white and purple flowers with green stems. There are several people protesting with white signs with various different messages. All of the protestors are wearing masks, reflective of the summer protests during the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning Log 15 (due 11 December)

Transforming Solidarity

to recognise the interconnectedness and interdependence of justice for all while questioning the role of allyship

artwork by Shirien Damra

Kira Nemeth's illustration. In this illustration there is a fist sketched in black and white in the center of the image. Above it surrounding the knuckles, almost in a crown-like position is a message in a white background and black letters reading "While we fight for us..." Extending from the fist are rays of red, orange, and yellow that are bordered/outlined in black lines. Below the fist is the Earth. Draped across the Earth is a white banner with black and blue lettering that reads "We must fight for her," as a continuation of the first message. Altogether, the message reads "While we fight for us, we must fight for her."

Session 15A (12 December)

Critiquing Allyship

to consider our own positions within racist structures and challenge performative forms of action

artwork by Kira Nemeth

Maya Lin's installation titled "Systematic Landscapes." In this installation, a map is used as a sculpture.

Session 15B (12 December)

Evaluating Impact

to reflect on this course and how we can all work to more effectively redress environmental racism

artwork by Maya Lin

UNIT 5 ASSIGNMENT: Identity Introspection Part II, due 15 December

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