Environmental Studies

This course explores, giving them voice, how aboriginal Americans (also named First Nations, Tribal groups, Indigenous People, or Native-Americans) relentlessly attempted to “unsettle” their land and exposed the connectedness between violence to the earth and violence towards them. Far from feeding the trope of the “Indians in harmony with nature,” this course examines how their demand to preserve the ecological integrity of the land has been an act of political resistance. It develops a historical perspective on the specificity of Indigenous environmentalism in the United States, for the “healing” of land, non-human life and natural resources has been inherently tied to the ongoing land grabbing and exploitation of their territories. Ranging from History to Anthropology, Native-American Studies and Environmental History, this class historicize indigenous vulnerabilities to extreme weather, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and pollution from manufacturing and resource extraction. It engages in weekly conversations to unpack the ongoing struggle that indigenous and black communities have fought for the preservation of the right to bury their dead, breathe, and survive.

This course explores key concepts and debates in environmental and technology ethics: the commitments and values operative in models of sustainable development (theories of justice, capability, and agency); questions of human populations (demographics, food production, and food security); sustainable transport; values at work in approaches to biodiversity conservation (wild, agricultural, urban); and conflicts and convergences in aiming for smart and sustainable cities. Students focus on the instrumental versus intrinsic value; demographics and consumption; food security and related aspects of animal agriculture; justice and sustainable development; environmental citizenship; and the future of work. The course examines key ethics responses rooted in hermeneutics, in philosophical, and religious traditions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Daoism) and characterizes the role of the ethicist in "expert" cultures and in policy development in Ireland, the EU, and internationally.  

This course examines how the idea of sustainable development has emerged as an effort to redirect economic growth to produce more socially just and environmentally benign outcomes. It covers how human-environment interconnections, across different scales and in different contexts, come together to demonstrate how environmental issues are situated in, and shaped by political and economic contexts. 

This course introduces students to the grand challenges of today’s world (for example planetary boundaries) and the necessity for a “Great Transformation” toward a sustainable development of our societies. Students examine the systemic characters and the complex dynamics in today’s societies, including the individual, organizational, community, regional, national and international levels and their relations and interactions.

One of the major questions explored in the course is which social actors contribute to a transformation towards sustainable development and how - and in what way this happens, which inertias and obstacles stand in the way and could be overcome? What has the German government done, what is the German parliament doing, what is the function of business, sciences or civil society organizations – what happens in Berlin? The course considers the broadest possible spectrum of approaches, strategies and actors for a reflected change towards a Great Transformation in an exemplary manner, as well as thinking theory and practice together (in the sense of transformative science and shaping the future). Students examine the different national, regional and cultural systems and backgrounds for all this. Specific examples which are part of the pathway to sustainability are green taxes, renewable energy projects, cooperative housing, car-free streets and places, urban farming, or even eco-villages.

Additional topics include concepts like path dependency (path management), Multi-Level Perspective – MLP, social innovation, models of change, change agents, MAP – movement action plan. The course includes relevant sociological theories, i.e. social systems theory, practice theory and real utopias. These will give insights into societal factors for stability as well as for change.

This course explores the complex interplay between environmental issues, politics, and social change in the Arab world. It examines how natural resources, such as water, oil, and land, shape regional power dynamics and influence political conflicts. Through case studies, the course analyzes the impact of colonial legacies, globalization, and climate change on ecological and social systems in the region. The course also highlights grassroots movements and policy responses that address environmental justice and sustainability challenges. By engaging with interdisciplinary perspectives, students gain critical insights into the environmental dimensions of political struggles in the Arab world.

The course focuses on the ethical issues involved with innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and critically examines the role played by social, political, cultural, and human factors when designing, introducing, and using technologies.  This course therefore contributes to the broader program outcomes related to ethics, reasoning, and moral inquiry. The course links most strongly with the SDGs which can be addressed by new, disruptive, and innovative approaches and technologies.  This course focuses on the SDGs which can be addressed by smaller, community-level and citizen-led technology-based initiatives.  Examples of this include designing innovative ways of leveraging the ubiquity of mobile phones in the Global South for healthcare and education, and the design, evaluation, and implementation of innovative techniques which are designed to be ethically, socially, and culturally appropriate for their particular context. The course content includes relevant, authentic, situated cases from the Global South and Europe that have been developed specifically for the course.  These multimedia-enhanced cases focus on projects from Ireland, India, Uganda, and Ethiopia. 

This course examines how environmental challenges have been, and continue to be, shaped by empire. These impacts affect how Earth's history, the biosphere, and the climate are known, and extend to both extractive technologies and financial relationships that enable extraction. But the effects of empire run deeper, to the very way the environment is understood. Using London as a launchpad for field trips and firsthand encounters, this course challenges students to rethink how ideas of the planet’s past, present, and future are shaped by empire. Students examine how empire has shaped, and continues to shape, environmental knowledge; explore sites and spaces of empire, such as where the material markers of scientific knowledge persist in advancing ways of knowing and relating to the environment today; investigate how contemporary modes of extraction maintain links to the legacies of empire, such as in and through financial activities; are provided with concrete analytical skills for situating contemporary challenges in historical context; and are encouraged to engage critically and thoughtfully with how environmental thought, and baselines for assessing environmental impacts, have been influenced by the data collected through empire.

This course explores the anthropogenic impact on the marine environment. Topics include: context and causes of changes to the marine environment; habitat loss; exploitation of the marine environment; marine pollution; exotic species and diseases in marine organisms.
 

This course is for students interested in the policies and management of the natural environment and its resources. The transferable nature of the skills elements involved may make this course attractive to other students wishing to pursue a career in government agencies or consultancy. The course provides students with a toolkit of quantitative and qualitative techniques used in resource planning and analysis, together with case studies with which to gain experience of their application.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The aim of this course is to develop cultural, scientific, and technical aspects for the enhancement and sustainable use and recycling of both raw materials and primary-secondary resources. Moreover, this course develops the design aspects and feasibility of Appropriate Technologies for the developing countries, particularly with regard to water supply, wastewater treatment, and solid waste management. The course is deepened on principles of Circular Economy (dry waste for recycling and organic waste for composting), on the circularity as tool for saving raw material, water, and natural resources and to reduce waste production. Course content includes (but is not limited to): Principles of circular economy and sustainability, climate change and transition engineering, sustainable development and sustainable use of resources, and the integrated management of municipal waste collection and treatment.