An introduction to moral philosophy as applied to current topics. Some questions to be explored: What sorts of socioeconomic principles are morally justifiable? Does the history of racial injustice in the U.S. create a moral demand for reparations, and if so, what is the best argument for this? What is the relation, if any, between morality and religion? Do animals have moral rights? How should we understand the meaning and value of human life and death? Can abortion sometimes be justified, and if so, how? Is it okay to destroy embryos for stem cell research? Is active euthanasia ever permissible? Is capital punishment justifiable in principle? In practice? Is torture morally permissible in the fight against terrorism? How far does our moral duty to aid distant strangers extend? We will also explore related general questions: Is it always possible for a good enough end to justify bad means? Are there objective facts about right or wrong, or is morality ultimately relative to cultures or times? Are there situations in which every available action is wrong? Can we be morally assessed even for some things that are largely a matter of luck?

Location

Meliora Room 221 (TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

This course examines visions of the future produced by climate change through studies of literature, film, art, and pop culture

Location

Rush Rhees Library Room 304E (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

This course examines the arguments and the rhetoric of radical thinkers who have tried to change the world rather than just interpret it since the revolutions of 1848

Location

Lattimore Room 441 (MW 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

Hear UR is a history-oriented podcast that takes on a subject related to the environmental history of Rochester. Over the course of this semester, this class researches, develops, and produces one season of episodes for Hear UR. Students divide into teams of three, where they take on the roles of Producer, Lead Researcher, or Engineer. Together they develop the subject matter of the season and episodes; locate primary sources to interpret; identify a body of secondary literature; draft and re-draft podcast scripts; master the use of microphones, recording studios, and audio editing software; create a website to host each episode, where they post a written article on the same topic, provide primary source images, additional links, and script; finally they organize and execute a public roll out of the season, using social and traditional media platforms, local public radio and television, and University communications.

Location

Bausch & Lomb Room 269 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

[Prerequisite: One previous course in Philosophy]

Environmental injustice occurs whenever some individual or group suffers unjust environmental risk, lacks fair access to environmental goods, or is unjustly denied opportunity to meaningfully engage in or be represented in individual or collective environmental decision-making. This course will examine issues of environmental justice, both local and global, for both present and future generations, bringing philosophical analysis to bear on such topics as toxic exposures, industrial accidents, water rights, climate disruption, and energy and food systems.

Location

Hutchison Hall Room 473 (MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM)

This course explores the legal, political, and philosophical dimensions of the concept of indigenous people; how it differs from overlapping concepts such as peasantry, race, ethnicity, language, culture, and religion; how its definition varies according to the history of colonialism in different parts of the world; and why this movement gained momentum after the end of the Cold War.

Location

Bausch & Lomb Room 269 (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

This humanities course based in the arts combines the study of performing, visual arts and new media with history and theory to convey a breadth of stories about the human experience of climate change. In this interdisciplinary, collaborative course, students will be introduced to the multi-faceted use of the arts in designing for and expressing a vision for a sustainable future. Working with community partners, our research and story collection in the Adirondack park will be used to inspire projects in the course.  Collaboration, design thinking, and the iterative design process will be used to produce performances and art work that respond to the stories of the changing climate in the Adirondack park. It will move through multiple units of theoretical study as students simultaneously work on their creative projects. The course will include an optional trip to the Adirondack Park to engage with our community partners.

Location

Todd Union Room 107 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Rettner Hall Room 307 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

An examination of international environmental law and policy with a special focus on efforts to address climate change, including the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This course serves as a companion to PSC 246, but PSC 246 is not a prerequisite. The goal of this course is to provide a foundational understanding of this rapidly developing, controversial field. Topics include consideration of the scientific, political, and economic drivers of international environmental law; the variety of tools (e.g., treaties, agreements, soft law,? voluntary incentive programs and market based approaches); and examples of how some international environmental issues have been addressed to date, including efforts to date on climate change. This course will be taught through lectures, discussion, several concise papers, and a group project.

Location

Harkness Room 115 (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

Does it matter where our power comes from? Why or how and to whom? This course uses anthropological case studies of different kinds of energy sources (fossil fuels, nuclear, water, solar, wind) and different kinds of electrification (centralized grids versus micro-grids) around the world to think about the relationship between energy, environments, power, and culture with a specific focus on intersectional gender and sexuality. How do energy practices and cultural norms of racialized gender shape each other in various places around the world, and to what effects? What might empirical attention to how people talk about and use energy help us to understand about the energy transitions and climate crises of the 21st century?

Location

Morey Room 205 (MW 9:00AM - 10:15AM)

An examination of federal environmental law and policy from a practical and historical perspective. This course will provide a basic foundational understanding of U.S. environmental law and help students develop the tools necessary to critique and improve environmental policy making. Topics include an overview of key federal environmental laws, some of the major loopholes, how environmental laws are shaped through agency regulation, judicial interpretation, political pressure, and their efficacy at safeguarding the environment and the public. The course will be taught through a combination of lectures, a group project focused on a specific case study, and student-led discussions about key aspects of environmental laws. Students will finish by considering emerging environmental issues and ways to address them.

Location

Goergen Hall Room 109 (MW 6:15PM - 7:30PM)

"It’s not climate change—it’s everything change," novelist Margaret Atwood has said. This course uses video and moving image to examine the deep intertwined and intersectional roots of the Ecological crisis, from viral pandemics and racial justice to the disruption of our climate and all the other apocalyptic scenarios we currently find ourselves in. To guide our development of Eco cinematic consciousness, we will study French philosopher Félix Guattari's foundational text, “The Three Ecologies”, to understand how ecologies of mind, media, and environment are interrelated and to complicate our understandings of "nature." Student Projects will involve installation, single channel, sound, and networked-based approaches. Works will be examined within a critical environmental arts framework through readings, critiques, viewings and discussions. Permission of instructor. Studio Art lab fee applied.

Location

Sage Arts Center Room 101 (MW 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Location

Hylan Building Room 305 (TR 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

Are we experiencing the end of the world? Popular culture and the media broadcast endless news suggesting the end of human civilization: infertility crises, weather disasters, GMO monsters, class warfare, mass extinction, infectious diseases, even zombies. This course investigates representations of environmental apocalypse and the new geological era of the Anthropocene in order to understand the cultural politics and history of anxiety about end-times and the meaning of nature, planet, and ecology in our lives. 

 

Location

Hylan Building Room 105 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

While the land art movement in the 1960s/1970s changed many understandings of conceptualism (and landscape) in Europe and America, little attention has been paid to its cultural precedents. This seminar surveys the famous enterprises and writings of artists like Robert Smithson, but interprets them through current (and past) "environmental" discourses. Weekly meetings, discussion, and a final paper.

Location

Morey Room 524 (T 9:40AM - 12:20PM)