Radical Responses to Climate Catastrophe

Syllabus

What if catastrophe is something unfolding here and now, rather than something coming in the future? This course explores a range of responses to the catastrophe in which we live today: not just a catastrophe of climate instability; but also of isolation, extraction, depression, exploitation, hierarchy, debt, violence, boredom, and anxiety. This class foregrounds perspectives that seek to turn away from—or move beyond—dominant approaches to social and political change: beyond protest, institutional reform, and individual ethics.

While we will explore some critiques of these dominant tendencies, the focus will be on other ways of working together to transform the conditions under which we live, including direct action, mutual aid, counter-institutions, desertion, subsistence, and autonomy.

We will also be examining the various assumptions, tensions, and resonances between different perspectives. In doing so, we will be seeking to understand the implications for our own lives: what do these responses offer us, individually and collectively, based on our varied values, commitments, and social locations? How might we inhabit catastrophe differently? How might we reflect on what to give up on, what to cultivate, and where to put our time and energy? And how we might learn to feel, think, struggle, and live differently?

e-mail: montgomerynick [at] gmail.com

Class info: ES 480 A03 at the University of Victoria CRN 11679

Class: Fridays Clearihue A312 12:30-3:20

Office hours: by appointment in DTB B256
(David Turpin Building B-Wing Room 256)

Discord server link: https://discord.gg/Dc5D47u7kc

Required texts

There are no books or textbooks for this course, and you don’t need to buy anything. All readings are freely available online, and a full list of readings is in the Course Schedule. However, you must read and interact with the written texts (annotate and underline, either digitally or with a printed copy) and bring this annotated copy to class discussions. This is crucial to effective participation as we will be reading texts closely in many classes.

Learning Outcomes

This course will deepen the your capacity to:

• Explore and articulate the political potential of various practices in the context of your own passions, values and commitments
• Actively participate in discussions about radical politics and social and ecological catastrophe with compassion, rigour, and self-reflexivity
• Identify your personal learning edges and use that to focus your work in ways that support your learning and growth
• Reflect on your learning process and articulate what kinds of feedback will support you
• Compose work with specific readers in mind
• Feel, think, and live differently in the context of social and ecological catastrophe and uncertainty within and beyond the classroom
• Practice curiosity, have epiphanies and explore their implications

Marking Breakdown

Assignment	% of Final Grade
Initial Process Letter (Due Sept 22: link):	10%
Milestone Intervention Project (Due Oct 24)	N/A
Second Process Letter (Due Nov 3: link):	35%
Final Process Letter (Due Dec 5: link):	55%
Catastrophe Capstone Project (Due Dec 6)	N/A

Assessment

This course aims to create a dialogue between you and I (your instructor) about your work. Each week you are invited to complete an activity that asks you to engage with the course readings and their ideas. These activities won’t be graded, and you’re invited to tweak, remix, combine, or otherwise modify the weekly activities in the Course Schedule. Your grade is based on a holistic assessment of your work and growth in the course, including class participation (more on that below).

Compared to a conventional course, this format asks you to take more responsibility for your learning: I am asking you to seek out support when you need it, request the kinds of feedback that will be helpful, and figure out your own goals and standards for this course. I’ll be trying to ask useful questions and provide the kind of feedback you’ve asked for.

Course Process Letters

This course includes four Process Letters. These are mandatory, with the goal of maintaining a dialogue about your work. See due dates and links to process letters in the Marking Breakdown above.

To complete the Process Letter, answer each question on the form and upload your completed document in the assignments section of UVic’s Brightspace.

The emphasis here is on reflection on your learning, but at the end of each Process Letter, you’ll also be asked to evaluate yourself with a numerical grade. I’ll take this into account, but your submission will be graded by me, as per UVic academic calendar regulations. The last three Process Letters are graded based on a holistic assessment of your participation in the course, your reflections on your learning process, and the activities you submit.

While these are the only mandatory points of contact outside of class, I encourage you to be in touch with me regularly in whatever ways work for you: come to my office hours, send me work to look over, ask me questions in person or over email, and let me know what you’re finding challenging or inspiring.

If you’re like most students, you aren’t accustomed to this approach to assessment. My goal with this structure is to create space for your own creativity and curiosity, but I recognize that it might also generate some confusion or anxiety. If you’re concerned about your grade, the best thing to do is follow the course Schedule: come to class and participate, stay on top of readings, complete the activities (but modify them as you see fit), and put time into reflecting deeply on your Process Letters.

Course activities

In addition to the readings for that week, the Course Schedule includes suggested activities for that week. You are expected to create a blog for these activities, in order to share your work with your classmates. You can find a step-by-step process to creating a blog in the Course Schedule. You will be encouraged to read your classmates’ blog, and vice-versa, so this is an opportunity to to practice writing in an intentional way. If we can all agree that academic writing mostly sucks (or at least has severe limitations), then what does better writing look like?

Focus on the activities that will support your learning. You may modify, skip, tweak, remix, and rework activities so that they work for you. Add new activities if the existing ones don’t grab you. Other than the process letters described above, and the creation of your blog, there are two mandatory activities: the Milestone Intervention Project and the Catastrophe Capstone Project.

Milestone Intervention Project

In this group project you will work with others to undertake a collective initiative that responds to the catastrophe in which we live. In the first few weeks of the course we will brainstorm possibilities and form groups based on shared interests and priorities. During the three weeks of asynchronous learning, you will meet with your group to discuss the weekly readings and draw on them to envision a and undertake a collective intervention. The nature of the intervention is wide open, with a few constraints:

• You must decide on and execute this project horizontally, without a single leader. You might have certain people anchor certain tasks, but make sure everyone is included in the decision-making process and the work.
• Your initiative should respond to the contemporary catastrophe through direct action and/or mutual aid (or supporting these activities), rather than seeking to reform existing institutions or alter policies.
• Think critically about awareness-raising events: school conditions us to privilege ‘awareness’ above other activities. If you want to organize a learning activity, make it something that you want to learn (or learn more about). Learn something that is worthwhile on its own; not just ‘awareness-raising’.
• Work within your own community: host an event within your immediate community (e.g. students, your neighbourhood, etc) rather than attempting to reach some new or unfamiliar group of people.
• Document your event or creative intervention so that you can share it with me in your Process Letter.
• It should be something that you can organize and achieve through a one-off event or action, rather than a protracted campaign or project
• Some examples:
  • mutual aid clothing swap
  • bake sale fundraiser for land defense
  • cooking and serving free food
  • guerrilla gardening

If you’re unsure about this project, don’t worry: the point is to create something, with others. The process is more important than the product and you’re not being evaluated on the outcome.

Catastrophe Capstone Project

This is the final project in this course. It’s designed to be wide open, so that you can spend your time and energy creating something that feels worthwhile, meaningful, and challenging. You can do it individually, or as a group. We will set aside some time in class for groups to collaborate on this project. I encourage you to be creative with this assignment, and get in touch with me when you want help. Here are the constraints:

1. It must be connected to course themes. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re writing a conventional essay where you cite specific texts directly, but it needs to incorporate insights, questions, and concepts from our discussions in class and the course readings.
2. It must be viewable by me, somehow. It can be digital or made of real stuff. You might expand your blog, create a podcast, make a zine, or make a video. It might involve a performance, a creative intervention, or something else that happens beyond the classroom, but then you need to document it (record it, take pictures, etc). Remember that you need to submit it (or documentation of it) in your final Process Letter.
3. It must implicate you. Do your final project on something that has real-life implications for you, and reflect on those implications (e.g. what you devote your time to, what you’re willing give up on, what you feel called to resist or dismantle, what you want to nurture, etc).
4. It must do more than ‘educate’ or ‘raise awareness’. A major premise of this course is that education and awareness are not enough. If most of us are now fully aware of the catastrophe in which we live, do we really need more alarm bells? What else might we need? If you’re creating written work, consider what sorts of capacities, feelings, reflections, or skills you want to nurture in your reader.

Participation

Class participation is a crucial part of this course, and is crucial to do the readings and come prepared to discuss them in class.

Participation means more than just showing up and talking. Among other things, it means actively listening, asking generative questions that provoke discussion, creating space for others to speak, making connections between concepts, considering implications of ideas, and paying attention to class dynamics. It is less about being knowledgeable or articulate and more about coming to class with questions, curiosity, compassion, openness, rigour, and self-reflexivity.

You don’t need to be an outspoken extrovert to participate effectively, and it’s okay if you’re nervous or anxious. The goal here is to support you in deepening your capacity to contribute to class discussions, and to identify what supports you need in order to do that.

Territory Acknowledgement

We acknowledge and respect the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

This course takes place at the University of Victoria, on lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ territory. This place was an important place to cultivate kwetlal (camas), and settler colonialism subjugated those relationships. In this context, it’s important to recognize that colonial settlement of this place was catastrophic for Indigenous peoples, and it’s vital to find ways to support the continuation of Indigenous resistance, resurgence and relationships. In this course we will reckon with the ongoing catastrophe of settler colonialism, and explore possibilities for decolonization and solidarity beyond state-led reconciliation efforts.

Attendance

If you’re sick, stay home.

Medical documentation for short-term absences is not required. If your illness is causing regular absences, please get in touch with me about it. If you’ve fallen behind in your courses, you should look into the Academic Concession process ASAP, as it can help with extensions or other changes.

Policies regarding undergraduate student academic concessions and deferrals are detailed on the Undergraduate Records. See Request for Academic Concession.

Accessibility

I want this course to be as accessible as possible. Please feel free to get in touch with me about access needs in this course, whether or not those needs are recognized by UVic as an institution. I will do my best to work with you to remove barriers to your full participation.

If you have an accessibility consideration that may require accommodations, please feel free to approach me and the Centre for Accessible Learning – CAL (formerly Resource Centre for Students with a Disability RCSD) as soon as possible. The CAL staff are available by appointment to assess specific needs, provide referrals and arrange appropriate accommodations https://www.uvic.ca/services/cal/ .  The sooner you let us know your needs the quicker we can support you in this course.

Academic integrity

Students are required to abide by all academic regulations set as set out in the University calendar, including standards of academic integrity. Violations of academic integrity (e.g. cheating and plagiarism) are considered serious and may result in significant penalties. UVic’s policies available here.

Copyright

As you’re going to create a blog or other work that can be viewed by others, ensure that you’re not violating copyright regulations. If you’re looking for images for your blog or other work, I suggest Unsplash, a site with freely usable images. UVic Copyright Basics available here.

Others are free to use elements of this course outline because I am using a Creative Commons License: it can be used by anyone and asks that they attribute this source.

Mental Health

Mental health is something that affects all aspects of our lives, including coursework. All of us benefit from support. If you’re struggling, remember that you are not alone. The UVic Student Wellness Centre provides cost-free and confidential mental health services. If there might be ways I can support you, please get in touch with me.

Additional Resources

Learn Anywhere

UVic’s student portal with a full range of student and academic support services including:

• Centre for Academic Communication
• Math & Stats Assistance Centre
• Wellness Centre
• Library
• Ombudsperson
• Computer Help Desk

Request for academic concession

Emergency information

Equity & CAL Acknowledgement

UVic is committed to upholding the values of equity, diversity, inclusion and human rights in our living, learning and work environments. We know that diversity underpins excellence, and that we all share responsibility for creating an equitable, diverse and inclusive community. In pursuit of our values, we seek members who will work respectfully and constructively with differences and across levels of power.

The School of Environmental Studies at UVic recognizes that the discipline of environmental studies has historically been overwhelmingly white, resulting in what Dorceta Taylor calls the “Green Insiders Club.” This white colonial dominance has significantly weakened the discipline and the broader environmental movement to which it contributes. We are committed to undoing and unlearning these colonial practices by re-shaping our collective and individual decision-making using a decolonial and racial justice lens to amplify, work with, and learn from traditionally marginalized perspectives and experience. If you feel that this vision is not being actualized, please send your feedback to Laurel Currie (laurelc@uvic.ca).

Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. In particular, if you have a disability/health consideration that may require accommodations, please feel free to approach me and/or the Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) as soon as possible. CAL staff are available by appointment to assess specific needs, provide referrals and arrange appropriate accommodations.

The sooner you let us know your needs the quicker we can assist you in achieving your learning goals in this course.

Student Privacy and Educational Technologies

I use a variety of educational technology in this course including internet-based technologies or web-based applications, cloud services and social media. The use of technology is part of your engagement at the University. Some of these learning tools may collect, use and/or disclose your personal information and store or access that information outside of Canada. UVic cannot require students to disclose personal information to technologies or organizations which may store information on servers located outside of Canada because disclosure of personal information to vendors, systems or services storing or accessing that personal information outside of Canada isrestricted by Section 30.1 of BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual; for example, your name or your email address. The following educational technologies, which stores or accesses your personal information outside Canada, is required for this course: Discord, WordPress, Medium.

I will make you aware if this list changes. I use these technologies to enhance your educational experience at UVic. The personal information is required by the service. The privacy policy and the terms of use list the personal information stored outside of Canada and are available at:

Privacy

https://policy.medium.com/medium-privacy-policy-f03bf92035c9

https://discord.com/privacy

I encourage you to read these documents. If you are not comfortable with your personal information being stored outside of Canada, please speak to me within the first week of class about using an alternative (such as using an alias or nickname). Otherwise, by continuing in this course, you agree to the use of the educational technology in the course and the storage of personal information outside of Canada.

Course Experience Survey

I value your feedback on this course. Towards the end of term you will have the opportunity to complete a confidential course experience survey (CES) regarding your learning experience. The survey is vital to providing feedback to me regarding the course and my teaching, as well as to help the department improve the overall program for students in the future. When it is time for you to complete the survey, you will receive an email inviting you to do so. If you do not receive an email invitation, you can go directly to your CES dashboard. You will need to use your UVic NetLink ID to access the survey, which can be done on your laptop, tablet or mobile device. I will remind you nearer the time but please be thinking about this important activity, especially the following three questions, during the course:

1) What strengths did your instructor demonstrate that helped you learn in this course?

2) Please provide specific suggestions as to how the instructor could have helped you learn more effectively.

3) Please provide specific suggestions as to how this course could be improved.

Sexualized Violence Prevention and Response At UVic

UVic takes sexualized violence seriously, and has raised the bar for what is considered acceptable behaviour. We encourage students to learn more about how the university defines sexualized violence and its overall approach by visiting www.uvic.ca/svp. If you or someone you know has been impacted by sexualized violence and needs information, advice, and/or support please contact the sexualized violence resource office in Equity and Human Rights (EQHR). Whether or not you have been directly impacted, if you want to take part in the important prevention work taking place on campus, you can also reach out:

Where: Sexualized violence resource office in EQHR; Sedgewick C119

Phone: 250.721.8021

Email: svpcoordinator@uvic.ca

Web: www.uvic.ca/svp

Academic integrity

Academic integrity is intellectual honesty and responsibility for academic work that you submit individual or group work. It involves commitment to the values of honesty, trust, and responsibility. It is expected that students will respect these ethical values in all activities related to learning, teaching, research, and service. Therefore, plagiarism and other acts against academic integrity are serious academic offences. UVic’s policy on Academic Integrity is available here:

http://web.uvic.ca/calendar2012/FACS/UnIn/UARe/PoAcI.html.

I reserve the right to use plagiarism detection software or other platforms to assess the integrity of student work.

The responsibility of the institution: Instructors and academic units have the responsibility to ensure that standards of academic honesty are met. By doing so, the institution recognizes students for their hard work and assures them that other students do not have an unfair advantage through cheating on essays, exams, and projects.

The responsibility of the student: Plagiarism sometimes occurs due to a misunderstanding regarding the rules of academic integrity, but it is the responsibility of the student to know them. If you are unsure about the standards for citations or for referencing your sources, take advantage of the following resources: http://www.uvic.ca/learningandteaching/students/resources/expectations/ or

http://www.uvic.ca/library/research/citation/plagiarism/index.php .

Depending on the severity of the case, penalties include a warning, a failing grade, a record on the student’s transcript, or a suspension.