There is no place to hide: Environmental humanities and climate change studies in Latin America

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso

Course Description

  • Course Name

    There is no place to hide: Environmental humanities and climate change studies in Latin America

  • Host University

    Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso

  • Location

    Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, Chile

  • Area of Study

    Environmental Studies, Latin American Studies

  • Language Level

    Taught In English

    Hours & Credits

  • Contact Hours

    60
  • Recommended U.S. Semester Credits
    4
  • Recommended U.S. Quarter Units
    6
  • Overview

    NAME OF THE COURSE: There is no place to hide: Environmental humanities and climate

    change studies in Latin America

    HOURS: 60 contact hours
    CREDITS: 4
    COURSE CODE: PIIE 438-1

    Course description
    Since the climate crisis, various fields of knowledge have begun to position themselves as
    critical, reflective and creative. It is within this spectrum and from an interdisciplinary
    approach that the environmental humanities are beginning to emerge. This new approach to
    the ecological problem allows the integration of philosophy, art, literature and sciences such
    as geography, botany, earth sciences and ecology. In this line, Latin America positions itself
    on the basis of a long intercultural, decolonial and hybrid path that has been travelled for more
    than a century. In this course we want to learn about the contributions of the Global South, and
    Latin America in particular, to the reflection on the climate crisis, and at the same time deepen
    our understanding of its own problems, its territorial approach and its resistance. By reading
    and discussing the texts in class, we will be able to see what is unique about these southern
    latitudes: Is there a place to hide from the troubled planet? What new refuges are emerging for
    a habitable future?
    Learning outcomes
    By the end of the course the student should be able to critically discuss about:
    • Major socio-environmental problems in Latin America.
    • Environmental humanities as a field of study and creative research.
    • Proposals for alternative paths linked to the territory.
    • Study and defense of the forest as a multi-species space.

    Content
    • Concepts related to socio-environmental thinking in Latin America.
    • Territorial turn.
    • New ontologies for inhabiting territories.
    • The climate crisis as a reconfiguration of inhabitation.
    • Affective theory and affective ecologies.
    • Environmentalism, pluriverse, resistances in Latin America.

    Course units

    Thematic unit 1: Introduction to the problematic of the Climate Change, a Latin-
    American perspective.

    Global Warming, Climate Change and others. The idea of the Anthropocene. Critics from the
    Global South. Humans and nature: The world of complex interconnections. Complex relation
    between society and environment. Decisions and challenges. Optimism or pessimism? Where
    to start? Where to hide? Possible actions: education, information, ethics, politics and social
    influence.
    Thematic unit 2: Environmental Humanities, territory and affect theory.
    Spacial turn, the concept of territory. The Latin-American thought about the territory. Affect
    Theory. New and recent representation about nature and environment. Hybrids spaces,
    community and resistances.
    Thematic unit 3: Hide in the forest.
    Ontologies, ecologies and other ways to be/feel/think the nature. The forest and the
    environmental humanities in Latin America.
    Thematic unit 4: Local environmental solutions and new paths to design the futures.
    The idea of the pluriverse, a speculative concept from Latinoamérica. Design the future,
    Where? Whom? In which directions? Against what? Knowing some local solutions. Ways to
    reimagine the life and te world. Field Trip (to confirme place and experience).

    Evaluation:
    Two essays ................................................................. 60%
    Field Trip .................................................................... 20%
    Participation weekly workshops ....................................... 20%

    Course policies
    Attendance is required. Punctuality is mandatory.
    All assignments must be turned in via the professor ́s mail (pedro.achondo@pucv.cl)
    You may use your preferred citation style, provided it is applied consistently. However, the
    APA citation is considered appropriate for academic work. You can find the guidelines in:
    https://www.awelu.lu.se/referencing/quick-guides-to-reference-styles/apa
    About Plagiarism: Acts of plagiarism, including reproducing text from websites and
    paraphrasing from another source (including other students) without proper citation, will lead
    to harsh consequences such as failure to receive credit for the course.
    Bibliography for each thematic unit

    Thematic unit 1: Introduction to the problematic of the Climate Change, a Latin-
    American perspective.

    Mansilla Quiñones, P.; Melín Pehuén, M., y Alberto Curamil Millanao. (2023). Confronting
    coloniality of nature: Strategies to recover water and life in mapuche territory. December
    2023,GEOFORUM 148(2):103922. DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103922
    Ojeda D., y Caicedo, A. (2023). Intervention Symposium—“Plantation Methodologies:
    Questioning Scale, Space, and Subjecthood”.
    Ibarra, T., et al. (2024). While clearing the forests: The social–ecological memory of trees in
    the Anthropocene. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02008-5
    Ulloa, A. (2023). Aesthetics of green dispossession: From coal to wind extraction in La
    Guajira, Colombia. Journal of Political Ecology.
    https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/id/5475/
    Ulloa, A. (2017). Indigenous Knowledge Regarding Climate in Colombia.
    https://www.academia.edu/41700042/Ulloa_Astrid_2019_Indigenous_Knowledge_Regardi
    ng_Climate_in_Colombia
    Tsing, A., Swanson, H., Gan, E. y Bubandt, N. (Editors) (2017). Arts of living on a damaged
    planet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
    Moore, J. (ed). (2016). Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History and the Crisis of
    Capitalism. PM Press.
    Armiero, M. (2021). Wasteocene, Stories from the Global Dump. Cambridge University
    Press.

    Thematic unit 2: Environmental Humanities, territory and affect theory.
    Weik von Mossner, A. (2017). Affective ecologies: empathy, emotion, and environmental
    narrative. The Ohio University Press.
    Gregg, M., & Seigworth, G.J. (2010). The Affect Theory Reader. Duke university press.

    Abram, D. (1997). The spell of the sensuous: perception and language in a more-than-human
    world. Random House.
    Podcast from: https://networkingwithplants.org/the-podcast-2/

    Thematic unit 3: Hide in the forest.
    Vidalou, J-B. (2018). We are Forests: Inhabiting Territories in Struggle. Polity.
    Powers, R. (2018). The Overstory. Random House International.
    Elkin, R. (2022). Plant Life. The Entangled Politics of Afforestation. University of Minnesota
    Press.
    Ibarra, J.T., Petitpas, R., Barreau, A., Caviedes, J., Cortés, J., Orrego, G., Salazar, G.,
    y Altamirano, T. (2022). Becoming tree, becoming memory. Social-ecological fabrics in
    Pewen (Araucaria araucana) landscapes of the southern Andes. 15-31. En: Wall, J. (Ed.).
    The Cultural Value of Trees. Folk Value and Biocultural Conservation. Routledge. DOI:
    10.4324/9780429320897-3
    Gibson, C. y Warren, A. (2019). Keeping time with trees: Climate change, forest resources,
    and experimental relations with the future. Geoforum, 110, 325-337.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.02.017
    Irigaray, L. Y Marder, M. (2006). Through Vegetal Being. New York: Columbia University
    Press.

    Thematic unit 4: Local environmental solutions and new paths to design the futures.

    De la Cadena, M. & Blaser, M. (eds). (2018). A world of many worlds. Duke University Press,
    London. Introduction: Pluriverse, Proposals for a World of Many Worlds, p.1-22.
    Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the trouble. Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke
    University Press. Capítulo 2: Tentacular Thinking, p.30-57. Cap 4: Making Kin, p.99-103.
    Escobar, A. (2020). Pluriversal Politics. The Real and the Possible. Durham and London:
    Duke University Press. Capítulo 3: The Earth-Form of Life, p.46-66 y Cap4: Sentipensar with
    the Earth, p.67-83.

Course Disclaimer

Courses and course hours of instruction are subject to change.

Eligibility for courses may be subject to a placement exam and/or pre-requisites.

Credits earned vary according to the policies of the students' home institutions. According to ISA policy and possible visa requirements, students must maintain full-time enrollment status, as determined by their home institutions, for the duration of the program.

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