GNDR5120

This class unsettles familiar ideas of nature and gender by asking how culture, power and imagination shape the stories we tell about the world. Drawing on literature, film, philosophy, environmental activism, and Indigenous ecological knowledge, we explore how human societies assign gendered roles to people but also to the more-than-human.Ecofeminism reminds us how the domination of women is tied to the exploitation of land, and queer theory invites us to move toward relationships with the earth that resist what is considered normal or dominant. Indigenous ecological frameworks deepen this work by centering reciprocity, kinship, and accountability to land and water.Rather than dwelling on ecological collapse and cultural domination, this course turns toward possibility and hope. By connecting critical theory, history, and cultural critique to contemporary ecological challenges, we imagine more just, playful, and life-affirming ways of living together—human and more-than-human alike.

Fall and Spring