Image 1 of 1
Young people are leading the fight for climate and environmental justice today, and also have so much to learn from the legacies of those who shaped the EJ movement. In the first week of the course, we will create a concept map to create our collective definition of Environmental Justice, drawing upon the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice and connecting to our lived experiences as well. As a grounding for our course, we will reflect on our ecological identities and our relationship to the Earth through poetry, visual art, music, and creative nonfiction. After students make direct observations of an outdoor space of their choosing, they will write sensory vignettes or another creative piece about their community’s environment as a way to ground us in place-based inquiry.
In the second week we will then study the work of Black and Indigenous environmental justice leaders (past and present), paying close attention to their powerful organizing techniques, strategies, and storytelling. For example, Hazel M. Johnson (known as the Mother of Environmental Justice), dedicated her life to fighting environmental racism in Chicago and the intertwining crises of toxic pollution, housing injustice, and public health. Following in Hazel’s footsteps and in those of other EJ leaders, students will analyze the importance of relationship building, science for the people, and communication/narrative building as we organize for change. They will then research one “case study” of an environmental justice issue (locally or abroad) and create either an artwork “documenting” and “translating” the story of that issue, or journalistic writing piece. We’ll also take a field trip to meet with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) for their Toxic Tour, either virtually or in person if you’re in Chicago!
In our third and fourth weeks, we’ll focus on community science, gathering our own data on air quality, doing soil and water testing for contaminants, and learning about climate change mitigation strategies. We will send you a kit with all the tools your student will need! Throughout their self-designed “field work” investigations, students will collect, organize, and analyze their data (both quantitative and qualitative) to support ideas for how to take action for environmental justice. Their work will inform environmental policy proposals as well as engineering ideas, artworks, creative writing, and more! To wrap up our course, we will reflect on how we can continue to stay rooted in and grow from our ecological identities, we will either: 1) Visit a local forest preserve for a guided nature walk and/or foraging activity or 2) Visit a local urban farm or community garden. For our students outside of Chicago, we will connect you to resources near you!
Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to:
Explore creative, informative, and journalistic styles of writing as they reflect on their relationship to the environment, what environmental justice means, and how they can take part in EJ movement
Develop their identities as community scientists by:
Designing investigations where they will gather and interpret data from their field observations as well as interviews of people in their communities
Taking interdisciplinary approaches in their research in order to inform community activism and policy change