Fall 2024 Undergraduate Courses
The following undergraduate courses in food and agriculture will be offered this fall.
| Course Code | Course Instructor(s) | Course Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANTH 425 | Archaeology of Protohistoric Japan | Where and when are the origins of Japanese culture? In this seminar we will examine the archaeology of the Japanese archipelago from the introduction of paddy rice agriculture through the end of the 8th century with an eye toward this question. Examining excavated materials and early textual accounts, we will confront myths—both ancient and modern—of Japanese origins, and interrogate the framing of these time periods. Students will explore the interplay between event and process; and between local developments and outside influence through topics including the arrival of immigrant populations and rice agriculture, political and trade relationships within the archipelago as well as on the Asian continent, and the emergence of political “statehood.” | YC | |
| ENG 114 | Rasheed Tazudeen | Black and Indigenous Ecologies | Who gets to define the meaning of ecology, along with the earth we stand on, and how is this definition bound up with the legacies of colonial power, empire, slavery, and other forms of racialized oppression? And what new modes of ecological thought might emerge once we engage with the perspectives of indigenous peoples and communities of color—traditionally excluded from dominant environmentalist discourses—and their alternative ways of thinking and imagining a relation to the earth? Through readings in anthropology, geology, critical race studies, philosophy, literature, and poetry, this course explores the ecologies and counter-ecologies born of anti-imperial opposition, from 1492 to the present. Struggles for liberation, as we will examine, are never separable from struggles for land, food, water, air, and an earth in common. From Standing Rock to Sao Paulo, the Antilles to New Zealand, and Mauna Kea to Lagos, we will engage with anti-colonial and anti-racist attempts to craft an image of the earth no longer made in the ecocidal image of imperialist Western Man (or the anthropos of “Anthropocene”),and to imagine a future to be held and composed in common by all. | YC |
| HIST 109 | Varies by section | Climate & Environment in American History: From Columbian Exchange to Closing of the Frontier Climate & Environment in American History: From Columbian Exchange to Closing of the Frontier | This lecture course explores the crucial role that climate and environmental conditions have played in American history from the period of European colonization to the end of the 19th century. Its focus is on the dramatic changes brought about by the encounters among Indigenous, European, and African peoples in this period, the influence of climate and climate change on these encounters, and the environmental transformations brought about by European colonization and conquest and the creation of new economies and polities (including chattel slavery). The lectures offer a new framework for organizing and periodizing North American history, based on geographical and environmental conditions rather than traditional national and political frameworks. The course provides a historical foundation for understanding contemporary American (and global) climate and environmental issues. | YC |
| ANTH 409 | Michael Dove | Climate and Society: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities | Discussion of the major currents of thought regarding climate and climate change; focusing on equity, collapse, folk knowledge, historic and contemporary visions, western and non-western perspectives, drawing on the social sciences and humanities. | YC |
| EVST 244 | Mary Beth Decker | Coastal Environments in a Changing World | The effects of human action and natural phenomena on coastal marine ecosystems. Methods used by coastal scientists to address environmental issues; challenges associated with managing and conserving coastal environments. | YC |
| EVST 369 | Robert Harms | Commodities of Colonialism in Africa | This course examines historical case studies of several significant global commodities produced in Africa to explore interactions between world market forces and African resources and societies. Through the lens of four specific commodities–ivory, rubber, cotton, and diamonds–this course evaluates diverse industries and their historical trajectories in sub-Saharan Africa within a global context from ~1870-1990s. Students become acquainted with the historical method by developing their own research paper on a commodity using both primary and secondary sources. | YC |
| AFST 389 | Leslie Gross-Wyrtzen | Comparative settler geographies | This advanced undergraduate seminar delves into theories and comparative studies of recent and contemporary settler colonial geographies to ask the following questions: 1) What are the key characteristics of settler colonial geographies and (how) are they distinct from colonial geographies? 2) What are the intellectual and political stakes of applying settler colonialism as an analytical lens? 3) How does comparative analysis deepen or disrupt concepts such as sovereignty, race, and I/indigeneity, especially in a majority world context? 4) How do Indigenous or and/or occupied peoples contest settler cartographies through placemaking and other strategies? In this seminar, we read key theoretical texts in colonial, postcolonial, settler, Native, and Indigenous studies with an emphasis on global and Southern intervention. Alongside theoretical texts, we focus on four case studies that, to a greater or lesser degree, push the boundaries of settler colonial definitions and concepts: South Africa, Morocco/Western Sahara, Israel/Palestine, and southwestern China and Tibet. Where possible, we invite scholars with expertise in the cases to speak to the class. | YC |
| HUMS 326 | Gary Tomlinson | Cultural Studies beyond Earth | This course is a thought experiment conducted with theory and data drawn from astro- or exobiology, evolutionary science, ethology, and cultural and semiotic theory. Scientists interested in life on other planets understand the need to start their inquiries from the only example of life we know, on earth. They work to extrapolate, from earthly biology, the principles of a universal biology: conditions that must hold anywhere life has arisen. Can we form a universal cultural study, extending their extrapolation toward conditions that enable culture wherever it might arise? We begin with an overview of universal biology, then examine cultures of humans and other animals on earth, and finally approach theoretically the foundations on which they arise, including semiotic theory and questions concerning communication and technics. | YC |
| ARCH 327 | Justin Moore | Difference and the City | Four hundred and odd years after colonialism and racial capitalism brought twenty and odd people from Africa to the dispossessed indigenous land that would become the United States, the structures and systems that generate inequality and white supremacy persist. Our cities and their socioeconomic and built environments continue to exemplify difference. From housing and health to mobility and monuments, cities small and large, north and south, continue to demonstrate intractable disparities. The disparate impacts made apparent by the COVID-19 pandemic and the reinvigorated and global Black Lives Matter movement demanding change are remarkable. Change, of course, is another essential indicator of difference in urban environments, exemplified by the phenomena of disinvestment or gentrification. This course explores how issues like climate change and growing income inequality intersect with politics, culture, gender equality, immigration and migration, technology, and other considerations and forms of disruption. | YC |
| PSYC 118 | Katherine Battle | Disney: A Case Study in Applied Psychology | Disney wields enormous influence on our society. Its domination of social media, film, theme parks, and online merchandising allows Disney to shape entire generations. This course uses a theoretical and empirical framework of psychology to examine how Disney exerts its influence and what impact that influence has on behavior, self-perception, and mental health. We incorporate theories and practices from a wide range of branches of psychology including social, clinical, industrial/organization, neuropsychology, developmental, environmental, and media psychology as a foundation for the seminar. The course interweaves related multidisciplinary readings and insights from perspectives including (but not limited to) women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; race and ethnicity; film and media; visual arts; music; environmental studies; food/health; philosophy/morality; global affairs; and economics. The course begins with an overview of how Disney uses psychology to influence behavior in its theme parks, online marketing, and workplace and will culminate in a critical examination of representation in Disney films/media and the psychological literature on how that representation impacts self-perception and mental health. Students have ample opportunity to focus on specific areas of interest in weekly responses and longer writing assignments. Prior coursework in psychology is not necessary, nor is it assumed. | YC |
| CSBR 210 | John Clark-Ginetti | Drink Culture: The History, Ethics & Aesthetics of Cocktails | Food and drink are central to human experience. Over the past 150 years, the cocktail has emerged as a reflection & embodiment of American material culture. In this cross-disciplinary seminar, we examine what the cocktail has meant in different times and places, and how drink culture itself is bound up with colonialism, imperialism, the rise of science, and the commodification of art. | YC |
| E&EB 035 | Linda Puth | Ecology of Food | Food and ecology are inextricably linked, both in producing domesticated food through agriculture and livestock and in harvesting wild plants and animals. Furthermore, the production and consumption of food have downstream consequences through energy consumption, food waste, trophic interactions, and the transportation of food around the globe. These topics link to many of the fundamental concepts of ecology, including population biology, the niche, trophic interactions, nitrogen cycling, and the effects on biodiversity. In this class, we explore these topics intensively through a combination of lectures, readings, and interactive field trips to on/near campus ecosystems, including the Marsh Botanical Gardens, the Yale Sustainable Farm, a nearby forest and salt marsh, and an orchard. Each week, we meet twice for 50 minutes for a combination of lecture and discussion and for 110 minutes for field trips, discussions, and guest lectures. Enrollment limited to first-year students. | YC |
| ER&M 269 | Alison Kibbe | Embodied Methods: Lessons in Praxis from Women of Color | Understanding ethnic studies, black studies, and gender studies as necessarily anti-disciplinary practices, this course explores modes of research that embrace the body as a tool, a way of knowing, and a method for cutting across the silos and boundaries that academic disciplines impose. We explore various forms of embodied research praxis, including performance ethnography, food studies, oral history, dance, and other boundary-crossing methods. Centering the approaches of women of color researchers, artists, and practitioners who have, we ask, what is the role of the body and embodied knowledge in relationship to written scholarship? How do embodied approaches contribute to our work about migration, mobility, social movements, race, class, gender, sexuality, and their intersections? The class involves movement and embodiment practices during every session, both instructor and student-led. Students should be willing to participate and experiment with various forms. Students should anticipate a holistic experience that requires an openness to physical activity (accessible to all) as one of our primary tools for both analyzing course materials and constructing our own boundary-crossing projects. Understanding ethnic studies, black studies, and gender studies as necessarily anti-disciplinary practices, this course explores modes of research that embrace the body as a tool, a way of knowing, and a method for cutting across the silos and boundaries that academic disciplines impose. We explore various forms of embodied research praxis, including performance ethnography, food studies, oral history, dance, and other boundary-crossing methods. Centering the approaches of women of color researchers, artists, and practitioners who have, we ask, what is the role of the body and embodied knowledge in relationship to written scholarship? How do embodied approaches contribute to our work about migration, mobility, social movements, race, class, gender, sexuality, and their intersections? The class involves movement and embodiment practices during every session, both instructor and student-led. Students should be willing to participate and experiment with various forms. Students should anticipate a holistic experience that requires an openness to physical activity (accessible to all) as one of our primary tools for both analyzing course materials and constructing our own boundary-crossing projects. | YC |
| PLSC 215 | John Wargo | Environmental Law and Politics | We explore relations among environmental quality, health, and law. We consider global-scale avoidable challenges such as: environmentally related human illness, climate instability, water depletion and contamination, food and agriculture, air pollution, energy, packaging, culinary globalization, and biodiversity loss. We evaluate the effectiveness of laws and regulations intended to reduce or prevent environmental and health damages. Additional laws considered include rights of secrecy, property, speech, worker protection, and freedom from discrimination. Comparisons among the US and EU legal standards and precautionary policies will also be examined. Ethical concerns of justice, equity, and transparency are prominent themes. | YC |
| EVST 234L | Kealoha Freidenburg | Field Science: Environment and Sustainability | A field course that explores the effects of human influences on the environment. Analysis of pattern and process in forested ecosystems; introduction to the principles of agroecology, including visits to local farms; evaluation of sustainability within an urban environment. Weekly field trips and one weekend field trip. | YC |
| WGSS 260 | Maria Trumpler | Food, Identity and Desire | Exploration of how food—ingredients, cooking practices, and appetites—can intersect with gender, ethnicity, class, and national origin to produce profound experiences of identity and desire. Sources include memoir, cookbooks, movies, and fiction. | YC |
| ER&M 297 | Quan Tran | Food, Race, and Migration in United States Society | Exploration of the relationship between food, race, and migration in historical and contemporary United States contexts. Organized thematically and anchored in selected case studies, this course is comparative in scope and draws from contemporary work in the fields of food studies, ethnic studies, migration studies, American studies, anthropology, and history. | YC |
| E&EB 220 | David Vasseur | General Ecology | The theory and practice of ecology, including the ecology of individuals, population dynamics and regulation, community structure, ecosystem function, and ecological interactions at broad spatial and temporal scales. Topics such as climate change, fisheries management, and infectious diseases are placed in an ecological context. | YC |
| E&EB 247L | Erika Edwards | Laboratory for Plant Diversity & Evolution | Hands-on experience with the plant groups examined in the accompanying lectures. Local field trips. | YC |
| E&EB 340 | Martina Dal Bello | Microbial Ecology | When thinking about microbes what comes to mind are usually diseases and unpleasant smells from the fridge or the basement. Nevertheless, microbes and the communities they form are key contributors to our wellbeing and the functioning of the planet. This course provides an introduction to microbial ecology, with an emphasis on how microbial systems differ from their macroscopic counterparts, including defining a microbial species; sampling/experimenting with microbes; principles of microbial growth, metabolism, and death; species interactions and community assembly in different environments; microbial community functions; elements of microbial evolution. | YC |
| ENGL 341 | Jonathan Kramnick | Nature Poetry, from the Classics to Climate Change | Poetry of the natural world, beginning with classical pastoral and ending with lyric responses to climate change. We consider how poetry attempts to make sense of our interaction with the earth at important moments of change, from pre-industrial agriculture to global capitalism and the Anthropocene. | YC |
| EVST 030 | Harvey Weiss | Origins of Civilization: Egypt and Mesopotamia | The origins of the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt along the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates Rivers explored with archaeological, historical and environmental data for the origins of agriculture, the classes and hierarchies that marked earliest cities, states and empires, the innovative monumental architecture, writing, imperial expansion, and new national ideologies. How and why these civilizational processes occurred with the momentous societal collapses at periods of abrupt climate change. | YC |
| E&EB 246 | Erika Edwards | Plant Diversity & Evolution | This course has several, interrelated objectives. First, it serves as an introduction to the science of phylogenetics, providing an overview of both the theory and methodology involved in constructing phylogenetic trees, and how to use trees to study character and organismal evolution. For our second objective, we put this new framework to immediate use by using phylogeny to explore and illustrate 400 million years of land plant evolution, with emphasis on the diversity of flowering plants. The course examines major trends in plant evolution from functional, ecological, and bio-geographical perspectives. Students acquire a basic understanding of 1) phylogenetic approaches to comparative biology, 2) plant anatomy and morphology, 3) evolutionary relationships among the major land plant clades (with emphasis on the flowering plants),and 4) major evolutionary trends that have significantly shaped the diversity of plant life that we see today. The third and most important objective is to instill in students the ability to look at any biological problem through the lens of "phylogeny-colored glasses"- a powerful way to examine the complexity of life that surrounds (and includes!) us. | YC |
| AFST 889 | Cajetan Iheka | Postcolonial Ecologies | This seminar examines the intersections of postcolonialism and ecocriticism as well as the tensions between these conceptual nodes, with readings drawn from across the global South. Topics of discussion include colonialism, development, resource extraction, globalization, ecological degradation, nonhuman agency, and indigenous cosmologies. The course is concerned with the narrative strategies affording the illumination of environmental ideas. We begin by engaging with the questions of postcolonial and world literature and return to these throughout the semester as we read primary texts, drawn from Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia. We consider African ecologies in their complexity from colonial through post-colonial times. In the unit on the Caribbean, we take up the transformations of the landscape from slavery, through colonialism, and the contemporary era. Turning to Asian spaces, the seminar explores changes brought about by modernity and globalization as well as the effects on both humans and nonhumans. Readings include the writings of Zakes Mda, Aminatta Forna, Helon Habila, Derek Walcott, Jamaica Kincaid, Ishimure Michiko, and Amitav Ghosh. The course prepares students to respond to key issues in postcolonial ecocriticism and the environmental humanities, analyze the work of the major thinkers in the fields, and examine literary texts and other cultural productions from a postcolonial perspective. Course participants have the option of selecting from a variety of final projects. Students can craft an original essay that analyzes primary text from a postcolonial and/or ecocritical perspective. Such work should aim at producing new insight on a theoretical concept and/or the cultural text. They can also produce an undergraduate syllabus for a course at the intersection of postcolonialism and environmentalism or write a review essay discussing three recent monographs focused on postcolonial ecocriticism. | YC |
| ER&M 339 | Lloyd Kevin Sy | Region, Indigeneity, and American Literary Realism | A study of American literature between roughly 1865 and 1930, with a focus on the themes of place and race, especially how authors handle the theme of being authentically American. An outsized focus is placed on the often neglected works of Indigenous American writers. Potential readings: Zitkala-Sa, Sarah Winnemucca, Susette La Flesche, Mourning Dove, Twain, James, Charles Chesnutt, Hurston, Cather, Dunbar, Wharton, Sherwood Anderson, Jewett, Sui Sin Far. | YC |
| PSYC 775 | Laurie Santos | Research Topics in Animal Cognition | Investigation of various topics in animal cognition, including what nonhuman primates know about tools and foods; how nonhuman primates represent objects and number; whether nonhuman primates possess a theory of mind. | YC |
| EALL 025 | Jinyi Chu | Russian and Chinese Science Fiction | What can we learn about Russian and Chinese cultures through their fantasies? How do Russian and Chinese writers and filmmakers respond to the global issues of animal ethics, artificial intelligence, space immigration, surveillance, gender and sexuality? How are Russian and Chinese visions of the future different from and similar to the western ones? This course explores these questions by examining 20th-21st century Russian and Chinese science fictions in their cultural, historical, and philosophical contexts. All readings and discussion in English. Sci-fi authors and translators will be invited to give guest lectures. | YC |
| CENG 411 | Paul Van Tassel | Separation and Purification Processes | Theory and design of separation processes for multicomponent and/or multiphase mixtures via equilibrium and rate phenomena. Topics include single-stage and cascaded absorption, adsorption, extraction, distillation, partial condensation, filtration, and crystallization processes. Applications to environmental engineering (air and water pollution control),biomedical-chemical engineering (artificial organs, drug purification),food processing, and semiconductor processing. | YC |
| GLBL 313 | Jessica Faieta | The United Nations on the Ground | This course explores the role and functioning of the United Nations at the country level from the perspective of the three mandates or pillars of the UN Charter. 1) Peace and Security, and in particular the Peace-keeping operations: how do they work? Who decides to send a UN mission to a country? what do they do in each country? 2) Development: How does the UN helps countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals? Which are the different UN agencies, funds, and programs and how do they work in reducing poverty, advancing gender equality, preventing violence, fighting climate change and protecting the environment or ensuring food security? and 3) Human rights: How does the UN respond to humanitarian crises, such as natural disasters or refugee crisis? What is its role in protecting vulnerable populations such as children, ethnic minorities or indigenous peoples? How does the Organization monitor human rights compliance or helps avoid human rights violations? | YC |
| ANTH 830 | Richard Bribiescas | Topics and Issues in Human Life History Evolution | This seminar reviews our current understanding of life history traits that have been central to human evolution. Traits to be examined include patterns of growth, sexual maturation, reproduction, and aging. Emphasis is placed on the examination of the literature of forager and non-industrialized communities as well as comparative information from nonhuman animal models, particularly nonhuman primates. | YC |
| AMST 426 | Roberto Sirvent | U.S. Militarism and Popular Culture | What role do baking competitions, reality TV, and American Idol play in rallying support for the military? How did the Department of Defense and NASA develop such close ties with Iron Man and Captain Marvel? How can the field of critical food studies help us understand the connection between Starbucks, corporate power, and the U.S. war machine? This course examines the growing culture of American militarism across various mediums such as film, television, video games, music, toys, sports, and comic books. Students draw on interdisciplinary approaches to the study of popular culture to explore how different kinds of media promote war as a form of “militainment” that ultimately serves to valorize troops, sanitize war, and glorify territorial conquest. Throughout the course, students also are introduced to pop culture representations of nuclear weapons, AI, and biological warfare; the prevalence of Islamophobia in the digital games industry; current debates around UFOs, alien abduction, and government coverup; and the ways professional sport teams like the Kansas City Chiefs reenact and celebrate the killing of Indigenous people for pleasure and entertainment – and how such native cultural appropriation fits into the larger historical context of the Indian wars and U.S. military violence. | YC |
| ECON 733 | Costas Arkolakis | Urban and Environmental Economics | A Ph.D. field course covering latest research topics in urban economics and in environmental and energy economics. Topics include the links between urban planning and city productivity and livability, infrastructure investments in electrification and water management, managing externalities, environmental regulation, and the effects of climate change in cities and in rural areas. | YC |
| EMD 537 | Ying Chen | Water, Sanitation, and Global Health | Water is essential for life, and yet unsafe water poses threats to human health globally, from the poorest to the wealthiest countries. More than two billion people around the world lack access to clean, safe drinking water, hygiene, and sanitation (WASH). This course focuses on the role of water in human health from a public health perspective. The course provides a broad overview of the important relationships between water quality, human health, and the global burden of waterborne diseases. It discusses the basics of water compartments and the health effects from exposures to pathogenic microbes and toxic chemicals in drinking water. It also covers different sanitation solutions to improve water quality and disease prevention and discusses future challenges and the need for intervention strategies in the new millennium. | YC |