Course Overview
Death is indispensable to the healthy functioning of ecosystems and even to evolution itself. One species has developed the capacity to anticipate (and therefore dread) death and commandeer the biosphere to its own ends. Pollution and habitat destruction, once limited to local and regional scales, are now planetary; hence the Anthropocene. The implications are profound. We face not only the end of “nature,” we also face the risk of civilizational death. How, then, do we live with a sense of meaning and purpose? And what can the current pandemic teach us about the political ecology of death and the Anthropocene?
While death is a fact of life, who lives, who dies, and who decides are political matters. Our discussion will therefore be informed by themes of justice, equity, power, authority, and agency. At the same time, because mortality is also an intensely personal reality, we will deepen our inquiry through poetry, videos, contemplative practices, personal exploration, and political action.
We will explore the following topics:
- Secular, religious, spiritual and indigenous perspectives on death
- Ernst Becker's “denial of death” thesis and more recent terror management theory
- The political and ecological consequences of various “immortality projects”
- Political ecology of pandemics
- The relationship between waste and death
- Linear economics vs. regenerative living systems
- Anthropogenic species death and the mass extinction crisis
- How cultural attitudes about ecology and death inform the treatment of animals
- Pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and ecocide
- The political ecology of end-of-life care and the treatment of corpses
- The relationship between democracy and the political ecology of death
- Grief, hope, meaning, and political agency in the face of ecocide
What You Will Learn
If you engage yourself dynamically with this course, including grasping content from lectures and readings, participating actively in class, writing thoughtful papers and blog posts, and creatively contributing to a group action project, I expect that you will improve your depth of understanding and skillfulness in many arenas, most especially the following:
- Analytical and critical thinking skills about some of the most important issues of our day, including climate change, biodiversity
- The capacity to integrate cognitive, emotional, and somatic self-awareness in the face of challenging questions
- Your ability to articulate ideas and feelings about these issues, both in writing and conversation
- Your ability to listen to, understand, empathize and collaborate with others who do not necessarily share your opinions and beliefs
- Reflecting upon your sense of meaning in the face of both personal mortality and ecocide
- Enhancing your sense of citizenship and political agency in the planetary era.
Course requirements
- Intensive reading on the political ecology of death (100-200 pages/week)
- Active participation in discussions and contemplative practices
- Please bring your full and engaged presence to class, having read associated materials
- Contributing to our course blog (four required posts)
- Group action project
- Weekly meetings with your “study/action group” towards a community service project
- Your contribution will be evaluated by your peers
- A final paper synthesizing your learning from the action project and course materials.
Required Texts (in order of usage)
Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski (2015) The worm at the core: on the role of death in life, New York: Random House.
Roy Scranton (2015) Learning to die in the Anthropocene: reflections on the end of a civilization, San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books.
Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone (2012) Active hope: how to face the mess we're in without going crazy, Novato, Calif.: New World Library.
Course Grading
Participation 20%
Postings to course blog 40%
Weekly questions 10%
Action project 5%
Final synthesis paper 25%