Sustainability - Past and Present

Our daily lives -- and our national politics -- are increasingly impacted by both fears and effects of global warming and climate change. However, ours is not the first society that has struggled with issues of conservation, governance, infrastructure, and resilience. This course will introduce students to the social and ecological challenges of sustainability, past and present, through the lenses of archaeology and political ecology -- including scientific, technological, and social strategies. This includes asking, "sustainable for whom?" -- who benefits from (or is harmed by) environmental policies and transformations?