Climates of Inequality: The Plantation-to-Petrochemical Complex

What is the relationship between land, labor, and global capitalist modernity? How does studying environmental injustice help resituate America’s colonial past and its imperial present? This interdisciplinary course introduces students to one of the most pressing environmental justice struggles in the nation today: Cancer Alley, USA. Together, we will explore the entwined histories of slavery, settler colonialism, and racial capitalism in Louisiana and the broader Gulf South, connecting colonial history to ongoing forms of state violence. Readings draw heavily from Environmental History, Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS), and Black Studies to address themes of ecological devastation and embodied violence, while also highlighting practices of resistance and resurgence from historical uprisings to contemporary cultural revitalization efforts. Students will learn to critically analyze how racialized systems of power and privilege structure inequality while envisioning alternative, more just futures.