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In this course we explore the entanglements of gender, nature and culture that have been at the heart of feminist theory and activism. These concerns have gained renewed feminist attention in the era geologists call the Anthropocene where human activities irreparably have impacted on geological, biotic and climatic processes. What does it mean to live in the ruins of capitalism and what life and specifically feminist and queer politics can be generated when there is no simple cure or going back to pre-industrial times? These questions will take us to theories of racism and colonialism as much as gender, queer and trans studies and human animal studies. How do we have to rethink sexed gendered and racialized embodiment, affect and intelligence and notions of care, responsibility and the political from the perspective of plants, nonhuman animals or other bodies of water? What do feminist research practices look like that are not restricted to human concerns, or rather understand the very concerns of gender and feminist research as irretrievably intertwined with the more-than-human world of which we are part?
The course will proceed through engaging case studies, as well as an exercise of creative ‘weather writing’ that will take us out of the classroom to expand our always more than human sensorium, train our creative writing skills and attune us to our entwinement with particular surroundings.
Topics
1. Welcome to the (Pl)Anthropocene
2. Petroculture, Extractivism and Petromasculinity
3. Planetary Reproductive Rights and Nuclearity
4. Queer Animals and Trans* ecologies
5. weather writing: Learning to become affected
6. Caring for Nonhuman Kin
7. (Non)Western Ontologies & Indigenous Analytics
8. Queer kin: Becoming responsible with waste
9. Mourning Extinction
10. Hope and Transspecies Politics
Last update: Lorenz - Meyer Dagmar, M.A., Ph.D. (03.02.2025)
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1. To develop a critical appreciation of the entanglements of gender, nature and culture and our relations to nonhuman others 2. To explore classic and contemporary conceptions of natureculture, petrocultures; matter(ing), materiality 3. To rethink key feminist concepts such as sex, care, agency, response-ability and cosmopolitics from more than human perspectives 4. To undertake gender analysis of environmental problems in and around ‘us’ 5. to train our sensorium and attune tio the weather 5. To advance students’ English academic and creative writing skills Last update: Lorenz - Meyer Dagmar, M.A., Ph.D. (03.02.2025)
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Assessment will be continuous and includes individual and group work through the semester. Instead of a final exam students will write a final paper, individually or in pairs. Individual work: * Active participation in weekly class discussions based on weekly assigned reading: 25 % * Short concept paper (500 words): write about a concept from the course readings that you find interesting: Illustrate what the concepts allow us to sense and do by providing an example. 15% * Creative writing paper/weather writing (500 words): write a short piece based on a fieldtrip we do together – you can add drawings, photographs and sound recordings. 10% Group work (in small groups of 2-4 students) * Choose a session that you want to run with ar peer: prepare 3-4 questions for class discussion: 15% * Final paper: analyse and expand on a course topic of your choice, drawing on further readings and at least two main readings (2000 words individually or 3500 words in pairs). A short 200 word abstract is due before the last class. 35%
Last update: Lorenz - Meyer Dagmar, M.A., Ph.D. (03.02.2025)
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This course will be divided between short introductions and a discussion of weekly required readings. Class discussions will be prepared by students who will be responsible for this session. you will also go on a fieldtrip and experiment with creative weather writing. You will receive detailed feedback on two written assignments.
Last update: Lorenz - Meyer Dagmar, M.A., Ph.D. (03.02.2025)
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a detailed syllabus will be distributed at the beginning of the semester. weekly topics include queer ecologies, ecoheteronormativity and anthropcentrism; anthropocene, plantationocene and planthropocene; extinction, petrocultures, companion species; care for the more than human world; mutltispecies resistance; indigenous analytics and epistemologies; indigenous energy futurism. Compulsory: Last update: Lorenz - Meyer Dagmar, M.A., Ph.D. (03.02.2025)
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