Graduate Environmental Sociology, 221A - Spring 2024 - Brandeis

You can find a copy of my syllabus for this course by clicking here.

Inequality and Environmental Justice in the City, Sociology 121A - Fall 2023 - Brandeis

Course Description. More than half of the world’s population now resides in urban areas, and this number is expected to increase. However, cities can be challenging to study due to constantly changing environment (both built and natural) and social worlds. Understanding these challenges is imperative to creating socially just urban living. Jane Jacobs wrote in her pivotal work The Death and Life of Great American Cities: “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”  Cities have rich histories and cultures, but they are also sites of extreme inequality, including environmental injustice and racism. In this class, we will explore the causes and consequences of environmental injustice in U.S. cities. We will discuss the history of housing inequality, residential segregation, and how institutions that uphold a system of racial capitalism have led to the unequal concentration of environmental hazards in poor communities and communities of color. This includes investigating the impact of racially restrictive covenants, redlining, zoning, and gentrification and displacement. We will delve into environmental justice studies, which highlights the systematic and structural inequalities that exist in society and how they are interconnected with environmental issues.

Students will:

• Develop a deeper understanding of the central role of social, political, and economic inequality in environmental exposure drawing on work from urban and environmental sociologists.

• Familiarize ourselves with the history of housing inequality in cities and how it relates to contemporary environmental justice issues.

• Critically evaluate policy and community-based solutions to urban environmental justice issues.

• Strengthen our methodical toolkit by completing a project that interrogates the relationship between historic housing inequality and environmental justice using multiple methodologies.

You can find a copy of my syllabus for this course by clicking here.

Other Courses Taught:

• Urban Sociology

• The Political Economy of Cities

• Environmental Sociology

• Environmental Justice and Health