In “Environmental Injustice” —  UCI Anthro 25A — students work collaboratively to build case studies about environmental injustice in communities in California. For students from California, it is an opportunity to study their home and nearby communities.  For students from elsewhere, it is an opportunity to learn about people and places across the state. Students’ case study research is published on a digital research platform so that it can be a resource to people in the communities studied — and included in students’ resume and research portfolios. 

We study explosive disasters at chemical plants and refineries, air and water pollution, and the effects of climate change — and how all of these impact human health and worsen social inequalities. We also study how people have become environmental activists to find and advocate for solutions.

Student research examines many different factors that contribute to environmental problems — social, political, economic, biochemical, technological.   The course  is designed to give students in different majors (in the social and natural sciences, public health, engineering, urban planning and the humanities) the opportunity to work together in interdisciplinary research teams, leveraging their different skills.  Students learn research skills and to use digital tools for research collaboration that will be useful long after the course is over. 

“Environmental Injustice” also gives students the opportunity to think through and express their own ethical values, professional commitments, and political perspectives.  Throughout the course, we return to an always difficult question: What can and should be done to improve conditions on the ground in different communities confronted with disaster risk, pollution and environmental injustice?  Students work together to find answers.  

The  goal of “Environmental Injustice” is to give students the opportunity to learn about  environmental problems that impact everyday life, and about ways these problems can be researched and addressed through legal, technical, political and cultural change.

See Fall 2019 student research published here.