About this course
This course will introduce students to an array of thinkers who scrutinize the history of rhetoric and communication from the standpoints of critical race studies. Over the last decade, scholars working in the field of rhetorical studies have dedicated a great deal of attention to the importance of race to critical interrogations of communication. Black and Indigenous scholars, in particular, have been at the forefront of thinking about communication through the lens of race. From persuasive oratory to recent calls for a rhetoric of sovereignty, the rhetoric of race takes up the intersections of communication, justice, and history. This course provides students with an opportunity to reflect on traditional rhetorical concerns about persuasion and influence in relation to colonialism, systemic racial prejudice, and conceptions of social justice.
What you’ll learn
- Experience plants and trees up close through local field trips.
- Learn how plants enable us not only to survive but thrive.
- Trace humans’ changing understanding of and interactions with plants over time and place.
- Analyze and write about plants from different perspectives — rhetorical, aesthetic, and political.
Course highlights
If you’re interested in different ways to think, write, and talk about the environment, especially plants, then this course will speak to you. Whether you are a science student seeking a fresh view of plants or a humanities or social science student interested in paying closer attention to the natural world, you’ll come away with a deeper understanding of and a renewed appreciation for plants. You will deepen your knowledge about plants and the environment, and develop your ability to communicate that knowledge through a research project of your own choosing.
A personal note from your instructor
TBA
I’ve always been aware of different ways of seeing and interacting with plants: my mother’s parents were farmers who grew plants to survive; my dad’s family gardened for pleasure and beauty; and my daughter has worked as a tree planter to make a living. Like many of us, during lockdown I spent as much time as I could in green spaces, which made me wonder why we take such pleasure and comfort in plants, and how is it that we forget just how dependent we are on them? In this course, students will have a chance to consider and to deepen their own relationship to plants and green spaces.