Ecological anthropology. More-than-human perspective

Timetable

TBC

The course will be held in the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology, MORASKO Campus, Collegium Historicum Novum, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 7

To find out more about the course and whether it is right for you, please contact the lecturer, dr Małgorzata Zofia Kowalska, at malgorzata.kowalska@amu.edu.pl

Module aim (aims)

The course is an introduction to the more-than-human perspective in ecological anthropology and environmental humanities. It discusses key figures, publications and research within the approach. 

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Students should have a good command of English as the readings will be discussed in class. Students should be interested in environmental research.

Syllabus

1. Theory and aims: opening the imagination in times of environmental and social crisis

 2. More-than-human methods and ethics

 3. Anthropological and interdisciplinary fieldwork

Students should read the literature and actively participate in class discussions about it. They should also prepare a final project in the form of a more-than-human map, which could take the form of an essay, graph, short film, etc.

Regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the preparation of final projects, I would encourage you not to use it, given its environmental impact and the fact that the class aims to develop students' analytical and critical thinking skills. However, if you do wish to use AI, please clearly indicate how you did so (e.g. which prompts you used and which parts were based on AI-conducted research). Currently, it is still quite obvious when students have used AI, so failing to indicate this in the final assignment will result in you not passing the class.

The general rules for the use of AI at the university can be found here (in Polish only): https://amu.edu.pl/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/536372/ZR-426-2023-2024.pdf

 

Reading list

Tsing, A. L. 2010. ‘Arts of Inclusion, or How to Love a Mushroom’. Mānoa, vol. 22, nr 2. Wild Hearts: Literature, Ecology, and Inclusion: 191–203.

Mitman G., Haraway D., Tsing A. 2019. Reflections on the Plantationocene: A Conversation with Donna Haraway and Anna Tsing, https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PlantationoceneReflections_Haraway_Tsing.pdf.

Tsing, A. L. 2013. ‘More-than-Human Sociality: A Call for Critical Description’. In K. Hastrup (ed.), Anthropology and Nature, pp. 27-42. London, New York: Routledge.

Ingold T. 2013. Anthropology Beyond Humanity, Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society, vol. 38, nr 3, 5–23.

Rose, D. B. 2017. ‘Shimmer. When All You Love is Being Trashed’. In A. L. Tsing, H. A. Swanson, E. Gan and N. Bubandt (eds), Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene, pp. G51-63. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

White, L. Jr. 1967. ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’. Science, Volume 155, Number 3767: 1203-1207. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12254.

Plumwood, V. 1993. Feminism and the Mastery of Culture. London, New York: Routledge.

Ghosh, A. 2016. The Great Derangement. Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Bawaka Country, Wright S., Suchet-Pearson S., Lloyd K., Burarrwanga L., Ganambarr R., Ganambarr-Stubbs M.,

Ganambarr B., Maymuru D. 2015. Working with and Learning from Country: Decentering Human Authority, Cultural Geographies, vol. 22, nr 2, 269–283.

Gilbert, S. F., Sapp, J. and A. I. Tauber. 2012. ‘A Symbiotic View of Life: We have never been individuals’. The Quarterly Review of Biology Vol. 87, No. 4: 325-341.

Haraway, D. 2016. Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham, London: Duke University Press.

Salmón, E. 2000. ‘Kincentric Ecology: Indigenous Perceptions of the Human-Nature Relationship’. Ecological Applications, 10.5: 1327–1332.

van Dooren, T. and M. Chrulew. 2022. ‘World of Kin. An Introduction’ to T. van Dooren and M. Chrulew (eds), Kin. Thinking with Deborah Bird Rose, pp. 1-14. Durham, London: Durham University Press.

Bateson, G. 2000 [1972]. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Additional readings

Tsing, A., Swanson, H., Gan, E., and N. Bubandt (eds). 2017. Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Tsing, A. L. 2022. ‘The Sociality of Birds. Reflections on Ontological Edge Effects’. In T. van Dooren and M. Chrulew (eds), Kin. Thinking with Deborah Bird Rose, pp. 15-31. Durham, London: Durham University Press.

Rose, D. B. 2011. Wild dog dreaming. Love and extinction. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press

Rose, D. B. 2007. ‘Recursive Epistemologies and an Ethics of Attention’. In J-G. Goulet and B. G. Miller (eds), Extraordinary Anthropology: Transformations in the Field, pp. 88-102. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press

Stengers, I. 2018. Another Science is Possible. A Plea for Slow Science. Cambridge, UK and Medford, USA: Polity Press.