Course Details

Course offered Autumn 2021

HONORS 392 A: Political Ecology of Death in the Anthropocene (SSc / NSc, W)

HONORS 392 A: Political Ecology of Death in the Anthropocene (SSc / NSc, W)

SLN 16406 (View UW registration info »)

Karen Litfin (Political Science)
Office: 33 Gowen, Box 353530
Phone: (206) 685-3694
Email: litfin@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 5 students

Honors Credit Type

Note: this course will be jointly listed with POL S 401B.
Every living organism dies, as do ecosystems and species, thereby perpetuating the “circle of life.” One species, however, has developed the capacity to anticipate (and therefore dread) death and commandeer planetary life-support systems in service to its own growth. Humanity is now operating well outside the planetary boundaries that characterized the Holocene, the interglacial “sweet spot” during which civilization emerged. The implications are profound: not only are we facing the end of “nature” as something separate from human culture, we are also facing the possibility of civilizational death.  

We therefore ask ourselves: what are the political and ecological consequences of how individuals and societies approach death? While death is a fact of life, questions of who lives, who dies, who decides, and with what consequences are also political ones. Our discussion will therefore be informed by themes of justice, equity, power and authority, and political agency. At the same time, because mortality is also an intensely personal reality, we will deepen our self-inquiry through poetry, videos, contemplative practices, personal exploration, and political action.