Natural Resources and the Environment (NTRES) 3330
Graduate Section: NTRES 6330
American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) 3330
American Studies (AMST) 3330
Course Description
Based on indigenous and place-based “ways of knowing,” this course:
(1) Presents a theoretical and humanistic framework from which to understand generation of ecological knowledge;
(2) Examines processes by which to engage indigenous and place-based knowledge of “natural resources”, the nonhuman environment, and human-environment interactions; and
(3) Reflects upon the relevance of this knowledge to climatic change, resource extraction, food sovereignty, medicinal plant biodiversity, and issues of justice, sustainability, and conservation.
The fundamental premise of this course is that human beings are embedded in their ecological systems.
Course Learning Outcomes
Based on applied empirical research carried out in collaboration with communities, the Learning Outcomes of this course are:
- To evaluate the notion of “natural resource” development from a human ecological perspective;
- To apply the interdisciplinary lens of human ecology to understand human and environmental relations;
- To appreciate the complex interconnectivity between the ecological and the cultural;
- To comprehend that individual actions, informed by cultural systems, manifest themselves in social structures that rely on ecological foundations;
- To extend the concept of transdisciplinary to include indigenous and place-based knowledge;
- To situate the diversity of indigenous and place-based knowledge within a humanistic framework of knowledge generation;
- To illustrate the participatory and experiential basis of indigenous and place-based knowledge;
- To propose a method best suited for researching such pluralistic knowledge processes; and
- To value the contributions of indigenous and place-based knowledge in the context of sociocultural and environmental change and stewardship.
Karim-Aly Kassam gives an overview of Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Place-Based Ecological Knowledge.