Environmental Conflict
This MIT OpenCourseWare course examines how humans and natural environments interact through the lens of environmental conflict, drawing case studies from non-western regions as well as Europe and the United States. Students work through ethnographic accounts of disputes over land, resources, and competing definitions of nature, using them to trace local, national, and transnational power relationships embedded in environmental decisions. The course pairs theoretical readings on political ecology and environmental anthropology with specific conflict case studies, asking who gets to define nature and whose interests that definition serves. Materials include the full syllabus, reading list, and assignment prompts as published by MIT's Anthropology program. There are no videos or graded certificate, but the readings and discussion questions are complete enough to work through independently for anyone interested in the intersection of anthropology, environment, and power.