Environmental Struggles
MIT's anthropology course examines how people fight over access to and meaning of the natural world, from land and water rights disputes to competing ideas of what counts as "nature" or "wilderness." Readings and case studies range across regions and draw on ethnographic accounts of resource conflicts, conservation politics, and environmental justice movements. The course materials, available through MIT OpenCourseWare, include a syllabus, weekly reading assignments, and writing prompts that ask students to analyze specific disputes over land, forests, water, and wildlife. Rather than treating environmental problems as purely technical, the course frames them as social and political struggles shaped by power, culture, and history. No videos accompany the materials, but the reading list and assignments give a full semester's worth of structured coursework for anyone wanting to think critically about environmental conflict beyond headlines and policy debates.