A pedagogy for the end of the world
Teaching environmental health and justice in a sacrifice zone
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13055855 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alison Hope Alkon (0000-0002-8913-2776, University of California, Santa Cruz, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 484-491 |
| Publication date | 2024-07-14 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2190-6491 • E-ISSN: 2190-6483 |
| Publisher | Springer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s13412-024-00924-2 |
| OpenAlex | W4400614751 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 36 |
This article describes pedagogical changes that I have made to my Environmental Justice class at the University of the Pacific in response to increasingly crisis conditions with regard to both climate change and higher education. Over the past 15 years, my students are increasingly low-income, first generation, and from Stockton, a so-called “sacrifice zone” with abysmal environmental health outcomes in the heart of California’s Central Valley. My increasing focus on local environmental health disparities, combined with the intensification of the climate crisis, and my decision to prioritize support for student mental health in the midst of climate anxiety, have resulted in a class that feels both connected and immersive. Students are engaging with readings and other course materials, actively participating in discussion, and pushing us further with their own questions, passions, and lived experiences. In this “post”-covid world in which student engagement has become increasingly difficult, student mental health is increasingly tenuous, and climate anxieties plague students and faculty alike, this feels extraordinary and worth sharing. This essay is a chance to reflect on why this shift has occurred, and the potential for university classes to draw working class, diverse students into environmental and climate justice movements at a time when they are so desperately needed
Climate change · Climate justice · Economic Justice · Environmental ethics · Environmental justice · Geography · Mental health · Passions · Political science · Sacrifice · Sociology · Sustainability · Climate Change and Health Impacts · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Environmental Education and Sustainability · Law · Psychology · Ecology
Evolution of a Movement
Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Education
Anxiety, Worry, and Grief in a Time of Environmental and Climate Crisis
Anxiety and the Ecological Crisis
We need to (find a way to) talk about … Eco-anxiety
Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger
Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change
Golden Gulag
Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice
Living in Denial
Sacrifice Zones
Black Geographies and Black Ecologies as Insurgent Ecocriticism
The task of education as we confront the potential for social and ecological collapse
Intersectional feminism for the environmental studies and sciences
Environmental studies and sciences in a time of chaos
Too late for indigenous climate justice
The Cruel Optimism of Transformative Environmental Education
In Defense of Doom and Gloom
A Clear and Present Pedagogy
Imperialism in the Anthropocene
From “education for sustainable development” to “education for the end of the world as we know it”
Tainted Tap
The Educational Challenge of Unraveling the Fantasies of Ontological Security
Land education
Hope and anticipation in education for a sustainable future
Changing the Anthropo(s)cene
The unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |