Syllabus

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Change

MALS 78500, The Graduate Center, CUNY

July 7 – Aug. 13, Summer 2020

Dr. Kaitlin Mondello

kmondello@gc.cuny.edu

Virtual Office Hours: Tuesdays 6-7pm and By appointment

Mode: This course is fully online for 6 weeks. We will meet Thursdays 6-8:30pm for synchronous video conferencing on Zoom (with a break in the middle). All other work will be completed asynchronously, using the CUNY Academic Commons. (Synchronous = happening at the same time vs Asynchronous = can be completed at any time on your own schedule within the given deadlines).

Course Description:

“The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not,”

– 16-year old climate activist Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Action Summit, Sept. 25, 2019.

This course will study a range of academic, journalistic, activist, and artistic responses to the climate crisis. We will attend to the rhetorical devices and modes employed across texts and media on the subject. The goal of the course is to explore the nexus of the economic, political, scientific, cultural and emotional dimensions of climate change. Course texts include academic work in the humanities, social sciences and sciences; short- and long-form journalism; and the new genre of “cli-fi” (climate fiction). We also will take a cultural studies approach that includes the study of film, advertising, and art.

Learning Goals:

Course-Specific:

Gain a broad knowledge of the issues at stake in climate change
Analyze the rhetoric used around climate change in a variety of disciplines, genres, perspectives, etc.
Write for a public audience on pressing issues related to climate change
Conduct in-depth research on select aspects of climate change

Transferable Skills:

Develop skills in graduate-level research, rhetorical analysis, writing, and presenting
Gain facility with making pages for a web site, including visual and digital literacy
Synthesize academic work for a public audience
Learn to work across academic disciplines

Develop your own learning goals for the course (Day 1)

Required Texts: This course has no required text/book(s) (Zero Cost). Materials are available to download from a shared google folder/hyper-linked on the schedule. All other texts are available as e-book loans digitally through the CUNY GC Library or NYPL (see the notes on the schedule about the number of users at one time). See the Course Bibliography for a full list of course texts.

Assignments Overview:

Students will help to build the course web site on the CUNY Academic Commons (CAC) as an Open Educational Resource (OER) as they research and write digitally and publicly for the course. This includes 3 blog posts, 1 web page for the Visual Annotated Bibliography, and 1 web page showcasing their own final research project.

Because we are only meeting synchronously once a week, asynchronous work for this class will consist of reading (or watching), annotating, and writing about our course texts and media, as well as responding to your classmates in writing in place of face-to-face or synchronous discussion. In addition to the digital assignments above, this will include social annotation (using Hypothes.is), as well as generating and responding to discussion questions.

Finally, about half the course will be devoted to an individual (1), team (2), or group (up to 4) research project with multiple scaffolded steps culminating in a conference paper presentation and web page that will serve as a public digital resource on your chosen research topic. You can expand any of your shorter writings for the course into the final project, but you may also propose a topic related to climate change that is of interest to you that we did not cover.

Assignments and Grading:

Most assignments will have an assignment sheet and/or a rubric that the class will create or have the chance to discuss and revise. You can access these via the shared folder: Assignments and Rubrics.

Categories Approx. % of Final grade

Attendance and Participation are factored into your final grade (see policy below).

Asynchronous Work 15%

Reading Annotations

Discussion Questions & Responses

Blog Post Comments

Visual Annotated Bibliography 10%

Blog Posts (choose 3, 10% each) 30%

Reading Response

Close Reading/Rhetorical Analysis

OpEd or Letter to Gov. Officials

Speech

Film/Book/Event Review

Activist/Organization Profile

Creative Interpretation

Open: Other (class brainstorm/propose to instructor)

Social Media/Internet analysis

Personal Narrative

Final Project 45%

Proposal & Literature Review (2.5%)

Peer Review (2.5%)

Conference Paper (2500-word minimum, ~8 pages) with Abstract and Works Cited (30%)

Class Presentation (10-15 minutes) (5%)

Web Page (5%)

Course Policies:

Classroom Community: Together as a class we will work to build an inclusive environment for learning for all students. This kind of community takes work and will require all of us to be open to learning from each other. All comments made in discussions need to be respectful. Our course content will address how groups (by gender, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.) have been wrongly marginalized, stereotyped, and subject to multiple forms of violence, so it is important to avoid reproducing any of these harms in our class.

Student Input: Much of the course design is flexible and can be adapted as we go to group needs. I will ask for class feedback in many course decisions, including a review of this syllabus. This is especially important now that the course is fully online. My goal is for you to get as much as possible out of this course given your individual areas of interest and strength, while at the same time to help you develop additional relevant skills based on your goals.

Technology: You will need a computer with video/audio or a smartphone with these capabilities; internet; and a cuny.edu email address to join the CUNY Academic Commons (CAC). With all technologies, issues arise. I will do my best to support you through any technical issues related to the course and/or to direct you to resources.

Zoom: We are using Zoom as our platform for synchronous meetings on Thursdays. You will need to sign up for a free account if you do not have one already (start with this video guide if needed). While it can work on a smartphone and from the web, using the downloaded application on a computer will vastly improve its reliability. Whenever possible, please keep your video on during the synchronous session. Conversely, it is recommended to stay on “mute” until you are ready to jump into the conversation to avoid your mic picking up background noise while someone else is talking.

We will be using several features of Zoom, including the chat, share screen, and breakout groups, which I will go over during our first synchronous meeting. I have set the meetings to pre-record and to save the chats, so that if you miss a synchronous session for any reason, you can access the content. We will take a class vote on this on Day 1.

Communication:

I will communicate with you primarily by email, but you may also receive communication via our course group on the Commons (which will notify you by email). On the Commons, if you click your avatar picture in the upper right corner, you can edit your contact email to your preferred email if you do not want to use your .cuny account that was required to set up your account. You can also use the discussion forum in our Commons group to ask for help with our technology or clarify logistics of the course from your fellow classmates and me. In general if you have a question that can wait a day or two, post it to the group first, then email me directly if you get no response after 24 hours. If you have something that needs immediate attention (i.e. you aren’t able to upload an assignment by the deadline because of a technical issue), you can text me so that I can respond more quickly.

Attendance & Participation:

Because this is a summer course that is meeting online once a week (so it is highly condensed), attendance and participation are even more important. Please contribute to each class session and be prepared for class through both the asynchronous work and synchronous meetings.

I will do everything I can to help support your success in our course during this pandemic. Please email me if you need to miss class or if you fall behind on your work so that we can create a plan for you to complete the course if it is possible. All of our work in the class sessions is designed to prepare you for the major graded assignments. This category is not graded separately, but affects your overall success in the course.

Assignment Processes: Most assignments will be completed on the CUNY Academic Commons (CAC) or submitted via email. The CAC will involve a learning curve with the technology. For this and many other reasons, I will not be enforcing a strict lateness policy. If you cannot turn something in by the due date for any reason, please request an extension. In your email, please request the additional length of time you expect to need.

Accessibility: Your access to and success in our class matter a great deal to me. While I work hard to make our class accessible, I understand that you may have access needs that I have not addressed, especially in the online format. Access is an ongoing process. Please contact me to discuss your access needs. CUNY Policy and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability. For accommodations, students with disabilities of any kind (including learning, physical, and mental disabilities) or those who suspect they may have a disability, whether permanent or temporary, are encouraged to contact Clare Wilson, manager of Student Disability Services at disabilityservices@gc.cuny.edu; 212-817-7400; Student Affairs, room 7301).

Academic Integrity: It is an essential skill in graduate school to be able to enter into critical conversations, properly citing others as you make your own claims. Please use the citation format with which you are most comfortable. The Graduate Center provides a helpful guide called “Avoiding and Detecting Plagiarism.” The Student Handbook also provides more information about the definitions and policies regarding Academic Honesty and Academic Integrity. If you have any questions about citation or what constitutes plagiarism, please get in touch with me. The consequences for plagiarism are significant: “Any student who has submitted a paper, examination, project, or other academic work in part or in full not his or her own without appropriate attribution is subject to disciplinary charges. Such charges may result in the imposition of a grade of ‘F’ or other penalties and sanctions, including suspension and termination of matriculation” (Student Handbook).

Incompletes or “INC” Grades:

Incomplete (INC) grades will be given at the discretion of the instructor and with a clear timeline for completing the required work. As noted on the GC website, “After one year, an incomplete (‘INC’) will automatically become a permanent incomplete,” and “Students will not normally be regarded as making satisfactory progress toward their degrees if they have more than two ‘INC’s on their records.” A complete statement of the policy is available on the GC web site.

GC Resources:

Schedule Summary

Week 1: Climate Violence

Week 2: Climate Politics and Climate Science

Week 3: Climate Economics and Postcolonial Climate Critiques

Week 4: Climate Activism & Art and Climate Catastrophe/Crisis

Week 5: Multispecies Climate Justice and Climate Fiction (Cli-Fi)

Week 6: Peer Review, Presentations