Sarah DiMaggio

This course explores philosophical questions related to contemporary issues regarding our moral and political relations with nonhuman animals. We will begin with more theoretical questions about the source of value and moral standing, examining some influential texts that are foundational to the contemporary Western animal-rights movement. In the latter half of the semester, we will spend a great deal of time examining contemporary issues and animal advocacy, including the connections between social movements for the liberation of humans and nonhuman animals.

Historically, Western environmental movements have placed an emphasis on the idea of “wilderness” and have been characterized by a striving for a “return” to a nature that never existed outside collective imagination. This course examines some of the foundations of Western environmental ethics and critiques of those by feminist, Black, Indigenous, and queer scholars. Through this engagement, students are encouraged to analyze their own values and assumptions related to value, climate, and our environments and to bring the contemporary issues that are most important to students into conversation with these texts. This course aims to examine the possibilities of decolonizing environmental ethics and to work toward a future of environmental ethics as an academic endeavor that is able to better meet the ethical, social, and political needs of our current ecological crises.

Food systems are deeply intertwined with climate change. On the one hand, industrial food production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. On the other, environmental degradation, decreased soil fertility, and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns are among the many factors that impact food systems around the world. This course explores the ways in which climate change and food systems are interwoven and the ethical implications that emerge from this entanglement. Topics of the course will intersect with the philosophy of food, animal ethics, environmental ethics, environmental justice, and global climate justice.

This course explores the ways that narrative and creative expression can shape our ethical perspective on the world—particularly around ethical questions related to nature, nonhuman animals, environmental justice, and climate change. First-person narratives, novels and fiction, film, art, dance, and other creative expressions are significant for shaping the way that we understand ourselves and what it means to be in ethical relation with the world around us. Together, we will explore the ways in which these forms of expression shape ethical decision-making and ethical theory by centering values of care, reciprocity, community, and attention. This course will fully participate in the spring 2024 Sarah Lawrence Interdisciplinary Collaborative on the Environment (SLICE) Mellon course cluster, with a focus on environmental and climate justice and a strong involvement with local organizations. The semester will include two interludes during which students will engage in collaborative projects across disciplines and in partnership with students from Bronx Community College. Students will have the opportunity to develop field-based conference projects.