Environment is (merely) an idea that is created through discourse. This is, of course, not to suggest that mountains, rivers, oceans, and trees do not actually exist. Such a suggestion would be pointless and unarguable. What we are suggesting, though, is that our only access to such things is through discourse, and that it is through language that we give these things or places meaning: historical, material, political, personal, natural, spiritual. "

Sidney I. Dobrin & Christian R. Weisser Natural Discourse: Toward Ecocomposition

ENG 5795 satisfies the “Communities and Cultures” requirement of the English major. The course is an in-depth overview of the issue of virtue in rhetoric and writing studies, introducing students to the role rhetoric plays in constructing the virtues of a community or culture. "This course will explore the intersection of rhetoric, social justice, and environment through the theoretical lens of environmental justice. Environmental justice is a framework for analyzing and addressing the inequalities in environmental conditions (benefits and burdens) among communities of varying race/ethnicity and economic class. At the same time, environmental justice presents a deep challenge to mainstream environmental and sustainability frameworks. Within the confines of this course, environmental justice also provides a challenge to rhetoric and writing studies. We will spend

COURSE DESCRIPTION

ENGLISH 5795: ENVIRONMENTAL RHETORIC

Fall 2015 Section 001 W 6:00-8:45PM Donnie Johnson Sackey"

email: donnie.sackey@wayne.edu "hangouts/skype: donniejsackey"office: 9304 Maccabee Building office hours: MWF 3PM-5PM; and by appointment

the duration of the course making sense of what is that challenge. The course will be divided thematically into interrelated sections that explore different aspects of environmental justice. Through this course, you will: a) develop theoretical frameworks for understanding how environmental injustice is produced locally, regionally, and globally; b) become more knowledgable about local environmental justice organizations and initiatives; c) gain a better grasp of rhetorical and communicative strategies necessary for addressing environmental justice from the community, government, science, and legal perspectives; d) conduct advanced research by developing a research question; locating, evaluating, and integrating primary and secondary resources; and placing project in the context of relevant scholarship; e) write with fluency, clarity, and style; and f) explore opportunities for local community engagement.

REQUIREMENTSMost reading materials will be made available on Blackboard. You will need a means of electronic backup. I sympathize with the statement, “my computer crashed” but do not understand what sometimes follows: “and I lost everything.” Get a free data-backup account such as Dropbox or make a habit of emailing files to yourself. There are required texts for this course. Most are available in the WSU Bookstore; however, two titles are not available. I highly recommend that you consider purchasing your books used or new from a third-party or independent bookseller (e.g. Amazon). In many cases it may be cheeper to do so. The following books are required reading for the course: Dawn Day Biehler, Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats (2015).Kim Fortun, Advocacy After Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders (2001).Lisa Sun-Hee Park and David Naguib Pellow, The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in America’s Eden (2013).David Naguib Pellow, Garbage Wars: the Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago (2004).Vandana Shiva, Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit (2001). Rachel Stein, ed. New Perspectives on Environmental Justice Gender, Sexuality, and Activism (2004).

NOTE: The following titles are not available in the WSU Bookstore.

PROJECTS & GRADESWeekly Discussion Questions/Weekly Response (10)…………………………………….…….………..50 Book Review…………………………………………………………………………………….……………150 Rhetorical Analysis Presentation……………………………………………………………………….…..100"Extra-curricular Course Activity……………….…….………………………………………………….…..100 Final Proposal……….…………………………………………………………………………………………50Final Project…………………………………………………………………………………………….…….300

Weekly Discussion Questions/Weekly Response. Every week you will be responsible for submitting two questions for discussion that are related to the readings. In the event that more than 25 percent of the class is unable to submit questions for weekly discussion, we will switch to weekly response writings (1-2 pages, double-spaced, 10-12 point, Times New Roman). The 25 percent mark is low, but it is designed specifically to encourage everyone to be a good community member. ""Book Review. This is designed to provide you with the opportunity to read more within the realm of environmental rhetoric/communication studies. You will write a 4-6 page review of a published research study, scholarly monograph, or collection in environmental rhetoric. I will provide a list of potential books that you can use to make your selection. You are free to choose a book that is not on that list. Regardless of what you decide to read, you must check with me first on your book selection. The audience for your book will be a rhetoric/composition audience. "Rhetorical Analysis Presentation. You are required to do one in-class rhetorical analysis presentation of a piece of environmental rhetoric. Your object of analysis can be an advertisement (print or digital), a speech, a song, a news story, or another artifact of your choosing. As part of your planning process, I highly encourage you to consult me about what you intend to do. We will speak formally in class about what rhetorical analysis looks like. I will also provide resources that will help you understand rhetorical analysis in more detail. Your presentation should be 5-7 minutes in length. I will circulate a sign-up sheet with dates. ""Extra-curricular Course Activity—Linking the Course to the Community. Once during the semester, you are expected to attend an event, guest speaker presentation, community meeting, etc. Some types of events you might attend are community meetings hosted by groups and governmental organizations such as Sierra Club or Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. You might also attend university speakers or department presentation. I am in the process of organizing a toxic tour with Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice and a toxic tour of Northwest Indiana near Chicagoland/Gary. Either of these day trips are suitable for this assignment. If you would like to attend, I ask that you reserve $15 for a donation to the organizations. I will match the total that the group raises dollar-for-dollar. Nevertheless, whatever experience you choose, it should be environmentally-oriented. If you have an idea for an event that I have not listed, please ask me if it’s acceptable to use for this assignment. After your experience, you should write up a 2-3 page reflection that summarizes the experience, discusses what you learned, and makes a connection to subject matter covered in class. ""Final Project & Final Project Proposal. For this project, you will create a podcast. The podcast can be a short story, an interview, a report on an issue, or any idea that you’d like to propose to me. The only restriction is that your podcast needs to focus on a subject that is related to environmental justice. You may work in groups of 2-3 or you may work as an individual. If you choose to work by yourself, your podcast should be no shorter than 5 minutes. If you work in a group, your podcast should be no shorter than 10 minutes (or 5 minutes per group member). Whatever you choose, you will need to present a formal project proposal. We will discuss in class what that project proposal looks like.

Writing Center. The Writing Center (2nd floor, UGL) provides individual tutoring consultations free of charge for students at Wayne State University. Undergraduate students in General Education courses, including composition courses, receive priority for tutoring appointments. The Writing Center serves as a resource for writers, providing tutoring sessions on the range of activities in the writing process – considering the audience, analyzing the assignment or genre, brainstorming, researching, writing drafts, revising, editing, and preparing documentation. The Writing Center is *not* an editing or proofreading service; rather, students are guided as they engage collaboratively in the process of academic writing, from developing an idea to editing for grammar and mechanics. To make an appointment, consult the Writing Center website: http://www.clas.wayne.edu/writing/.""To submit material for online tutoring, consult the Writing Center HOOT website (Hypertext One-on-One Tutoring): http://www.clas.wayne.edu/unit-inner.asp?WebPageID=1330.""Accessibility (Adapted from Shelley Lynn Tremain). Your success in this course is important to me. I recognize that there are *multiple* ways to learn and that this multiplicity should be acknowledged in the structure of university courses and the evaluation of their participants. Thus, I encourage students registered in the course to discuss their learning styles and comprehension requirements with me during my office hours or at another arranged time, if necessary. Every student is entitled to a meaningful and stimulating learning experience. Disabled students are also strongly encouraged to avail themselves of the services provided by the campus Student Disability Services’ mission is to assist the university in creating an accessible community where students with disabilities have an equal opportunity to fully participate in their educational experience. The Student Disability Services (SDS) office is located at 1600 David Adamany Undergraduate Library in the Student Academic Success Services department. SDS telephone number is 313-577- 1851 or 313-577-3365 (TDD only). Once you have your accommodations in place, please make an appointment to meet with me to discuss your special needs.""English Department Cheating and Plagiarism Policy. Cheating is the act of submitting papers written by another person as your own. Cheating includes submitting papers that were written by another student in whole or in part as well as papers that were purchased or downloaded from the internet. Plagiarism is the act of copying work -- in whole or in part -- from books, articles, and websites without citing and documenting the source. Plagiarism includes copying language, texts, graphics, and visuals without citation (e.g., cutting and pasting from websites). Cheating and plagiarism are serious academic offenses: the minimum penalty for cheating or plagiarism is an F for the assignment; the full penalty for cheating or plagiarism may result in an F for the course.

COURSE POLICIES

A+ B+ C+ D+ F

1200 - 1140 1079 - 1020 950 - 900 839 - 780 ""“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

-Dante Alighieri

A B C D

1139 - 1104 1019 - 984 899 - 864 779 - 744

A- B- C- D-

1103 - 1080 983 - 960 863 - 840 743 - 720

NOTE: You MUST complete all major assignments in order to receive a passing grade. Failure to complete one assignment will result in a grade no higher than C.

Attendance Policy. English Department policy dictates that students who do not attend one of the first two class sessions of an English course may be required to drop the course. Class attendance is required, and attendance will be taken at each class session. If you are more than 20 minutes late, it will count as an absence. Please make sure that you are on time. If you miss more than three class periods, you can expect to make a grade no higher than a B. Add/Drop, Withdrawls, and Incompletes. Students may add ENG5795 during the first two class sessions if a spot is available. Students may withdraw ENG5795 up until (Sunday, November 15th); after this date, no W grades will be given and students will be given a failing grade for the course. Per WSU policy, the grade of WN is given to a student who did not attend any classes and/or did not complete any assignments by the withdrawal date. If a student withdraws after having received a grade for any component of a course, then W grades must be either WP (withdrawal with a passing grade earned to date) or WF (withdrawal with a failing grade earned to date).No “I” grades will be given in ENG5795. "Sustainability. According to the Paper Industry Association Council, the average American uses about 700 pounds of paper a year and only half of that amount is recovered for recycling. This means that each of us will end- up through away roughly 350 pounds of paper every year. We need to think about the ways in which our paper waste places demands upon our environment (deforestation, chemical waste from bleaching agents). In addition, we also need to reconsider our views on recycling, because it isn’t always the best solution. This process also produces chemical waste. In addition, a lot of energy goes into recycling materials, which is something almost no one thinks about. Remember the 3Rs—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—hardly anyone thinks about reusing products.""You’ve probably never been encouraged to do this before, but I want you to attempt to lessen your impact on the environment in this class. I want to encourage you to adopt sustainable writing practices that have the ability to transform our environment. So, when you think about printing a document (a rough draft or final paper) consider raiding the universities recycling bin and using that paper for printing. If you can’t find any, consider going to the copy center in the library and asking them for paper from their recycling bins. If you find that you must print on unused paper, then please consider printing on both sides. ""Furthermore, I don’t necessarily want you to just localize this practice inside our classroom. Instead, I want you to consider carrying this practice into your other courses by talking to your professors and even your classmates on how they can reduce their consumption of paper and subsequent impact upon the environment."""""Critical Definitions: What is Environment? (September 2nd) "William Cronon, “In Search of Nature” from Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, ed. Cronon (1996).Jenny Price, “Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in L.A.” http://www.believermag.com/issues/200605/?read=article_price (2006). George Lakoff, “Why it Matters How We Frame the Environment,” Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture (2010).

SCHEDULE

Critical Definitions: What is Environmental Rhetoric? (September 9th) "M. Jimmie Killingsworth & Jacquline S. Palmer, “Rhetoric & the Environmental Dilemma” from Ecospeak: Rhetoric & Enviornmental Politics in America (1992).Christine Oravec, “Conservationism vs. Preservationism: The ‘Public Interest’ in the Hetch Hetchy Controversy,” Quarterly Journal of Speech (1984).Jonathan I. Lange, “The Logic of Competing Information Campaigns: Conflict over Old Growth and the Spotted Owl,” Communication Monographs (1993).""Mark P. Moore, “Constructing Irreconcilable Conflict: The Function of Synecdoche in the Spotted Owl Controversy,” Communication Monographs (1993). Derek Ross, “Common Topics and Commonplaces of Environmental Rhetoric,” Written Communication (2013). Dorceta Taylor, “The Rise of the Environmental Justice Paradigm Injustice Framing and the Social Construction of Environmental Discourses,” American Behavioral Scientist (2000). Critical Definitions: What is Environmental Justice? (September 16th)"Bunyan Bryant, “Issues and Potential Policies and Solutions for Environmental Justice: An Overview” from Environmental Justice: Issues, Policies, and Solutions, ed. Bryant (1995). "Dorceta Taylor, “Race, Class, Gender, and American Environmentalism,” (2002).David Schlosberg, “Defining Environmental Justice in the USA,” and “Environmental Justice and Global Movements” from Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements, and Nature (2007).Phaedra C. Pezzullo, “Performing Critical Interruptions: Stories, Rhetorical Invention, and the Environmental Justice Movement” Western Journal of Communication (2001). ""Gender, Justice, & Environmental Change (September 23rd)Rachel Stein, ed. New Perspectives on Environmental Justice Gender, Sexuality, and Activism (2004).""Hydro-politics: Framing Water Issues as Environmental Justice Issues (September 30th) Vandana Shiva, Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit (2001). United Nations, “Resolution 64/292: The Human Right to Water and Sanitation,” (28 July 2010).United Nations, “General Comment No. 15: The Right to Water (arts. 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)” (2002). United Nations, “Joint Press Statement by Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living and to right to non-discrimination in this context, and Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation Visit to city of Detroit (United States of America),” (18-20 October 2014).

NOTE: Speaker will join us in class for a 30 minute discussion.

Sanitation, Part I: Waste Management & Vulnerable Urban Communities (October 7th)David Naguib Pellow, Garbage Wars: the Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago (2004).NO CLASS—(October 14th)"I am giving a talk at the University of Findlay. Please use this time wisely. For example, you might work on your book report, final project, extracurricular activity, or get a head start of next week’s reading. ""Sanitation, Part II: Human & Nonhuman Networks of Injustice (October 21th) Dawn Day Biehler, Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats (2015).Immigration, Nativism & Environment (October 28th) Lisa Sun-Hee Park and David Naguib Pellow, The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in America’s Eden (2013)."Native Americans, the Struggle for Environmental Justice & Sovereignty (November 4th)"Andrea Smith, “The Rape of the Land” from Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide (2005).Rebecca Tsosie, “Indigenous People and Environmental Justice: The Impact of Climate Change,” University of Colorado Law Review (2007).Kyle Powys Whyte, “The Recognition Dimensions of Environmental Justice in Indian Country,” Environmental Justice (December 2011).James M. Grijalva, “Self-Determining Environmental Justice for Native America,” Environmental Justice (December 2011). Paul C. Rosier, “’We, the Indian People, Must Set an Example for the Rest of the Nation’: Environmental Justice from a Native American Perspective,” Environmental Justice (September 2008).Transportation Justice (November 11th) Ben Jesse Clarke, ed. Race, Poverty, & the Environment, issue on “Transportation Justice” (Winter 2005/2006).Victor H. Green, The Negro Traveler’s Green Book (1956).Performing Advocacy (November 18th & December 2nd) Kim Fortun, Advocacy After Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders (2001).""Continuing the Work of Environmental Justice (December 9th) Robert Cox, “Nature’s ‘Crisis’ Disciplines: Does Environmental Communication Have an Ethical Duty?” Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture (May 2007). ""Robert L. Heath, Michael J. Palenchar, Stephanie Proutheau & Tatjana M. Hocke, “Response to Cox: Nature, Crisis, Risk, Science, and Society: What is Our Ethical Responsibility?” Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture (May 2007).

Emily Plec, “Response to Cox: Crisis, Coherence, and the Promise of Critical Rhetoric,” Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture (May 2007)."Susan L. Senecah, “Impetus, Mission, and Future of the Environmental Communication Commission/Division: Are We Still on Track? Were We Ever?” Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture (May 2007).