NATURE, SCIENCE & THE STATE

This course considers the relationship between state power, scientific knowledge, and the natural world in its many manifestations—from sixteenth-century colonial “bioprospecting” to present-day initiatives in sustainable development. Throughout, we focus on two interrelated threads: the history of efforts to “govern” the natural world, and the role of science in enacting these modes of governance. Themes and topics include: the relationship between science and empire, the centrality of resource control to the consolidation of political authority, the history of wilderness preservation and conservation, the environmental dimensions of the history of international development, strategies of indigenous rights movements, the emergence of market-based approaches to environmental crises, and the invention of sustainable development. Though primarily historical in its focus, the course also draws on literature from science and technology studies, political ecology, environmental anthropology, and postcolonial studies.