Although California is considered a National policy leader in environmental justice, communities across the state struggle for basic environmental rights. Through lectures, readings, and field trips, this course will analyze this contradiction by examining the development of environmental justice movements and environmental justice policy in California. The course will explore how California's political, social, and economic histories inform environmental justice struggles. We will study specific and intersecting challenges facing African American, Indigenous, Latinx, and AAPI communities. This course will include an introduction to theories, such as de-growth and Municipalism, applied in strategies for environmental justice; as well as, analyses of topics ranging from agricultural labor, incarceration, extractive industries, and environmental justice in Silicon Valley.
3 units · Letter (ABCD/NP)
Although California is considered a National policy leader in environmental justice, communities across the state struggle for basic environmental rights. Through lectures, readings, and field trips, this course will analyze this contradiction by examining the development of environmental justice movements and environmental justice policy in California. The course will explore how California's political, social, and economic histories inform environmental justice struggles. We will study specific and intersecting challenges facing African American, Indigenous, Latinx, and AAPI communities. This course will include an introduction to theories, such as de-growth and Municipalism, applied in strategies for environmental justice; as well as, analyses of topics ranging from agricultural labor, incarceration, extractive industries, and environmental justice in Silicon Valley.
Offered in Winter 2026 at Stanford University.