2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

For my topic, I will focus on how students majoring in Environmental Studies differently experience the effects of colorblindness in relation to their coursework. Colorblindness in relation to race is defined as the refusal to acknowledge, or the disregard of, culture, race, or ethnicity – however, I will expand colorblindness to also cover gender, class, and other marginalized identities. Through this analysis, I will explore what I have come to perceive as a largely missing element within our Environmental Studies major – that is, courses/coursework which allows students to gain a diverse array of perspectives from various community’s and their relationships with the environment. The dominant view which we receive in virtually all aspects of the major is mainly from scholars who identify as white, middle-class and male. Teaching environmental studies in this way does a huge disservice and injustice to not only its students of color but also its white students and to the mainstream environmental movement.

In my report, I will be discussing my own experience as a black woman, who will be receiving her degree in this major in the spring, as well as reporting on what other students of color experience - in addition to what white students experience to act as a contrast. It is my assumption that these subjective accounts will reinforce my own experiences and views in terms of recognizing how detrimental the effects of colorblindness can be on such a socially oriented field of study. In addition, I will conduct an analysis of objective statistics which are directly related to this lack of diversity in the major.  I will then argue that this lack of diversity further reinforces the trend within the mainstream environmental movement as documented by Dorceta Taylor’s report on “The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations” (University of Michigan, 2014).

I will end with steps that might be taken to revise the major and thereby work towards disrupting the white power structures which dominate the major’s coursework, as well as this field of work.  To do this I will provide specific ways professors can diversify their curriculums/coursework to achieve more inclusive while not compartmentalizing either black and brown people or students.

This year’s theme of inclusion: that is, “the need for a much broader and richer inclusion in all aspects of environmental studies and sciences” is exactly what I will be arguing for. In bringing light to the experiences of students of color who have gone through an Environmental Studies program which did not reflect their experiences as people of color, their communities, or their cultures I will be bringing a new perspective to the table, calling for a true revolutionizing of the way we learn and teach about the environment. Furthermore, linking this analysis of colorblindness to how racism plays out in the mainstream environmental movement should tie it all together – that is the materialization of sacrifice zones, gentrification, and food deserts for example; topics which many students in our Environmental Studies program are not being exposed to because they are often not seen ‘environmental issues’.