Community learning

"Violence is what we settle for / because we've been led to believe / green paper can feed us / more than green land." - Brandy Nālani McDougall in Āina Hānau

The CSF Resource Guide is meant to serve as an accessible entry into our justice-centered sustainability programming. It is a living document that will continuously be updated and added as we learn more from those around us. Our hope is for this guide to become a community-driven base of knowledge that can serve as the first step for those interested in learning beyond mainstream environmentalism and understanding sustainability from a justice-centered approach. We are excited to learn from you and promote education beside you. 

First introduced In October 2022, the CSF staff released a collection of recommendations with the intention of formalizing a "Resource Guide" for the UW Community on the counter-narrative for sustainability. In many ways, the CSF staff hopes to offer the materials we would hope to have access to while at UW and what we have spent hours curating. Many of our staff come from interdisciplinary areas of study and we seek to elevate conversations that happen between disciplines that may not otherwise have a platform. 

Included are: 

  • Various books, podcasts, and documentaries. 
  • UW Seattle courses, articles, and people to learn from within the intersectional environmentalism movement. 
  • One pagers for some of the most request intro topics like Food Sovereignty, Equity in Outdoor Spaces, and Intersectional Environmentalism. 

The guide outlines various frameworks, principles, movements, and sources of knowledge that continue to inform our understanding of justice-centered sustainability including but not limited to:

  • Community resilience
  • Cultural sustainability
  • Elevating BIPOC voices
  • Environmental justice 
  • Indigenous rights
  • Labor rights
  • The Just Transition Framework. 

Explore the CSF Resource guide

Compiled by our staff, organized by topic, and updated each year.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Course 

Course Name 

Quarter Offered

Credits 

Prerequisites?

AIS 385 

Indigenous Ecologies and Climate Change 

Autumn

5

N/A

ESS 201 

Earth’s Climate System 

Spring

3

Yes

ENVIR 100

Introduction to Environmental Studies

All 

5

N/A

JSIS B 351

The Global Environment 

Autumn

5

N/A

ATM S 111

Global Warming: Understanding the Issues

All

5

N/A

 

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Course 

Course Name 

Quarter Offered

Credits 

Prerequisites?

HSTAA/ENVIR 221

US Environmental History: Ecology, Culture, Justice

Autumn

5

N/A

ENVIR/ESRM 460

Power, Privilege, and Preservation

Spring, Summer

5

N/A

CEP 460

Planning in Context

Autumn

5

N/A

GEOG 272

Geographies of Environmental Justice

Spring

5

N/A

 

INTERSECTIONALITY

Course 

Course Name 

Quarter Offered

Credits 

Prerequisites?

DIS ST/CHID  230

Introduction to Disability Studies

Autumn

5

N/A

AIS/JSIS A 270

Native Peoples of the Northwest Coast

Autumn

5

N/A

DIS ST/GWSS/ 335

Sex, Gender, and Disability 

Autumn

5

N/A

GWSS 392

Asian American and Pacific Islander Women 

Autumn

5

N/A

GWSS 496 

Global Feminisms: International and Indigenous Communities 

Autumn

5

Yes

CHID 485

Comparative Colonialism

Autumn

5

N/A

 

POLICY + GOVERNANCE

Course 

Course Name 

Quarter Offered

Credits 

Prerequisites?

PUB POL 201

Introduction to Public Policy and Governance

Autumn

5

N/A

ENVIR/SMEA 201 

Climate Governance: How Individuals, Communities, NGOs, Firms, and Governments Can Solve the Climate Crisis

Spring

5

N/A

ENVIR 439

Attaining a Sustainable Society 

  

N/A

CEP 470 

Tools for Sustainable Cities 

Spring, Summer

4

N/A

SMEA 430

Development and the Environment 

Autumn

5

N/A

 

COMMUNICATION

Course 

Course Name 

Quarter Offered

Credits 

Prerequisites?

ENGL 199

Interdisciplinary Writing/Natural Science

Autumn

5

N/A

AIS 307

Indigenous Literature and the Environment 

Autumn

5

N/A

ENVIR 302

Communications for Environmental Studies

Autumn, Winter, Spring

5

Yes

COM 289

Communication Power and Difference 

Autumn

5

N/A

ENVIR 400

Professional Environmental Communication 

Winter

5

N/A

ENGL 207

Introduction to Cultural Studies

Autumn, Summer

5

N/A

ENVIR/COM 418

Communication and the Environment 

Autumn

5

N/A

 

ART + URBAN DESIGN + COMMUNITY PLANNING

Course 

Course Name 

Quarter Offered

Credits 

Prerequisites?

ENVIR 480

Sustainability Studio 

Autumn

5

N/A

L ARCH 212

Designing for the Future

Autumn

5

N/A

CEP 200

Introduction to Community, Environment, and Planning

Autumn, Winter

5

N/A

B E 200 

Introduction to Built Environments

Autumn

3

N/A

 

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

Course 

Course Name 

Quarter Offered

Credits 

Prerequisites?

GEOG 271

Geography of Food and Eating

Autumn

5

N/A

ANTH 361 

Anthropology of Food

Autumn

5

Yes

NUTR/ENVIR 312

Food System Sustainability and Resilience 

 

3

N/A

NUTR 302

Food Systems: Harvest to Health 

Autumn, Spring

5

Yes

 

FIELD EXPERIENCE 

Course 

Course Name 

Quarter Offered

Credits 

Prerequisites?

ENVIR 280

Natural History of the Puget Sound Region

Autumn

5

N/A

LSJ 401 

Field Experience in Law, Societies, and Justice

Autumn

5

N/A

 

RESILIENCE & WELL-BEING

Course 

Course Name 

Quarter Offered

Credits 

Prerequisites?

G H/LAW 305

Global Health and Justice

Winter

3

N/A

ANTH 325

Indigenous Knowledge and Public Health in Mexican and Latinx Origin Communities 

 

5

N/A

ESRM/PSYCH 431

Ecopsychology

 

5

N/A

GEOG 180

Introduction to Global Health: Disparities, Determinants, Policies, and Outcomes

Autumn, Winter, Spring

5

N/A

ENV H 306

Health and Sustainability 

Autumn, Spring

5

Yes

 

COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING

Course 

Course Name 

Quarter Offered

Credits 

Prerequisites?

ENVIR 239

Sustainability: Personal Choices, Broad Impact

Autumn, Winter, Summer

5

N/A

ENGL 121

Composition: Social Issues

Autumn

5

Yes

COM 364 

Media Responsibility in a Diverse Society 

Autumn

5

Yes

 

Included are slides from our teach-ins and specific resource guides intended to extend conversation and learning on core topics/themes covered. 

February 28, 2024. Climate Justice Teach-In: Exploring a Just Transition Framework and Collective Action in Washington State 

  • Slides (includes an overview of the Just Transition Framework, Washington Policy Landscape [CCA, HEAL Act, IRA], UW-Seattle decarbonization examples, thinking beyond decarbonization [false solutions], and concrete actions for engagement). 

  • Resource guide (includes readings on Lithium Mining, cobalt extraction in the Congo, hydroelectric dam impacts on salmon runs, environmental policy in King County and Washington State, EJ websites, climate justice tools, and other resource guides). 

The CSF Team is hard at work to bring forth a curriculum that will cover topics not often discussed together, but are essential in drafting justice-centered climate solutions (think renewable energy + tribal treaty rights, rising temperatures + urban planning, carbon reductions + growing carbon sinks through ocean restoration). 

Arriving here December 2024.