ENST 340 - Advanced Urban and Regional Studies

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as ESCI 340 and GEOG 340) Topic for 2021/22a: Renewable Energy and Climate Action. Climate action is a central issue of our time, and within this, plans for progress (including the Green New Deal) depend on reforming our energy systems. This course seeks to understand the shape of our rapidly changing landscapes of energy production, with a focus on New York City, New York State, and Vassar’s carbon neutrality goals. We use a variety of methods, including mapping, case studies, and readings, as we try to understand regions of production, leading technologies, the challenges and opportunities for developing them, and the environmental and social implications of these emerging systems. Can renewable energy produce a more equitable, and less exploitive energy regime? How are these shifting landscapes pushing us to rethink geographies of energy? What does it take to embrace these energy systems in a way that is more just—across communities, places, and generations—than we have seen historically? Mary Cunningham.

One 3-hour period.

Course Format: CLS