Teaching

Teaching

In my classes I encourage students to trust that their intuition and the experience that they have in the world will provide meaningful answers to questions that initially seem impenetrable. As a teacher I emphasize analytical and methodological rigor, pushing students to think critically about what they read, hear or see. I want students to question taken-for-granted ideas regarding diverse topics such as environmental degradation, gender norms, and common pool resource scarcity. Enabling them to do so means that in the classroom I focus on the ways in which to conduct effective research and analysis including how to navigate the variety of library and online resources, the benefit of triangulating with both quantitative and qualitative information, and how to find and analyze raw data.

I also encourage students to put their ideas out in the world. See my student’s work in the news, and student created podcasts.

Courses Taught

Gender Health Environment
Growing concern for the protection of the environment and human health has led policy makers and scholars to consider ways in which gender, class, and race and other forms of identity mediate human-environment interactions. This course explores how access to, control over, and distribution of resources influence environmental and health outcomes both in terms of social inequities and ecological decline. Specific issues covered include: ecofeminism, food security, population, gendered conservation, environmental toxins, climate change, food justice, and the green revolution. Students will draw comparisons between different societies around the globe as well as look at dynamics between individuals within a society. The majority of case studies are from Sub Saharan Africa and Asia, however some comparisons are also made with the United States.

Conservation and Environmental Policy
This course examines conservation and environmental policy in the United States. In order to better understand the current nature of the conservation and environmental policy process, students trace the development of past ideas, institutions, and policies related to this policy arena. Students also focus on contemporary conservation and environmental politics and policy making—gridlock in Congress, interest group pressure, the role of the courts and the president, and a move away from national policy making—toward the states, collaboration, and civil society.

Global Political Ecology
This course draws on theories of social and political change to understand the systematic causes of inequality and environmental degradation around the world. Using a political ecology lens, students look at both proximate as well as ultimate drivers of environmental conflict focusing on the relations between production and consumption, representation and regulation, rights and responsibilities, and information and norms. Students compare the disproportionate distribution of environmental benefits and burdens across communities and nations. This course also analyzes prospective solutions, focusing on the role of individuals and organizations in achieving these solutions.

Community-Engaged Environmental Studies Practicum (see podcasts below)
In this course students work in small groups with one of a variety of partners and organizations to complete a semester-long, community-engaged project. Project themes vary by term and typically focus on local and regional environmental issues that have broader application. Projects rely on students’ creativity, interdisciplinary perspectives, skills, and knowledge developed through their previous work. The projects are guided by Dr. Baker-Médard and carried out with a high degree of independence by the students. Students prepare for and direct their project work through readings and discussion, independent research, collaboration with project partners, and consultation with external experts. The course include workshops focused on developing key skills (e.g., interviewing, public speaking, video editing). The project culminates in a public presentation of students’ final products, which may various forms such as written reports, policy white papers, podcasts, or outreach materials.

Transnational Feminist Conservation
This course explores a transnational feminist approach to conservation. Students start by delving into the masculinist history of conservation, and reviewing a set of theories and vocabularies focused on gender, as well as race, class, and ability as key sites of power that effect both human and non-human bodies and ecological processes, from coral reefs to the arctic tundra. Students compare case studies across multiple regions globally on topics such as conservation via population control, feminist food, community-based conservation, and feminist-indigenous approaches to inquiry. Students debate the notion of feminist science, examining the conflicting epistemic foundations of objective versus situated knowledge. This course also focuses on developing student writing skills in a variety of genres including blogs, academic essays, poems, and zines.

Sea Turtles to Sharks
This course delves into the drivers of the exponential increase in the number and size of marine protected areas (MPAs) worldwide. MPAs are part of complex socio-ecological systems. In this course students engage an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from the fields of conservation biology, political ecology, and anthropology, to investigate MPA design and effectiveness in multiple locales globally. Specific issues students investigate include: marine organism life-cycle traits, connectivity, land-sea linkages, predator-prey dynamics, centralized versus decentralized MPA governance, gendered marine property, indigenous rights, and “sea grabbing.” Drawing on case studies, students examine and critique metrics of ecological effectiveness and socio-political benefits of MPAs. The course consists of lectures and classroom discussions.

Sea Scallops to Shellfish (see podcasts below)

This course explores the social & ecological context of fisheries management in New England. Students work in four teams on projects connected to fishing community needs in Maine. We partner with the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA), an industry-led nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of the community-based, inshore fishermen of Maine and the Island Institute, an organization working to sustain Maine’s island and coastal communities. Projects include interviews with fishers and fisheries managers about the future of Maine fisheries, an analysis of ecosystem-based fisheries management strategies endorsed in the region, the controversies and opportunities around the placement of deep sea coral protected areas in the Gulf of Maine, and a policy analysis of legislation addressing the increasing marine debris problem in Maine’s coastal waters. The course consists of lectures, classroom discussions, and a week-long excursion to the Maine coast.

Social Causes and Consequences of Environmental Problems (Wellesley College)

This course focuses on the social science explanations for why environmental problems are created, the impacts they have, the difficulties of addressing them, and the regulatory and other actions that succeed in mitigating them. Topics include: externalities and the politics of unpriced costs and benefits, collective action problems and interest group theory, time horizons in decision making, the politics of science, risk and uncertainty, comparative political structures, and cooperation theory. Also addressed are different strategies for changing environmental behavior, including command and control measures, taxes, fees, and other market instruments, and voluntary approaches. These are examined across multiple countries and levels of governance.

Introduction to Sustainability (Wellesley College)

Addressing the challenge of using earth’s resources sustainably requires a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach, in which basic research about the causes and consequences of environmental problems is combined with an understanding of the incentives and processes for a large scale reworking of economic activity and the technology with which to reconfigure the human effect on the natural world. By truly integrating business, engineering, and the liberal arts in the service of environmental sustainability, this course provides students with an introduction to the cross- disciplinary academic preparation and the cross-campus cultural collaboration experiences needed to approach environmental issues holistically. Students use a “live” case as the basis for our learning as they are introduced to the basic concepts and tools that business, engineering, and the liberal arts (science, social science, and the humanities) bring to a consideration of sustainability. The course draws empirical material from, and apply concepts and tools to, a semester-long case involving the sustainability of a given city block. In doing so, students not only observe and understand actual behavior as it relates to sustainability, but also better appreciate the complexities and interrelatedness of various systems in the real world and how they affect the way in which we frame and implement solutions to problems regarding sustainability.