We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy, and using Trump’s defeat to push for deeper structural change. With this goal in mind, we invite you to check out our upcoming 2021 online course offerings, including two seminars starting in January and two more in March, including a new course on Food & Climate Justice!
Our popular Ecology Democracy Utopia seminar will be offered again January 11-March 1, meeting on Mondays at 1 pm EST. This eight-unit course provides a comprehensive overview of Social Ecology, an interdisciplinary body of ideas that examines social and ecological problems from a transformative and holistic perspective. It explores a broad range of themes including social theory, hierarchy and domination, capitalism, nature philosophy, food and technology, direct democracy and the state, political organizing and movement history, and reconstructive vision.
We’re also excited to announce a new partnership with Castleton University that allows participants to earn college credit for the course.
The Frankfurt School Critical Theory seminar will run January 12-March 2 on Tuesdays at 1 pm. This 8-unit course introduces the core concepts, thinkers, and texts of this famously rich yet challenging school of radical thought. These transdisciplinary thinkers have been a foundational influence on social ecology, which has drawn on their penetrating analyses of a wide array of topics including capitalism, fascism, modernity, reason, science and technology, nature, pop culture, mass media, aesthetics, the left, and more. We will explore the tradition’s continued relevance for current political and theoretical questions related to capitalism, imperialism, modernity, culture, race, gender, colonialism, and more.
Understanding Antisemitism (March 10-April 7 at 1 pm ET) examines the history, tropes, and theoretical understandings of antisemitism from an emancipatory perspective. Includes five thematic units covering: Antisemitism: A Historical and Conceptual Introduction; A Critical Theory of Antisemitism; Antisemitism and Capitalism; Antisemitism and the Left; Right Antisemitism.
Food & Climate Justice is a new course taught by longtime activist-educators Grace Gershuny and Brian Tokar that explores the role of climate and food justice in developing a community-centered grassroots response to intersecting social and ecological crises. This course will offer a Social Ecology perspective on the background and potential of the climate and food justice movements to resist further damage from fossil fuels and agribusiness dominance, while building ecologically harmonious and equitable food and energy systems that can restore soil health, biodiversity, and climate stability. Each unit will highlight the leadership of frontline communities in shifting the paradigm towards the principles of non-hierarchy, direct democracy, and unity in diversity.
To enroll, complete the form on the relevant course page or contact us at social-ecology@mail.mayfirst.org. All of our courses are also available in a self-directed format that can be started at any time. Full seminars cost $80 seminar, self-directed courses are $40 – payment plans and need-based scholarships are available.
