MPhil specialising in Environmental Humanities

Action, Resistance, Alternatives

Course convenor: B Tame | Course code: SOC4057S

The World Social Forum and many social movements and other organisations organise and mobilise around the slogan: “Another world is possible”. This course examines key features of working-class experience in the context of globalisation. It examines the development of unions, social movements and protest action, focusing on the collective responses of the ‘discontents’ of globalisation. The central concern is acts and processes of resistance in the context of recurring capitalist crises and visions of alternative central to that resistance. Through a focus on selected organisations, events and issues, the course aims to contextualise and historicise working-class resistance in the lived experience of globalisation and examine major debates within and about such resistance. Particular attention will be paid to issues of alienation and commodification in the struggle for alternatives in everyday life. Specific examples are drawn from recent South African history while the issues and questions are explored in the global context in which they exist.

Adult Learning for Social Change

Course convenor: TBA | Course code: EDN5503FS

The course provides an advanced introduction to key theoretical perspectives on adult learning and knowledge-production, where learning is directed primarily towards social change. The focus is on informal contexts of learning such as social movements, community development projects, the labour movement, arts/cultural work, and health education. Close attention is paid to the ways in which 'adult learning' and 'adult learners' fit and contest theoretical debates concerning 'intellectuals', and theoretical debates concerning 'everyday life' and 'social reproduction'. Theoretical resources will be drawn from feminist, radical pedagogy, postcolonial and cultural studies traditions.

Advanced Development Theories

Course convenor: N Mabandla | Course code: SOC4055F

The course examines influential theories of development and their relationship to colonialism and global capitalism. The course emphasises historical context and ethnographic approaches for understanding the contemporary period, particularly the postcolonial developmental state.

Arts of Space

Course convenor: TBA | Course code: APG5089S | Cross-faculty elective offered through UCT Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment and the African Centre for Cities (ACC).

Arts of Space thinks the city and its material forms through literatures on design from humanities and the spatial sciences, particularly architecture and planning. The course pays careful attention to genealogies of knowledge and ways to trace theoretical associations. It engages how the given problematics were originally formulated and how they continue to shape debates in contemporary urban studies. Problematics such as effect, methodology, and the question of housing are addressed through the course.

Biodiversity and Climate Change

Course convenor: Dr L Gilson | Course code: BIO5003Z | Cross-faculty elective offered through UCT Faculty of Science.

This course module provides an overview of long-term climactic change over geological, glacial-interglacial and millennial timescales. It will consider the interactions between climate change, evolution and plant distribution up to the present day, and consider species responses to climate change, including effects on physiology and distribution. Niche modelling and its application in the conservation of birds will be discussed. Dynamic Global Vegetation Models will be explored, as will the interactions between climate, disturbance and land use change. The impacts of climate change on ecosystem services for example water availability, food security, energy and coastal resources will be discussed.

Climate Law and Governance

Course convenor: Prof. J Glazewski | Course code: PBL5046S | Cross-faculty electives offered through UCT Faculty of Law.

The phenomenon of climate change poses major challenges to the international community of nations, the African continent, and the South African body politic. Meeting these challenges requires among other things an inter-disciplinary approach and finding interconnectedness between the natural and social sciences. This course will provide postgraduate students with an insight into principles of international law, regional law and South African national law of relevance to climate change. Key content covered in the course includes: an introduction to basic international and domestic legal principles and institutions; environmental governance systems and theories; and an introduction to various branches of the law relevant to climate change such as energy law, planning and environmental impact assessment law; natural resource law (biodiversity, protected areas, water and marine living resources), pollution laws (marine, fresh water, land and air pollution) and fiscal law (in the context of climate financing).

Critical Perspectives on the Bio-Economy

Course convenor: Prof. R Wynberg | Course code: EGS5058FS | Cross-faculty electives offered through UCT Faculty of Science.

Located at the interface of fast-changing genetic and information technologies and the juncture of a range of social, environmental and ethical concerns, the so-called bio-economy has changed fundamentally ways in which biodiversity is used, conserved and commercialised. Although often touted as a panacea for energy crises, livelihoods, environmental remediation and food security, critical questions have been raised about who stands to benefit, the involvement of local communities, and economic and political drivers behind the bio-economy "push". Using a political ecology framing, this interdisciplinary course aims to introduce key theories that situate the bio-economy and to deepen understandings about the nature of emerging debates; these range from contestations about genetically modified crops, and 'biopiracy' charges of patenting biodiversity and traditional knowledge through to the potential of agroecology as a sustainable agricultural future. The course aims to deepen critical thinking around these questions and inspire a scholarship that explores possibilities for socially just and environmentally sustainable approaches, with a particular focus on the Global South. The course involves both theory and practice, drawing on research mostly from sub-Saharan Africa. Students will be expected to read set texts, watch set videos and prepare seminars. The course includes a short field trip.

Decolonial Theory

Course convenor: Dr Z Msomi | Course code: ASL4206S

This course considers the growing body of thought from Latin America under the heading ‘decolonial theory’, and exemplified in the works of Walter Mignolo, Arturo Escobar, Enrique Dussel, Santiago Castro-Gomez, Nelson Maldonado-Torres and Anibal Quijano. This work has been significant in framing an approach to questions of knowledge, coloniality and globalisation that attempts to re-write the script of modernity (as colonial modernity) and that provides rich conceptual resources through which to re-think familiar issues. The course takes a key-word approach. Each two-week block considers a distinct set of key words or concepts and texts that introduce and discuss them. They include Coloniality (of power/knowledge/being); Geopolitics of knowledge; Colonial globality and global designs; Border theory and colonial difference; Modernity (colonial modernity, peripheral modernity, transmodernity); Global designs and the local; The Indigenous Movement and postcolonial ethnicities. Approaching decolonial theory from the perspective of the Cape, the course asks: How might a critique based on South/Latin American historical experiences translate to African contexts? How does it speak to the particularity of knowledge production and colonial engagement in the Cape? How does it connect with contemporary African Studies debates addressing questions of knowledge and epistemology?

Environmental Law for Non-Lawyers

Course convenor: Prof. A Paterson | Course code: PBL5045S | Cross-faculty electives offered through UCT Faculty of Law.

The inclusion of an environmental right in South Africa's Constitution has led to the emergence of many environmental laws and court decisions in the past 15 years. These developments are of key relevance to those working in the environmental sector including developers, consultants, biologists, zoologists, planners, sociologists and anthropologists. This course provides students undertaking postgraduate studies relevant to the environment with an insight into relevant principles of international and domestic environmental law. Key content covered in the course includes: an introduction to basic legal principles and resources; constitutional aspects (environmental rights, access to information, administrative justice and access to courts); framework environmental laws; land-use planning laws (planning law, environmental impact assessment and protected areas); natural resource laws (biodiversity, water and marine living resources); and pollution laws (fresh water, land and air pollution).

GPNs Development and Decent Work

Course convenor: Dr A Benya | Course code: SOC5034S

This course will explore mainstream and alternative ideas and theories that have shaped Global Production Networks (GPNs) discourse. In the context of GPNs, and from a Global South perspective, we will grapple with a number of unresolved debates concerning decent work and development. Global shift in production and consumption trends, 'new' employment regimes, trade union strategies, and collective resistance will be discussed.

Geography, Development and Environment

Course convenor: Dr P Mbatha | Course code: EGS1003S | Cross-faculty electives offered through UCT Faculty of Science.

The course introduces students to development, sustainability and environment debates in geography by exploring different landscapes at different scales and levels, focusing on the historical roots and spatial patterns that underpin development. There is a compulsory fieldwork component involving half-day field excursions. 

Imagining Southern Cities

Course convenors: Dr S Daya and Dr R Sitas | Course code: EGS5056F/S | Cross-faculty electives offered through UCT Faculty of Science.

The global South is urbanising at roughly twice the rate of the global North, yet dominant narratives of 'the city' continue to privilege London, Los Angeles and Paris over Lagos, Johannesburg and Mumbai. This course explores how cities of the global South are generating new bodies of theory, new forms of social life, and new imaginaries. It does this through novels, films and other textual and visual representations of everyday urbanism, drawing on contemporary theory from the global South to help make sense of these discourses. Situated in the rapidly evolving field of Urban Studies, the course aims to open up conversations across disciplines about the cities we are in and the cities we desire. Students will be expected to read set texts, both fictional and theoretical, and watch set films in preparation for classes which will take the form of weekly, student-led seminars.

Introduction to Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Course convenor: Dr M Norton | Course code: EGS5031F | Cross-faculty electives offered through UCT Faculty of Science.

This course provides broad, integrated knowledge on key issues in climate change and sustainable development, making students conversant across the spectrum of climate change issues and history. Topics covered include sustainable development; the climate system, anthropogenic forcing and climate system response; African climate variability and change; international climate change legal frameworks, negotiations, and politics; the economics of climate change and climate change financing; the concept of climate compatible development. The course is lecture, seminar and group-work-based. Each section of the course will involve basic framing lectures, supported by either an essay exercise or a group work exercise and seminar.

Land and Agrarian Question

Course convenor: Prof. H Chitonge | Course code: ASL4209FS

The prevalence of large-scale land acquisition in the context of rising food prices since the 2008/09 financial and economic crisis has brought the issues of land and land use in Africa into the spotlight. As a result, land and agrarian matters in Africa are increasingly having a direct bearing on broader issues, including food security, environmental sustainability, economic growth, social and political stability, social justice and rural livelihoods. By introducing the land and agrarian questions in Africa, this course critically examines the different dimensions of land, including patterns of land ownership, types of land tenure, land reform types, issues of tenure security, means of accessing land, land administration structures and institutions forms of land use, and the challenges (and opportunities?) posed by the current large-scale land acquisitions in different African communities. The course will draw examples from selected countries on the African continent. This course examines these dimensions of the land and agrarian questions in Africa in both their historical and contemporary contexts.

Language Ecology – Exploring Intersections

Course convenor: Prof. A Deumert | Course code: ASL5323FS

Language ecology (sometimes also called eco-linguistics) is the study of how languages interact with one another and the larger environment in which they are spoken/written/signed. It is a paradigm that is especially well-suited to understanding the challenges of the contemporary world and that allows linguists to contribute to the social sciences more broadly.

Policy and Governance

Course convenor: Dr Z Patel | Course code: EGS5047F/S 

This course looks at the underlying dynamics involved in the negotiation of environmental policy and its implementation. The assumption here is that unsustainable outcomes are not a result of a lack of will or intention, but rather due to vastly varying values, knowledge and data that are brought to bear on decision making for the environment. The approach of this course is to challenge the ‘cultural embeddedness’ of policy i.e. it critiques the cultural processes underlying environmental policy. A deeper understanding of the cultural politics of environmental policy and practice will deal with the processes through which institutions define and mediate policy outcomes; governance arrangements for sustainable development; the roles of power, rationality, knowledge and values in achieving environmental and social justice. At the NQF 9 level students will be expected to apply theory to appropriate areas of application in the realm of urban environmental policy. Masters level students will be assigned two presentations and subsequent written submissions, with an emphasis on the application of theoretical considerations. The extended policy analysis assignment will contain additional analytical variables to ensure a higher level of analysis.

Race and Relationality in Afro-European Literature

Course convenor: Dr P Moji | Course code: ELL4036F

This elective engages with black phenomenology outside the habitual American and African contexts, through a study of Afrodiasporic narratives set in Europe. Noting the 'silent racialisations' behind the European dogma of colour-blindness, the course problematises categories such as 'migrant' vs. 'Afro-European' by the examining different constructions of race on the continent, which are often contingent on different colonial histories and waves of migration The course is equally weighted between literary and theoretical texts, with students being exposed to narratives in or translated into English from diverse geographical locations alongside theoretical texts that explore race, relationality and black geographies. Students acquire the principles of analysing translated texts, comparative approaches to literary critique and develop conceptual ease with a phenomenological approach to narrative.

Rethinking Africa's Development

Course convenor: Prof. H Chitonge | Course code: ASL4207F

This course looks at the various development approaches and theories adopted by African states at different times. The course examines some of the most influential theories of development which emerged in the context of the post-Second World War situation focusing on how these theories have been used in Africa. In examining the different development theories, the course also investigates how Africans have responded to these theories. The course examines the question of whether African countries need to rethink these approaches and theories. Emerging views about Africa's development trajectory are also discussed. Critical questions about whether Africa can achieve sustainable economic growth and development by deploying conventional development and economic growth theory are discussed.

The Meat of the Matter: Food, Gender and Planetary Health 

Course convenor: Dr C Tsampiras | Course code: ANS5419FS

How does a hamburger link to gender identities, violence, the planetary crisis and health? It is complex questions like this that the vibrant and growing field of Medical and Health Humanities (MHH) in Africa (and across the world) – underscored by concerns for inclusion, access, and social justice – is interested in addressing. The Meat of the Matter course contributes to these discussions and MHH, by exploring topics and theories linked to food access, systems, creation, production, preparation, and social significance. The course will consider the gendered nature of food and explore how this relates to the health of individuals, communities (of various species), and the health of the planet. The course will investigate the inter-relationships between food, gender, sexuality, 'race', class, species, and health and draw on theories and notions such as ecofeminism, queer ecologies, slow violence, and the capitalocence to examine them. It allows students to investigate and understand how food and health (human, non-human and planetary) has been shaped by socio-political, economic, and environmental concerns and promises to feed your intellect.

Theorising Justice From the South

Course convenor: Dr R Chaturvedi | Course code: SOC5059FS

This course will focus on responses of various judicial and state institutions and civil and political society to experiences of injustice and inequality in different parts of the postcolonial world – especially Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Students will be trained to glean understandings of a just world, freedom, self and community that underlie their institutional and discursive interventions, interrogate as well as draw upon them as conceptual resources. They will hence be prepared to undertake the work of generating new theories of justice and equality that abide by the social and political life of the global South and offer more inclusive, rich and democratic normative content than the prevailing paradigms.

Urban Food Security

Course convenor: Assoc. Prof. J Battersby | Course code: EGS4039F/S

Topics include an overview of poverty and urbanisation in Southern Africa; urban food security, methods and issues; urban poverty and vulnerability debates; food security and health; managing urban food systems (ecological, regulatory and fiscal dynamics).

Water, Society, Ecology

Course convenor: Prof. L Green | Course code: ANS5417FS

This cross-institutional course aims to improve student understandings of social and ecological dilemmas around water, and water-related infrastructures. The goal is to support graduates capacity to think with liquid flows around hard surfaces; urban chemistries; multiple species, and the historical-political legacies of infrastructure and design, in order to work towards “planet- compatible”, justice-based infrastructure interventions. This course also probes how we can build better collaborative practices across North-South divides, i.e. ones that are alert to histories of inequality and questions of environmental justice. It thus includes comparisons and discussions about ongoing relations at human-land-water interfaces in different hemispheres. To this end, the course is both transdisciplinary – to prepare students to reach beyond traditional disciplines – and hemispheric – to facilitate, in a teaching context, a stronger understanding of north-south concerns and dialogics.

See current handbooks of all UCT faculties for more information and details on the courses.

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