CRITICAL SUSTAINABILIY STUDIES:

Seminar Critical Sustainability Studies (KSL: 423800)

Lecturers
Dr. Eda Elif Tibet, Prof. Dr. Susan Thieme

 

Course time
SS 2025, Monday, 14:15 – 17:00, Seminar room Fabrikstrasse 8, Ideenlabor

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Course Description

This interdisciplinary course offers a comprehensive exploration of epistemological foundations related to critical sustainability studies with a particular reference to ongoing research in the research teams of the two respective lecturers of the course (Unit Critical Sustainability Studies and mLAB, GIUB and Team “Bridging Values, Land Systems and Sustainability Transformations” Wyss Academy for Nature).The course examines various epistemological approaches and paradigms, including Indigenous, decolonial, and feminist relational ontologies. This will provide a solid foundation for understanding different ways of knowing and co-producing knowledge from a critical sustainability studies perspective.

Course Objectives

The course covers theoretical frameworks, methodologies, and critical perspectives essential for understanding and analyzing justice and sustainability issues through film reviews, readings, and oral film discussions. Providing an epistemological freedom and justice perspective, we will explore different knowledge systems, how and why certain perspectives dominate and shape societal discourses, policies, and practices, and how those power structures can be challenged through a more differentiated understanding of world views. 

 

Learning Outcomes

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• We will gain an understanding of the epistemological foundations of critical sustainability studies. We will develop the analytical skills and critical thinking necessary to engage in transformative research and address sustainability issues in the field. 

• We will critically analyze the strengths and limitations of various knowledge systems and epistemologies, recognizing the importance of different ways to understand the World. 

• By delving into different epistemologies, we will explore how knowledge is related to power, how and by whom which knowledge was and is created and received, and the societal implications at all scales (e.g. research practices, policies, people’s livelihoods, oppression & exploitation, emancipation, impacts of colonialism and the importance of decolonizing knowledge production)

• Students will learn skills to link theory with case studies by reading and analyzing film contents, writing a scientific film review, and delivering a film discussion to express their arguments and critical thoughts.