Field School in Conservation and Development
Botswana and Namibia
Spring Semester 2014
May 19 – June 7 field trip
Students selected to participate in this field school will have the opportunity to travel to rural Botswana and Namibia and learn about the complex relationships between people and conservation by visiting parks and conservation areas and interacting with local organizations and residents.
Students selected for participation in the field school must enroll in Prof. DeMotts’ Field School in Conservation and Development course during the spring semester. This course will meet regularly during the term, but not as often as a regular class, because the majority of the course will take place in the field once the semester is over, and the major seminar project to be completed by each student will be based on fieldwork. Thus, each field course participant will receive an incomplete grade in the seminar until the end of the field school, at which time field projects will be graded and seminar coursework considered complete.
The prerequisite for the field school is:
ENVR/P&G 326: People, Politics, and Parks
Spring 2014, Tuesdays 5-7:30pm
Course description: The ways in which people understand and manage their relationship with nature are varied and contentious. As concern for the natural environment has become a subject of regular and sometimes intense discussion in the political arena, it is more and more important that we critically consider the political processes through which environmental policy decisions are made. Nowhere is this more clear than in examining the ways in which land and resources are conserved through parks. This course examines the intersection of protected areas and political priorities in local, regional, and global context, grounding larger discussions of parks and conservation in the particular spaces in which they take place. Complicating ideas of conservation brings insight into the complexity of environmental politics and policymaking as well as the ways in which those people most affected by conservation are able to participate in it. The prerequisite for this course is one of the following: ENVR 110; PG101, 102, or 103.
This course may be taken in the spring of 2014 concurrently with field school enrollment; students who took 326 in the spring of 2012 have also met the field school prerequisite
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Application Process
Interested students must apply to Prof. Rachel DeMotts directly [rdemotts@pugetsound.edu, x2891] by October 15 with a brief (1-2 page) statement of interest addressing the student’s reasons for wanting to participate and Puget Sound transcripts (unofficial is acceptable). Funding is available for student participation in this field school to cover most travel costs, with a strong preference for Environmental Policy and Decision-Making Program minors.
