Environment, Development and Peace

DED-6007-Environment, Conflicts, and Sustainability

3Credits

This course will take a close look at the linkages between environment, conflict and development. We will discuss the different root causes of environmental and social or development crises as they come forward in the literature, focusing on a series of highly contested concepts and narratives around overpopulation, economic growth, and free market capitalism and globalization. Part of this discussion will be an analysis of the responses to these crises and what can, should and is being done to stop them.

We will take a closer look at the different linkages between environment and armed conflicts. We will discuss the literature on environmental security, going from older frameworks of scarcity induced conflicts to natural resource abundance, move the discussion to more complex issues of ecological limits, limits to growth, and ecological security, integrating globalization, and historical, political, ecological and economic issues that influence development, environment, and peace and conflicts.  We will end with

UPM 6003-The United Nations System and UPMUNC (Part I)

2Credits

The course is intended to familiarize students with the creation, objectives, evolution, main entities, and principal areas of work of the United Nations system. The course will look in some detail at the United Nations Charter and the functions of the UN’s principal organs before delving into the UN’s work in spurring cooperation to address a number of key contemporary global challenges, such as those in the areas of sustainable development, international migration and large-scale refugee flows, and climate change and environmental degradation.

DED 6038 -Water Security and Peace

3Credits

This course explores local water security and the “ripple” effects on societies. The course will build on a coupled systems framework to understand the physical and social elements of local water security. Students will use their foundations in peace studies to reflect on how water insecurity may threaten or reinforce positive peace, particularly at the local level. 

The course will consist of an introduction to the hydrological cycle and variations in water resources over space and time, followed by a coupled systems framing of local water security, an understanding of the different ways in which we use and value water, consequences of water insecurity, the role of intersectionality in water (in)security, and how we can undertake research to better understand water (in)security. 

 The course will be virtual and interactive, consisting of presentations by the lecturer and students, readings, discussions, assignments, and group work.

DED 6022-Sustainable Agriculture

3Credits

In this course we will become familiar with contemporary issues in sustainable agriculture and critically analyze key debates in the field. To provide context to our discussions, we situate the emergence of sustainable agricultural practices within their historic contexts (e.g., green revolution) and we will examine key economic agreements that shape current agricultural markets and trade. We critically examine our global modes of production, industrial, agroecological, and sustainable intensification and we link our analysis to the most recent programs and policies regarding agriculture promoted by the FAO of the United Nations (e.g., scaling-up of agroecology). In addition, we take on some of the most pressing agriculture issues including: climate change, livestock, water security, agricultural certifications, biotechnology (including GMOs), markets, local food, and gender. We mainstream a social justice angle in our class to ensure that we understand how programs and policies affect countries and people differently, by gender, age, and ethnicity.

DED 6034 -Forest, Forestry and Poverty

3Credits

Deforestation is considered one of the main global environmental challenges of our times, because of its significant impact on biodiversity and its important contribution to Climate Change and Global Warming, as well as on the livelihoods of millions of people. This course analyzes the way deforestation and forest degradation have been and are being explained by both mainstream and alternative narratives. It critically engages with the way deforestation is defined and measured and discusses the various attempts in stopping or reducing it. We will look at a range of conservation approaches that go from traditional protected areas over community-based strategies, and the increasingly common market-based approaches and finally forest restoration. Illegal logging and timber trade will be looked at as a specific topic of particular importance since it is linked to development, poverty, and violent conflict. Additionally, this course looks at the links between poverty and deforestation, some of the possible strategies to reduce poverty through forest-based activities, and analyzes and discusses the importance of forests for humans and the challenges faced by those who try to manage them sustainably.

DED 6054-Coastal Resource Management

3Credits

Nearly 50% of the world’s population currently lives within 100 km of the coast, and nearly all humanity is dependent on the world’s coasts and oceans for a variety of cultural, economic and environmental reasons.

Despite, or perhaps because, of their value to social and ecological processes, marine resources face increasing pressures and conflicts over their utilization. Among the most pressing issues facing the world’s oceans, five major categories can be distinguished: i) human population growth, particularly in coastal areas. This is an overarching category as population growth affects all of the remaining categories; ii) pollution (e.g., noise, sewage-water discharge, eutrophication); iii) resource over-use (e.g., overfishing); iv) habitat destruction and degradation (e.g., dying coral reefs, disappearing mangrove forests) and v) invasive species (e.g., lion fish in the Caribbean). Additionally, all of these major threats are affected by emerging crosscutting issues such as climate change.

In response to the evident crises in coastal and oceanic resources, over the last several decades there has been an emergence of management tools intended to help stakeholders, from the local to the national and international levels, manage these resources more equitably, effectively, and sustainably. In the most general sense, this course is intended to enable students to familiarize themselves with the language, history and main management tools related to coastal resource management and to the nature of the problems being faced. The course is not focused on the biology or population dynamics of coastal resources, but rather intends to analyze the practice and science of coastal-resource management from the perspective of policy design and implementation.

Specifically, this course will provide a brief introduction to key physical and biological characteristics of the oceans, as well as discussion concerning their relation to human history. Second, we will investigate the unique human economic, social, and cultural attributes (e.g., fishing, fishers and fishing cultures) that are most directly dependent upon them. Among the many topics within this section, the course will specifically focus on understanding artisanal vs. small-scale fisheries, large-scale/industrial fishing as well as the differences and conflicts that exist between these sectors. Third, a broad overview of the development of the current resource crises and conflicts will be presented and examined via case studies from throughout the globe. Fourth, the evolution and trends in coastal and marine management over the last century will also be a central aspect of this course. We will explore and discuss the evolution from traditional top-down models to the implementation of stakeholder inclusion, participation, and co-management. We will also review the role of marine protected areas, and no-take reserves in the management and conservation of coastal resources. Finally, through practical exercises, guest lectures, and field visits, students will be able to explore the complex nexus of relations between humans and coastal/marine resources as it applies to Latin America and the case of Costa Rica.

In sum, students in this course will gain insight into and knowledge of how we have moved from the proclaimed inexhaustibility of marine resources, predominant in the 19th century, to the increasingly complex layers of marine tenure systems, marine protected areas, and precautionary approaches that characterize contemporary 21st century marine and coastal resource management regimes.

DED-6023-Research Methods

3Credits

In this course we will critically examine research methodology. Our course is designed to take student sequentially through the process of thinking about and designing research. Together, we will explore the basic structure of research and examine the philosophical origins of different research approaches. I will guide students as they learn to link different information-gathering methods to different research approaches. My emphasis will be on qualitative research methodology but we will introduce quantitative data gathering and sampling. To ensure that students gain hands on experience with the process of developing methodologies and implementing different information gathering procedures, I will complement lectures with workshops where students will learn by doing. Furthermore, I believe that learning about methods requires analyzing how these methods have worked (or not) in real-world case studies; thus, in class discussions of current case studies will complement workshops and lectures.

NRD 6083-Natural Resource Management Field Course

3Credits

This class is an opportunity to explore in-depth how different land-uses and conservation approaches intermingle in one particular region: the Southwest of Costa Rica. The purpose of the field trip is to obtain critical direct experience and knowledge of important natural resources management issues in a developing country, given the real political, economic and natural resources context of the same. This course enables students to assess the contextual factors that affect natural resource management. Over the course of the trip, we will visit and be exposed to projects and issues with various resources, different actors involved in the management and different institutional settings. As such it will be a chance for you to integrate ideas from many of the classes 2 you have taken over the course of your program, as well as a chance to learn from some of your peers about the topics to which you were not exposed during your program.

DED 6047-Conservation through Reconciliation

3Credits

In this course, Eli Enns will take students through an exploration in geopolitics, international dispute resolution and nature conservation from the vantage point of an Indigenous Nation Builder in Canada - The world's only multi-national Indigenous-European state. What does the word "Canada" mean? Embracing the Nuu'chah'nulth worldview of Hishuk'ish Tsawaak, students will experience an intimate view into an advanced Indigenous societies perspective. We will also explore some of the successful examples arising in Canada over the past several decades of Indigenous-led conservation of nature through reconciliation, including Tribal Parks and The Pathway to Canada Target 1.

DED 6043 -Urban Sustainability

3Credits

By 2050, it is estimated that two-thirds of the world’s population will live in an urban environment. In many countries in the developing world, this is already a reality, with 80-90% of their populations living in cities, with increasing and rapid rates of urbanization. Increased urban population growth, paired with other socio-economic realities that are characteristic to cities, poses enormous challenges to ensure quality of life and wellbeing for everyone, leaving no one behind.

Urban sustainability goes beyond how "green" a city is. This course will be based on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities and the New Urban Agenda, and will provide an understanding on how sustainability in cities is a multi-variable concept, interconnected with other SDGs and issues such as urban planning, transport planning and design, inequality, climate action, health, gender, economic development, among others. You will learn from case studies, articles, reports and the experience of experts in the field, in addition to gaining tools and developing skills that will help you propose strategies, projects and policies to improve your community, town or city in order to make it more sustainable. 

DED-6024-Food Security

3Credits

The number of undernourished people in the world is on the rise despite the fact that we currently produce enough food to feed our global population. In this course we examine how this paradox relates to inequality, conflict, and climate change. We analyze historical events that have shaped our current food security at different scales as well as frameworks and indicators to understand food security. We evaluate food crises, food riots, and how these crises link to the financialization of our food system. We also examine how different countries and actors have adopted food sovereignty to address economic and social inequalities in our food system. Other key themes in this course include: sustainable agriculture and aquaculture, food waste, nutritional transitions, urban food security, and sustainable diets, Students have the unique opportunity to learn course themes in practice during local field visits, invited lectures, and through gardening on the UPEACE organic farm.

DED 6050-Climate Change Governance

3Credits

Scientists worldwide agree that human-induced climate change is occurring and have documented the environmental scenarios that humanity is moving towards. Widespread awareness about such impacts and ensuing policy actions to address it, are a relatively recent phenomenon. The creation of climate policy mechanisms and international legal instruments has been the result of a series of complex, long-lasting negotiation processes that include multiple stakeholders acting across multiple scales and potentially influence global socio-economic, cultural and ethical conducts. Thus, climate governance must be analyzed over various spatial, temporal and system scales. 

This course examines climate change governance by looking at the interaction between these multiple elements, beginning with a historical overview of the scientific evidence, the mechanisms for that knowledge to permeate into decision making, the multilateral, regional, national and sub-national governance spheres and the most current state of affairs.

Special attention will be drawn to:

• effective science-policy interfacing mechanisms,
• the structure of multi-level organizations to enable cooperation and dialogue,
• the existence of appropriate legal instruments,
• special governance considerations in especially vulnerable ecosystems (like poles and the ocean).

DED 6052 -Gender, Environment, Development

3Credits

TBA

DED 6055 -Gender, Environment, Development

3Credits

Dr. Uzma Rashid currently serves as Associate Professor, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University for Peace, Costa Rica. Prior to joining UPEACE, she worked as Chair at the Department of Sociology, and Associate Dean for Research of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. Dr. Rashid has done her PhD as a Fulbright scholar from the interdisciplinary Language, Literacy, and Culture program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA, and has extensive teaching and research experience in a variety of contexts. Her current research interests lie at the intersections of gender, religion, race, ethnicity, and class, in particular focusing on intersectionality and inclusivity in peacebuilding efforts.

She can be reached at urashid@upeace.org

UPM-6003-The United Nations System and UPMUNC (Part II)

1Credits

The UPEACE Model United Nations Conference (UPMUNC) is the second part of a composite three-credit course that begins with the two-credit introductory course on the United Nations System, taught in the first semester. Through a simulation of UN bodies, committees, procedures, and codes of conduct, this immersive and experiential educational exercise encourages the application of knowledge gained in previous courses, including an understanding of the objectives and functions of the United Nations system, as well as the development of professional skills related to research, public speaking, negotiation, mediation of conflict, and the preparation of official documents.   

Historically, the conference has been open to outside participants from colleges and universities both regionally and internationally, presenting additional possibilities for networking, dialogue, and educational exchange among all participants. UPMUNC is further enriched by special events, which typically include a panel of invited speakers, a diplomatic reception, an awards ceremony, and a closing celebration.   

DED 6066-Applied Environment and Development

3Credits

TBA

DED 6029 - Climate Adaptation and Justice

3Credits

Climate change adaptation without mainstreaming equity and justice, will only serve to perpetuate existing inequity. In this class, we will take a justice lens to analyze climate change impacts and adaptation efforts. Specifically, we will examine the following themes: 1) adaptation, resilience & climate action, 2) energy transitions, 3) human rights, 4) rights of nature, 5) gender and intersectional justice, 6) climate change and displacement as well as 7) Indigenous peoples and climate change. Students will examine this suite of themes via multiple contemporary case studies.