Conservation and Environmental Policy This course examines conservation and environmental policy in the United States. In order to better understand the current nature of the conservation and environmental policy process, we will begin by tracing the development of past ideas, institutions, and policies related to this policy arena. We will then focus on contemporary conservation and environmental politics and policy making—gridlock in Congress, interest group pressure, the role of the courts and the president, and a move away from national policy making—toward the states, collaboration, and civil society.

Environmental Intimacies, Injustice and the Politics of Care Pleasure activism is a framework for social and environmental change. It is an invitation to better know ourselves and see how embracing what brings us joy is central to dismantling sexist, racist and homophobic structures of oppression. This course explores how self-love, healing and harm reduction are necessary for our liberation and survival on an unjust and warming planet. This course asks what it takes to move from a place of despair to action, and how might new avenues of connection and consent be forged across social and geographic difference? We will read Adrienne Maree Brown’s Pleasure Activism, Sarah Jaquette Ray’s A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, and a suite of other scholars and activists focused on related work including climate justice, queer ecology, ecosexuality, solidarity work, feminist ethics of care, and re-imagining human-nature relations.

Transnational Feminist Conservation In this course we explore a transnational feminist approach to conservation. We will start by delving into the masculinist history of conservation, and reviewing a set of theories and vocabularies focused on gender, as well as race, class, and ability as key sites of power that effect both human and non-human bodies and ecological processes, from coral reefs to the arctic tundra. We will compare case studies across multiple regions globally on topics such as conservation via population control, feminist food, community-based conservation, and feminist-indigenous approaches to inquiry. We will debate feminist science, examining the conflicting epistemic foundations of objective versus situated knowledge.  We will hone our writing skills in a variety of genres including blogs, academic essays, poems, and zines.

Community-Engaged Environmental Studies Practicum In this course students work in small groups with one of a variety of partners and organizations to complete a semester-long, community-engaged project. Project themes vary by term and typically focus on local and regional environmental issues that have broader application. Projects rely on students’ creativity, interdisciplinary perspectives, skills, and knowledge developed through their previous work. The project is guided by a faculty member and carried out with a high degree of independence by the students. Students will prepare for and direct their project work through readings and discussion, independent research, collaboration with project partners, and consultation with external experts. The course may also include workshops focused on developing key skills (e.g., interviewing, public speaking, video editing). The project culminates in a public presentation of students’ final products, which may various forms such as written reports, policy white papers, podcasts, or outreach materials. (Open to Seniors) (ENVS  0112 OR APES[5]) AND (ENVS  0211 OR PSCI  0211) AND (ENAM 0215 OR ENVS  0215 OR ENGL  0215) AND (GEOG  0120 OR ENVS  0120 OR GEOG  0150 OR ENVS  0150 OR ENVS  0251 OR GEOG  0251 OR ENVS 0261 OR GEOG  0261 OR ENVS  0271 OR GEOG  0271 OR ENVS  0281 OR GEOG  0281 OR GEOG 0252))

Gender Health Environment Growing concern for the protection of the environment and human health has led policy makers and scholars to consider ways in which gender, class, and race and other forms of identity mediate human-environment interactions.  In this course we will explore how access to, control over, and distribution of resources influence environmental and health outcomes both in terms of social inequities and ecological decline.  Specific issues we will cover include: ecofeminism, food security, population, gendered conservation, environmental toxins, climate change, food justice, and the green revolution.  We will draw comparisons between different societies around the globe as well as look at dynamics between individuals within a society.  The majority of case studies are drawn from Sub Saharan Africa and Asia, however some comparisons are also made with the United States.

Just Environmentalisms In this course we will draw on theories of social and political change to understand the systematic causes of inequality and environmental issues around the world. We will look at both proximate as well as ultimate drivers of socio-environmental problems focusing on the relations between production and consumption, representation and regulation, rights and responsibilities, and information and norms.  We will also study prospective solutions including political movements that resist environmental enclosures on land and at sea.  More specifically, we will focus on examples of transnational movements fighting for socio-ecological justice, and how individuals and collectives within these movements navigate their socio-cultural and political economic differences while working in solidarity together.

Mez Baker-Medard

Reviews and ratings for Mez Baker-Medard at Middlebury College.Mez Baker-Medard teaches Conservation & Env Policy, Environmental Intimacies, Transnational Feminist Conserv and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Mez Baker-Medard good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

Mez is super passionate and in taking this class you will learn a lot that is important to understanding current environmental policy and how policy in general is made. Know that there is always reading for the class and it's super necessary to understand the readings to do well in the class.

I fail to see how this was a college course at a premier liberal arts institution. Mez is clearly very smart and accomplished, but in her efforts to be proactively accommodating of students' mental health needs and learning challenges, she is teaching near the middle school level. If expectations are low, students will not exceed them. People did not rise because we were not challenged, we were babied. BUT... students who are looking for an easy A, beware -- Mez is not an easy grader. Her grading is FAIR -- people get what they deserve. You have to actually know about environmental policy to earn a good grade. That is a good thing, but surprising because of the snail pace and surface-level depth of class lectures and discussion. 

This course was not taught in a policy way but rather more of a justice course. I cannot say I learned anything about policy or what our current ENVS policy looks like. I did not find this helpful to better understanding my major. 