You will write for papers in this class. Due dates and times are noted on our schedule. You will pass in these drafts via Canvas.
The first paper will be worth 5% of your grade, the next two papers will be 10% of your grade; the final paper will be worth 20% of your grade.
Writing Assignment 1:
What is justice? How is the climate movement pursuing justice? Can true justice ever be achieved? Write a three page essay addressing these questions, based on our assigned material to date and (at most) three other references.
To document your sources, please use the Chicago Manual of Style.
Writing Assignment 2:
How can leaders and participants of contemporary social movements learn from the fight for the abolition of slavery? Write a five-page essay addressing this question, based on our reading to date and (at least) five other references.
To document your sources, please use the Chicago Manual of Style.
Writing Assignment 3:
As mentioned in class, please attend or view at least one of these events:
“The Path to Climate Justice is Local.” Wednesday, October 6 at 7:00 PM.
Elizabeth Yeampierre, Born and raised in New York City, Elizabeth Yeampierre is of African and Indigenous ancestry. She is co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance, and executive director of UPROSE, a woman of color-led grassroots organization working on environmental and climate justice in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She was featured in Vogue as a “Climate Warrior” and recently named by Apolitical as one of “The World’s Most Influential People in Climate Policy.”
An Evening with Amy Godine: Curator and Historian of the “Dreaming of the Timbuctoo” Exhibit. Thursday, October 14 at 6PM.
Town Hall Theater welcomes Dreaming of Timbuctoo curator and writer Amy Godine. Godine, an author and independent historian will introduce the story of a Black Adirondack farm settlement called Timbuctoo and a rich New York abolitionist’s effort to seed northern New York with Black pioneers in 1846. She will also explore the several ways the Timbuctoo story resonated with Vermonters, from their warm reaction to Smith’s “scheme of justice and benevolence,” to the welcome they extended to Black farmers who moved after the Civil War from Timbuctoo to Middlesex, Vermont, where their descendants would farm into the Depression.
“The Agitators: A Play Reading.” Friday, October 15 at 7PM.
Town Hall Theater and Middlebury College Professor Michole Biancosino present a play reading of “The Agitators”. The play, written by Mat Smart, profiles the 45-year friendship of suffragette Susan B. Anthony and escaped slave turned civil rights leader Frederick Douglass. The reading, performed by actors Ro Boddie and Tara Giordano, is thematically tied to THT’s current Jackson Gallery exhibit, Dreaming of Timbuctoo, which explores voting rights in the context of pre-Civil War black settlements in our region. “Do you believe this can ever be a country for all?” Susan B. Anthony asks Frederick Douglass on the day they first meet. This question is a focal point of “The Agitators,” a play that explores the shared dreams, disagreements, and defiance of two great American leaders, both agitating for someone else’s rights.
Then craft a two-page essay on what you learned, to be turned in by Sunday, November 21st.
To document your sources, please use the Chicago Manual of Style.
Writing Assignment 4:
What’s a current injustice that you care about? What’s the best way to fight it? Write a ten page essay addressing these questions, with (at least) ten references.
To document your sources, please use the Chicago Manual of Style.