- Does the rainforest have rights?
- How has it been utilized by humans over time?
- What about the rights of the indigenous occupants?
- What policies exist regarding the Amazon?
Anyone listening or reading the news in 2019 will have seen tragic stories of unprecedented swaths of forest in the southern Brazilian Amazon region on fire.
This phenomenon, however, is not new; there have been international responses over the decades to Amazonian deforestation, including global banks that have offered debt relief in return for preserving the rainforest. Furthermore, while most of the area is in Brazil, there are nine Latin American countries that contain pieces of the Amazon Basin. The issue of who decides management and use of the Amazon also resonates in other areas, such as the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, wildlife preserves in Africa, etc. For this lab, there are some context-specific questions, that lend themselves to research on this shared region. How is Amazon portrayed globally? Do different countries that surround the region have different public policies and discourse about the Amazon? These questions and the complicated human relationship with this rich and diverse ecosystem lend themselves to multiple analytical lenses, including film, literature, anthropology, history, politics, sustainability, and international development.Collaborations
Impact Outcomes
In pursuing their investigation of the Amazon, the Lab team met with faculty from the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of International Letters and Cultures as well as various scholars across the globe ranging from the United Kingdom to universities scattered throughout Brazil. In total, the Lab collaborated with 10 different thought partners as they created informed and meaningful tools for explaining the complexities of the Amazon rainforest’s land, inhabitants and the effects of the pandemic in Indigenous communities. Through policy papers, magazine pitch articles and story maps Lab teams developed poignant work that parses out some of the many complexities that exist within the realms of the rainforest’s land, indigenous inhabitants and conflicting economies.
View their final impact outcomes here.
Amazon Fires in the News
At the Humanities Lab, we strive to ensure our Labs are relevant and current. Here are some recent articles about the fires in the Amazon in today’s news!
Enrollment Information
Fall 2020
Course time/location: Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:00-4:15pm in ED220
Lab time/location: Tuesdays 1:30-2:45pm in ED328*
- Humanities Lab HUL 494 and 598
- School for the Future of Innovation in Society FIS 494
- School of International Letters and Cultures SLC/POR/SPA 494 and SLC 598
- Global Technology and Development GTD 598
Instructional Team
