Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010
CFAN 3480, Section 4, 3
credits
M 4:05-4:55 & W 4:05-6:00
Location: B25 Classroom Office Building, St Paul Campus
Instructor: Robert Gilmer
(gilme015@umn.edu), History
Sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study and the College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Science.
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Course Description
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Syllabus (.docx download)
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Moodle Site (for registered students)
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Recorded Lectures
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Schedule of Guest Lectures
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More Information
Course Description
In the wake of one of the largest environmental disasters in United States history, this course explores the many problems and paradoxes associated with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. This course meets the Technology and Society Liberal Education requirement by exploring not only the technical and scientific issues involved in the Gulf Oil Spill, but also its ethical and societal implications. Through class readings, discussions, assignments, and guest speakers, we will approach the Gulf Oil Spill from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, such as law, economics, history, engineering, and conservation biology. This interdisciplinary approach will not only give you a fuller understanding of the complex issues involved in the spill, but will also provide you with a skill set for dealing with future conflicts over the effects of technology on our changing societies and environments.
Guest Lecturers
September 22
Zygmunt Plater, former chair of Alaska’s Legal Task Force following the Exxon Valdez disaster
Question and Answer
September 29
Mike Tidwell, author of Bayou Farewell and founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Windmills Not Oil Spills: Turning the Tide on America's Energy Future
Q&A
October 6
Juliet Schor, professor of Sociology at Boston College and most recently the author of Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth (2010)
October 27
Justin Revenaugh, Professor of Seismology and Geology at the University of Minnesota
December 1
Don Davis,
Director Emeritus of the Sea Grant Program at LSU
and administrator for the Louisiana Applied and Educational Oil Spill Research and Development Program
December 6
Barry Lehrman, Lecturer, Landscape Architecture, University of Minnesota
More Information
The course was featured on the front page of the Star Tribune on June 24. The story profiling the course offering, instructor Robert Gilmer, and the IAS and its director, Prof. Ann Waltner, is also featured on CNN.com's "Intriguing People" blog, on HuffingtonPost.com, the website of the Washington Post, and in the June 23 edition of The Minnesota Daily.
To find out more about the course and its background, view or download the Bat of Minerva discussion with Rob Gilmer or read this interview by IAS graduate assistant Amir Hussain.