CAS 355. Environment, Development and Social Exclusion in Central America (3)

Preparatory: Completion of lower division writing requirement and either CAS 100 or CAS 102 or permission of the instructor. The focus of this interdisciplinary course will be the origins and ramifications of environmental degradation that stems from developmental policies which have historically impoverished Central American peoples. It examines the socio-cultural, demographic, economic, political, and environmental problems experienced by Central America. It also addresses the effects of mono-crop cultivation and the devastation produced using pesticides. Additionally, this course shows the linkages of land degradation and poverty, strategies of survival and resistance, and the communal response to the dynamics of global capitalism. Meets the Ethnic Studies requirement. (E.S.)