Welcome to ENVS 16: Redefining Scientific Ways of Knowing.

This course embraces Indigenous ways of knowing alongside the ways of knowing developed by Western science. We read, discuss and most importantly, co-create a way forward toward ethical and sustainable science and economy.

We recognize that modernity for all its innovation has never conquered its own violence. Yet our dominant intellectual illusions cannot simply be willed out of being. How then do we practice science — how do we mentor our own imperfect minds — in ways that reawaken the humanity in ourselves, leading to ethical stewardship of the living earth?

First, we listen to one another to reclaim heritage. From that grounded place, we foreground multiple ways of knowing within scientific practice and surrounding it. Disciplines we draw from include botany, cultural studies, economics, ethnobotany, personal narrative, philosophy, poetry, science and technology studies, and theater.