A distinguishing characteristic of my teaching is a focus on the environmental relations of local communities, while recognizing that it is equally important to understand the ways that such local systems are entwined with extra-local, national, and global markets, politics, and ideologies. I emphasize problematizing where necessary the orthodox approaches to conservation and development. My teaching encompass communities, local and national governments and NGOs, and addresses such topics as political ecological theory, indigenous environmental knowledge, natural disasters, agrarian society, and field methods. I strongly encourage my advisees to carry out their own independent summer research projects. I help them with their research, not the reverse. Most of my advisees carry out research internationally, have excellent records of obtaining support for this both within and beyond Yale, and have won numerous awards in recognition of their research achievements.
There is every year a critical mass of 30-50 students here working on these issues, which is perhaps unique in world and with a tradition of supportive versus competitive peer dynamics. I organize separate research labs for my doctoral students from YSE and other Yale departments and for all joint YSE/Anthropology doctoral students, and for my YSE Master’s students
COURSES DESCRIPTION
Biopolitics of Human-Nonhuman Relations: New Anthropological Approaches to the Nonhuman
Advanced seminar on the ‘post-humanist’ turn toward multi-species ethnography. Section I, introduction to the course. Section II, perspectivism: ontological theory and multi-species ethnography; the question of human consciousness; and mimesis in human-prey relations. Section III, entanglements: the challenge of translating indigenous knowledge; the lost holism of historic natural history; and the everyday reality of multiple natures. Section IV, metaphors: the role of non-human imagery in political discourses; and the similar role of inanimate/geologic imagery. Section V, a class on student selections of readings; and a class on student presentations of drafts of their seminar papers. Section VI, conclusion: plants as teachers; and a lecture by the course TF. Three hours lecture/seminar.
Society and Environment: Introduction to Theory and Method
This is an introductory course on the scope of social scientific contributions to environmental and natural resource issues. Section I presents an overview of the field and course. Section II deals with the way that environmental problems are initially framed. Case studies focus on placing problems in their wider political context, new approaches to uncertainty and failure, and the importance of how the analytical boundaries to resource systems are drawn. Section III focuses on questions of method, including the dynamics of working within development projects, and the art of rapid appraisal and short-term consultancies. Section IV is concerned with local communities, resources, and (under)development, with case studies addressing issues of representing the poor, development discourse, and the question of indigenous peoples and knowledge. This is a foundation course for the MEM curriculum, a core course in the curriculum for the joint YSE/Anthropology doctoral program, and a prerequisite for ENV 869b/ANTH 572b. Three-hour lecture/seminar.
Disaster, Degradation, Dystopia: Social Science Approaches to Environmental Perturbation and Change
This is an advanced seminar on the long tradition of social science scholarship on environmental perception, perturbation, and disaster, the relevance of which has been heightened by the current global attention to climate change. The contents evolve from year to year in keeping with current scholarship. Section I introduces the course. Section II addresses central questions and debates in the field: social dimensions of natural disasters; the historic evolution of anthropological thinking about climate and society; discursive dimensions of environmental degradation; and asymmetries between political power and resource wealth. Section III take a historic and comparative view of different ways of understanding the environment: first examining a ½ millennium tradition of natural history, and then the 21st century development of a post-humanist, multi-species ethnography. Section IV consists of the classroom presentation of work by the students and teaching fellow. Prerequisite: F&ES 520a/ANTH 581a, ENV 838a/ANTH 517a, or ENV 839a/ANTH 597a. Three-hour lecture/seminar. Enrollment is capped.
Climate and Society
This is a seminar on the history of scholarly thinking on the relationship between climate and society, focusing on the social sciences in general and anthropology in particular. Its premise is that contemporary debates about climate change cannot be fully comprehended without knowledge of theorizing regarding climate and society that is as ancient as human civilization itself. Weekly readings pair historic with contemporary studies, and special attention is paid to current debates regarding climate politics and science denial. Section I introduces the course; Section II presents intellectual continuities from the classical, Medieval, and Enlightenment eras up to the present; Section III focuses on the question, When climate changes, does society follow suit? Section IV unpacks the idea of societies as the unit of climatic impact or response; and Section V looks at climate knowledge and its circulation. The main text is The Anthropology of Climate Change (Dove, ed., 2014, Wiley-Blackwell), written especially for this course. No prerequisites. Although designed for undergraduates, graduate students are welcome with the instructor’s permission. Two-hour lecture/seminar. Taught in alternate years.
Environmental Anthropology: From Historic Origins to Current
This is a seminar on the history of the anthropological study of the environment. Weekly readings pair historic with contemporary studies, and special attention is paid to current debates regarding human environmental relations. Section I introduces the course; Section II is on the nature-culture dichotomy (questioning the dichotomy, the cultural-materialist tradition); Section III on ecology and social organization (early essays by Mauss and Steward, beyond Steward, “natural” disasters); Section IV on methodological debates (defense of swidden, natural science models, the bounded and balanced community); Section V on the politics of the environment (indigeneity, campaigns, and collaborations); and Section VI on knowing the environment (sense of place, limits of knowledge). The main text for the course is Environmental Anthropology (Dove and Carpenter, eds., 2007, Wiley-Blackwell), written especially for this course. No prerequisites. Although designed for undergraduates, graduate students are welcome with the instructor’s permission. Two-hour lecture/seminar.
Social Ecology Doctoral Lab
A bi-weekly seminar for Dove doctoral advisees and students in the combined YSE/Anthropology program. It consists of the presentation and discussion of dissertation prospectuses and proposals, dissertation chapters, and related publications; collaborative writing and publishing projects on subjects of common interest; and discussion of such topics as grantsmanship, data analysis, writing and publishing, and the job search. Two-hour seminar.
JOINT DOCTORAL DEGREE
Professor Dove, in collaboration with the counterpart from Yale’s Department of Anthropology, co-coordinates a unique combined doctoral degree program between YSE and Anthropology, an exclusive initiative unparalleled in the country.
The program’s objectives are threefold:
- to synergize the interdisciplinary potential of YSE, particularly in bridging the social and natural sciences, with the specialized identity and competencies of the Anthropology Department;
- to amalgamate YSE’s strengths in ecological and environmental studies with the Anthropology Department’s prowess in the social sciences; and
- to harmonize YSE’s emphasis on connecting theory with policy and practice with the Anthropology Department’s theoretical acumen.
Graduates of this program are equipped to pursue teaching roles as anthropologists and/or environmental scientists, possessing credentials that qualify them for policy-oriented positions within international institutions and academic appointments encompassing both teaching and research. For further information, kindly refer to the YSE doctoral program page.