Unthinking Oil Together: Developing a Collaborative and Transdisciplinary Course to Imagine a Post-Carbon Future

[...]what role does higher education play in an age when climate change demands such a fundamental shift in our relationship to energy, our environmental politics, and our systems of knowledge? While we live in fossil-fueled, petrocultural reality, that reality is not a mere techno-economic problem to be solved by mere techno-economic solutions; rather it is a deep cultural problem that entwines our current social practices and energy uses with politically motivated representations and narratives about nature, modernity, and the environment. While there are no simple answers, we will start with the premise that climate change is not a Western techno-economic problem, but rather a global existential problem that pervades all aspects of planetary life around the historical, aesthetic, and political dynamics between and among industrial capitalism, lifestyle, and fossil fuels. With this in mind, the course aims to: 1) Examine the historical conditions of oil society; How did we get here and what are the socio-cultural, political, and aesthetic registers through which fossil fuels shape our values, beliefs, habits, and practices? After being developed and taught collaboratively between faculty partners in architecture, urban sociology, and environmental science, the course will culminate with a public exhibition and symposium at Kean University’s Human Rights Institute.