Brian J. Gareau, Ph.D.

Teaching Philosophy

The courses I teach are primarily writing intensive and, when possible, involve a great deal of student participation. I believe writing is an important skill, so my courses challenge students to improve their writing capabilities. As the topics pertaining to globalization, governance, and the environment are complex and controversial, my teaching philosophy is to encourage students to think critically and engage intellectually with these issues. I hope to design postgraduate courses that are reading and writing intensive, and include considerable student involvement. As a graduate student, I appreciated courses in which the instructor provided background on the historical context of assigned readings, and a review of the theoretical concepts employed by the authors. I emulate this pedagogy in my own courses.  I have taught courses ranging from 2 to over 250 students, attracting students in the natural and social sciences, with positive evaluations and awards for my performance. My courses include instruction on globalization, global environmental governance, global political economy, political ecology, nature and society, neoliberalism, political economy and the environment, social theory, and social movements.

• Human Use of the Environment

Human Use of the Environment examines the human use of resources and ecosystems, the multiple causes and consequences of environmental degradation, and adaptive institutional and policy arrangements as prerequisites for resilient and sustainable management and development in different parts of the world. The major objective of this course is to help geographers, earth scientists, and other professionals to develop an awareness and appreciation of the perspectives that human geography brings to studies of human use of the environment and of the ways in which resource-management decisions are made in human societies.

Download Syllabus example: Geography 430 Syllabus.Gareau

• Political Sociology

An intensive examination of major substantive mono­graphs representing pluralist, elite, and class theories of the state in industrialized capitalist democracies. The course will include lecture and seminar-style discussion of historical texts in political sociology, and the application of this vein of sociology in current environmental sociology and geography. Students will be expected to participate in course discussions, provide daily write-ups, and take a mid-term and final exam.

Download Syllabus example: SOCY 113.Syllabus.Gareau

• Society & Nature

This upper-division course accomplishes several goals: 1) It reviews the state of the natural environment as it exists today, both in the U.S. and globally, from a critical theoretical perspective; 2) It reviews theories that are critical of capitalism as a social formation, explains how it functions, and describes its environmental implications. The second goal involves reviewing cases studies, both local and global; 3) It discusses the link between these theories and contemporary environmental governance, which has entered a “neoliberal” moment. Finally, the course discusses how critical sociologists are beginning to think about society-nature relationships in a nuanced way: “socionature”. Students’ final grades are based upon four criteria: 1) daily write-ups on the reading assignments; 2) a midterm exam; 3) an in-class presentation on the reading assignments, and; 4) a final exam. Society & Nature is a seminar-format class that combines lecture with group discussion. Therefore, students’ final grades depended, in part, on the quality of their participation in class discussion. Adequate participation required regular attendance. Late written assignments were accepted, but penalized because student participation was an intricate part of the class. The class presentations were important for helping generate discussion and pose questions on the reading material.

Download Syllabus example: SOC125.Gareau.Syllabus.2007

• World Society

This course aims to introduce students to macro-sociology, an historical and theoretical analysis of large-scale social change. We will discuss the origins of the modern world, the shift to Western global domination, and the current epoch of globalization using various methods of analysis. We will use an interdisciplinary approach that requires students to read broadly —social history, social theory, political economy, anthropology, and environmental history—in order to grasp the consequences of large-scale social changes that affect our lives and our life chances. From the rise of Chinese imperialism to the making of multilateral institutions like the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, this course stresses that the economy, the structure of both ancient and modern institutions, the relationship between society and nature, and the relationship between nation-states are all outcomes of social change. Importantly, World Society is designed to be an introductory course, preparing students for upper division courses in the areas of political economy, political sociology, social inequality, socio-economic development, global/international studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, and environmental sociology/studies. This course will prepare students to make critical assessments of globalization. We will discuss the origins of the modern world, the shift to Western global domination, and investigate the possibilities of making industrialization ecologically sustainable.

Download Syllabus example: WorldSocietySyllabus.Gareau

• International and Global Issues

This freshman core course reflects the intellectual theme of the college. At College Nine our focus is on international and global perspectives such as economic globalization, human rights, regional conflicts, the environment, and cultural identity. Some of the topics addressed in the course may include:

• What is globalization and how is affecting us?
• World hunger and the food supply
• Global ethnic conflicts
• Genocide
• Are there universal human rights?
• What can people do to help?

Emphasis on Developing Your Writing, Reading, and Oral Presentation Skills

In addition to introducing students to global issues, the class is also designed as a writing workshop. Students write and revise several papers during the quarter.

Download Syllabus example: InternationalIssues.Syllabus.Gareau

• Group Tutorial

The objective of the group tutorial is to involve advanced undergraduate students in a research project that will help prepare them for advanced research at the graduate level or the job market. This particular group tutorial will involve investigating interventions made by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at Montreal Protocol meetings in order to discern the effect that NGOs have on protocol deliberations. The overall purpose is to explore the roles that global civil society groups play in an instance of environmental governance. The students and tutorial advisor will meet weekly to discuss progress made on their investigations, providing weekly write-ups and, at the end of the quarter, a final report.

Download Syllabus example: Syllabus SOCY 194