Courses / Module

How might we think about justice, resistance and solidarity at a time of social, political, and environmental crises? How can we create better futures together? This five-credit lecture module discusses what geographical approaches to justice offer beyond existing Western models of criminal and social justice. Thinking geographically about justice means considering more than laws and political theories. A geographical approach to justice is place-based, multi-scalar and relational. It means to acknowledge how historical and current power geometries and geopolitics, varying environmental and cultural circumstances, and social-ecological axes of difference have affected people’s (and other species’) lives and environments. It also means to imagine and enact forms of resistance to injustice and work together in solidarity at different scales. In this class, we will find inspiration from activist, community- and place-based movements that seek to care for more just, inclusive, sustainable and healthy environments for people, other species and our earth. We adopt an anti-colonial, feminist and anti-racist geographical approach to consider historical examples of in/justice, resistance and solidarity in Ireland and North America in the past and present (some examples from other parts of the world may be introduced). By learning about the historical geographies of colonialism, students can begin to acknowledge past wrongs, consider challenges to ongoing forms of oppression, explore appropriate forms of reparative and healing justice, and begin the work of creating healthier futures together. The module draws insights from North American Indigenous, feminist and Irish activist social movements, and considers different subfields of human geography (cultural, social, historical, political and environmental) to examine: the importance of local knowledges, placenames and cultures; communal forms of land ownership and management; legacies of colonialism, slavery, capitalism and other processes in the present that produce and affect current-day uneven geographies and power relations; activist movements that challenge oppression and offer alternative approaches to justice. Thinking geographically about justice also means starting the work of resistance and solidarity where you live. The module is intended to empower students to begin identifying possible ‘Geographies of In/Justice’ in their own hometowns and cities through a project based upon student’s original research, including documenting placenames, analysing historic maps, interpreting landscapes, and imagining more just futures at home.