An opportunity for students to engage in team-based, applied anthropological work on a focused project, this course is intended as a linked block that supports advanced coursework in such areas of study as human ecology, field archaeology, event ethnography or museum curatorial work. Sites for fieldwork will vary from year to year, ranging from the Rocky Mountain West and/or Southwest Regions to international settings. Incorporates such hands-on activities as participant observation, interviewing, networking, policy development, field data gathering, collections management, habitat or nutritional analysis, publication and dissemination, as well as training data analysis and presentation, rhetorical and organizational skills.

Focuses on the social and environmental consequences involved in producing various resources, ranging from agriculture to fossil fuels to the ongoing green energy transition. Global case studies will also examine how communities have—successfully and unsuccessfully—sought to resist unwanted extractive processes or redress their negative effects. Grounded primarily in political ecology and environmental history, this interdisciplinary course will prepare students to understand and critically analyze both processes of resource extraction as well as the strengths and constraints facing efforts to transform socio-ecologies.

Course will deepen a students' understanding of the frameworks used to understand sustainable development and how climate change affects sustainable development objectives and intersect with food systems.