The Environmental Justice Collective was formed when students of color in environmental classes saw the need for a space that could center issues of equity in sustainability spaces. Environmental justice was rarely mentioned in environmental classes. For this reason, EJC made it a goal to work with faculty and staff to reinvent the curriculum at UT to include more social justice topics. The term intersectionality was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 2016 to describe how race, gender, class and other sociodemographic characteristics interconnect.

EJC has conducted surveys to gather student opinions on the presence of social justice in their degree plans and has presented the results of this research to Environmental Science and Geography faculty. These conversations have led to environmental justice course proposals in both departments. EJC has also worked with Students Fighting Climate Change and Senate on a Joint Resolution to encourage academic departments to include more social justice in their curriculum. Each semester, EJC publishes crowd-sourced list of recommended courses at UT that cover social justice topics based on student input and our own research. We hope that you will find this useful when you are planning your schedule for next year. To get involved with our curriculum work, reach out to us at justice@utenvironment.org.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1u1hipE3msGTV3L0-DLBRWKBe9IiVu1l2-RMxxhLZWKQ/edit?usp=sharing