Environments are increasingly central to colonial and postcolonial histories of Asia and the Pacific, not only as backdrops to stories of human communities, power and agency, but as historical factors in themselves. Contemporary regional contests over environments and resources also commonly have roots in empire, decolonisation and/or national and international power differentials. This course will explore colonial and postcolonial encounters and contests over environments, considering territorial and resource management regimes, and claims to environments by smaller players like cultivators and forest-fringe communities. The historical roots of selected contemporary environmental contests and activist movements will also be explored.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Understand regional environmental thinking, subjectivities, contests and conflicts in their historical contexts, and discuss these critically.
• Understand colonial and postcolonial environmental and resource regimes within their historical contexts, and discuss these critically.
• Identify the players, interests and strategies involved in environmental contests through time, and discuss these critically.
• Understand how to identify these issues and narratives in a range of historical sources.

1. 500-word reading review discussing players, narratives and perspectives in the readings on a selected seminar topic (10%).
2. Essay plan with annotated bibliography (15%).
3. 1,500-word essay (25%, subject to handing in essay plan with annotated bibliography).
4. 2,000-word essay (40%).
5. Participation in seminar discussions (10%, subject to missing no more than two seminars without proof of illness or misadventure).

2 hour-long lectures and 1 hour-long student-led seminar per week, except for two 'research weeks', in which only the seminar and consultation hours will apply.

6 university courses (36 units) or permission of coordinator. Incompatible with ASIA6079

Students should be open to thinking laterally about historical sources and reading these for diverse messages.

• Introduction to Burke, Edmond, and Kenneth Pomeranz, eds. The Environment and World History: University of California Press, 2009.
• Course Reading Brick.

Access to the ANU campus and library, a computer and an internet connection.