Taught By:
Kathryn Milun
Associate Professor, Anthropology Department
University of Minnesota, Duluth
Read profile here.
Course Description:
I teach an Energy, Culture, Society course which has, since 2016 Paris Agreement, included a student-hosted community POWER DIALOG about energy transition in our region. I would like to redesign this course along the social action lines described in your institute. Our region of northern Minnesota has significant issues facing its energy transition: we have a vertically integrated investor-owned utility (IOU) which was, this year, sold to the largest asset-owner in the world--Blackrock. Blackrock is involved in the ownership of mines, pipelines and other fossil fuel industries seeking to come to the northern shores of Lake Superior. Our IOU is a significant, backdoor player in ALL legislation impacting our region. As a legal anthropologist, I train my students to take our region as their energy transition fieldsite. But we have not yet made the next step from gathering, analyzing and showcasing knowledge to making local, community-engaged research knowledge into effective social action.
