Politics and Bureaucracy of the Environment

This is a great course offered jointly by the Department of Political Science and The Centre for the Environment. Professor Stren has designed and taught this course for a few years now.

On the first session of the course approximately 20 people showed up, some people from Engineering, some from Geography, Planning, Political Science, Economics and other related departments. Some 10 people were international students, exchange students and people whose first language was not English. I felt right at home in that crowd! The course content, assignments, presentations and papers were discussed and some questions were answered.

The second week only 10 people showed up, 9 of which are Ph.D students in the department of Political Science, mostly with British last names. Student number 10 was yours truly!

Max Weber’s theory of ideal bureaucratic systems was fully discussed. But, hey understanding Max Weber is not that bad. I think I can do this.

I looked through the topics of papers and presentations and found three that I could possibly comprehend better than Poly Sci guys: the Love Canal Story, Dumping in Dixie (racial factors in environmental contamination) and the Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights and annual reports. The other 197 topic for reading, discussion and presentation look way over my head!

A pleasant challenge has never scared me, but always motivated me to climb up the ladder. This will be another one example, I have decided.

Writing documents over 10 pages has always been a reason for me to grieve. This time around I will have to face it head on, and come out proud!

Although, considering that this is only one of the two courses that I am taking this term, well, let’s say I feel a tiny bit intimidated!