Fast Fashion
Rana Plaza Commemoration March by Greens/EFA Group is licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Resource Description
Who doesn’t want to be fashionable? Fast fashion is quickly becoming one of the world’s biggest problems. The fashion industry is creating more clothing than we can use, most of it of lower quality, and many of which ends up in landfills. Consumers buy this cheaply made clothing following fashion trends, but the garment breaks or we grow tired of it, and we donate it. What happens to the clothing we donate? It has been said that after oil, the fashion industry is globally the most polluting industry. This module explores the global impacts of fashion consumerism, the impact on local economies, and its effects on the environment.
Learn moreRoger Casement, the International Rubber Trade, and Human Rights (1901-1916)
Credit: Sir Roger David Casement
(1864-1916), Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons
Resource Description
Suitable for introductory or survey courses in the humanities, this module focuses on the last fifteen years of the life of the diplomat and human rights advocate Roger Casement (1864-1916), which included his investigation of abusive practices on the rubber plantations of the Congo Free State and in the Putumayo District of the Amazon, as well as involvement with the Irish independence struggle. Because of the connection to the international rubber trade, the final years of Casement’s life illuminate the connections between colonialism, extraction, labor exploitation, and questions of human rights. The public revelation of Casement’s homosexuality in his conviction for treason by the British enables conversation about the history of gay rights in relation to these topics.
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