NCHU Course Outline

Course Name	(中) 農業人文：探索農業與人文的交匯(8294)
	(Eng.) Agrarian Humanities: Exploring the Intersection Between Agriculture and Humanities
Offering Dept	International Doctoral Program in Agriculture
Course Type	Elective	Credits	3	Teacher	Theodorus Arnoldus Maria Richard
Department	International Doctoral Program in AgriculturePh.D	Language	English	Semester	2026-FALL
Course Description	The onset of the Anthropocene and Climate Change, as well as the rapid pace of ecological transformations and ever-widening and intensive forms of extractivism call on us to change how we think about, and mobilize around, agrarian questions in the 21st century. A new field in Agrarian Studies is arising and that is Agrarian Humanities, where farming and its development is studied on the intersection of Agriculture and Humanities, through a combination of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. In an age marked by ecological crisis, extractive capitalism, and accelerating climate change, farming has reemerged as a critical site of inquiry into the entangled futures of the human and nonhuman world. This course seeks to rethink agrarianism as both a material practice and a conceptual framework through which we examine questions of labor, food, belonging, technology, planetary survival, and care while focusing on East Asia and the Transpacific world. The class examines how agrarian literature and culture articulate alternative ways of living with the land, resisting colonial and capitalist extraction, and building socio-ecologically just relations across species and borders. It is particularly focused on how literary and cultural narratives envision farming as a world-making practice of transformative change. 授課內容(Course Content) On the content of the Course: In the context of the above explorations, students will be asked to actively share their findings in the class. This class is a full EMI (English Mode of Instruction) class. The course is divided into two parts: in the first 10 to 12 weeks, subjects and materials will be discussed based on student presentations and guidance by the teacher. After that point, the course will focus on the choice by the students of a subject for and the writing of their end term paper under a workshop like approach. The Midterm assignment will be (1) a written paper about the preliminary choice by the student of 3 (three) possible subjects for their end term paper related to the content of the course, together with argumentation of around 300 - 500 words for each subject, and (2) a presentation of the same in class. The treatment of the second part of the course will then be chosen discretionarily by the teacher, and assigned for group / student presentation or self-study. The second part of the semester will be more aimed at guided self-work in class on study, research, discussion and writing for the end term paper. The key to a good presentation is to realize that simply summarizing and presenting information, is not enough. Gathering information and organizing it in a PPT is just the beginning of the exploration of truly knowing and understanding. What is important is to ask yourself: what is the essence of this information; what does this information possibly mean to me and the class; and how can this information be used to reach conclusions that will support the debate and the deep understanding of the subject? Each presentation, if assigned, will last around 40 minutes. The presenters will prepare 4 to 5 questions on the material which will be discussed in class. For this purpose, depending on the number of students, the students will either present individually or be asked to form groups of 2 to 3 students (depending on the total class number) and choose a subject as assigned or approved by the teacher. This syllabus provides basic reading only. The students are encouraged to explore further reading and present it to the class. Please allow the teacher to check in advance whether additional reading that you wish to present, is appropriate. The subjects and documents mentioned in the syllabus are only indicative and can be changed pursuant to the teacher’s ideas on the progress of the class. All materials are expected to be read and/or viewed by the students before class. End term papers are to be submitted in paper, on the relevant date to the teacher, without late acceptance. Midterm materials will be submitted on I-learning. NOTE: NCHU has a University Regulation that under its article 26, prescribes that students are not allowed to miss classes by one-third or more. This includes classes that are missed with approval in advance. On a 16 week schedule, that would mean missing 6 classes or more deserves a fail. The text in Chinese is as follows: 第二十六條: 學生各科目缺課時數達該全學期上課時數三分之一者，不得參加該科目之學期考試，該科目學期成績以零分計。總缺課時數累計達全學期所修各科目上課總時數三分之一者，應辦理休學。 The PDF file is linked here: https://share.google/XPrROckWDyPAASnw5.
Prerequisites				self-directed learning in the course	Y

Relevance of Course Objectives and Core Learning Outcomes(%)			Teaching and Assessment Methods for Course Objectives
Course Objectives	Competency Indicators	Ratio(%)	Teaching Methods	Assessment Methods
1. To introduce students to diverse disciplinary perspectives enabling them to frame their own studies of phenomena and perspectives related to agrarian humanities studies. 2. To familiarize students with some key concepts and texts related to the intersection of agricultural studies and humanities.			topic Discussion/Production Visit Exercises Discussion Lecturing	Written Presentation Attendance Oral Presentation Assignment
Course Content and Homework/Schedule/Tests Schedule
Week Course Content Week 1 Course Introduction Overview, Syllabus and Class Rules presentation, and initial topic exploration. General Discussion. Week 2 Farming and story-telling: why do farmers farm? Agro-ethnography. [Roncoli, 2006] O’Connor, 2025] Week 3 Climate Change and farming developments; care farming. [Ihlebæk, 2016] Week 4 What is our environment? The farm in our heart. Spirit of farming. [Experiencing the land] [Campus Ecology Walk] [Chou, 2022] Week 5 Colonial and extractive capitalism regarding land. [Minoia, 2020] Week 6 Generational issues in modern farming: do young people still want to farm? Participatory farming. [Chang, 2018] [Šimpachová Pechrová, 2018] Week 7 Agro-ecology and sustainable regenerative farming. Farmer stewardship. (Multispecies) care. [Francis et al., 2003] [Wezel et al., 2020] Week 8 Midterm: provide an original, non-AI composed paper about the preliminary choice by the student of 3 (three) possible subjects for their end term paper related to the content of the course, together with argumentation of around 300 - 500 words for each subject Upload on I-learning on the day of the class before midnight. Week 9 Presentations by the students of their 3 chosen possible subjects for their end term paper. Week 10 Ecological living; Ecovillages. The role of farming in sustainable communities. [Dias et al., 2017] [Lennon and Berg, 2022] Week 11 [Fieldtrip to Ecovillage TaoMi, Puli] Week 12 Climate change, food security, health. What is good food? [El Bilali, 2020] Formulation of the research question. Week 13 Writing the Introduction; structuring the paper. Week 14 Presenting the next 1000 words. [International Symposium on Agricultural History and Literature, Academia Sinica, Taipei, December 11 - 13] Week 15 Discussion of writing progress; trouble shooting. Review of the class and the learning experiences. [Attending the NCHU Green Campus Cafe event] Week 16 End Term, final paper: provide an original, non-AI composed paper on any subject related to the class of between 6000 – 8000 words, to be provided in print form on the class date to the teacher in class latest by close of class hour. In print only, no digital submission. No late submission allowed. self-directed learning    02.Viewing multimedia materials related to industry and academia.    06.Participation in field trips and outdoor instructional activities at other NCHU campuses or branches, including experimental forests or test sites. View at least 5 (five) YouTube presentations of at least 15 - 20 minutes length that are directly relevant to the subject of the class. Visit the NCHU experimental farm and study how they develop regenerative farming methods there.
Evaluation
Evaluation is based on the teacher’s impression of level of participation and overall performance in the class by the students. Grades are calculated on the following basis: 40% Class participation through assignments and discussions 30% Midterm paper (1000 - 1500 words) and presentation. 30% Endterm paper (6000 - 8000 words)
Textbook & other References
Materials are multi-disciplinary. Further materials will be given by the teacher during the course of the class. Mandatory reading: Chang S. et al. 2018. Inventing Agricultural Humanities via Revitalizing New Ruralism Tea-Town in Taiwan. Asian Journal of Behavioural Studies, Vol. 3 No. 13 (2018): Sep / Oct. https://doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i13.147. Chou, S. 2022. Agrarianism, Spirituality, and the Ecopoetics of Hope: A Conversation in Taiwan with Norman Wirzba. file:///C:/Users/admin1/Downloads/Agrarianism,%20Spirituality,%20and%20the%20Ecopoetics%20of%20Hope%20A%20Conversation%20in%20Taiwan%20with%20Norman%20Wirzba.pdf. Dias, M.A. et al., The Meaning and Relevance of Ecovillages for the Construction of Sustainable Societal Alternatives, Ambient. soc. 20 (03) • Jul-Sep 2017 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-4422ASOC0083V2032017. El Bilali, H. 2020. Climate Change and Food Security. Agriculture & Forestry, Vol. 66 Issue 3: 197-210. https://www.agricultforest.ac.me/data/20200930-16%20EL%20BILALI%20et%20al%20SB-HE.pdf. Francis, C. et al., 2003. Agroecology: the ecology of food systems. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, July 2023. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233138094_Agroecology_The_Ecology_of_Food_Systems. Lennon, A., and Berg, N. 2022. Alternative places for alternative people? A changing ecovillage discourse from Othered lifestyle to another rurality. Journal of Rural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.09.024. Ihlebæk, C. et al. Motivations, experiences and challenges of being a care farmer – results of a survey of Norwegian care farmers. Work 53, 113–121. file:///C:/Users/admin1/Downloads/2016_Ihlebketal._carefarmers.pdf. Minoia, P. 2020. Corporate land grabs: Colonial continuity and space of exception in Kenya. Land Use Policy Volume 99. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719302558. O’Connor et al., 2025. The “farmily” that changed me: An ethnography and autoethnography of small-scale farming and Agrarian worldviews in Australia. Ethnography, Vol. 0(0) 1–31. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/14661381251344740. Roncoli, C. 2006. Ethnographic and participatory approaches to research on farmers’ responses to climate predictions. Climate Research, 33.https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr_oa/c033p081.pdf. Šimpachová Pechrová, M., Šimpach, O., Medonos, T., Spěšná, D. and Delín, M. 2018. What Are the Motivation and Barriers of Young Farmers to Enter the Sector?, AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 79-87. file:///C:/Users/admin1/Downloads/398_agris-on-line-2018-4-simpachova-pechrova-simpach-medonos-spesna-delin.pdf. Wezel, A. et al., 2020. Agroecological principles and elements and their implications for transitioning to sustainable food systems. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 2020, 40:40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-020-00646-z.
Teaching Aids & Teacher's Website
iLearning
Office Hours
TBA
Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs(Link URL)
include experience courses：N

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Update Date, year/month/day：2026/07/27 14:47:28	Printed Date, year/month/day：2026 / 8 / 18
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