Introduction

Teaching Toxic Heritage is a companion to Toxic Heritage: Legacies, Futures, and Environmental Injustice, co-edited by Elizabeth Kryder-Reid and Sarah May (Routledge 2024). While these instructional materials are organized around the five themes of the Toxic Heritage book, it also incorporates supplemental materials beyond the edited volume that address the wide range of topics related to toxic heritage.

Each of the five sections includes activities and discussion questions designed to engage learners in exploring different dimensions of toxic heritage.

• Section 1 focuses on definitions and framings of toxic heritage.
• Section 2 explores the politics of toxic heritage.
• Section 3 invites thinking about the impact on affected communities, as well as their activism and agency.
• Section 4 explores the narratives of toxic heritage.
• Section 5 is dedicated to interventions into toxic heritage and it supports learners’ exploration of their own potential involvement in environmental advocacy and toxic heritage curation.

The user’s manual describes the content, format, and recommended uses of the instructional material in more detail.

The target audience is primarily undergraduate and graduate students in a range of disciplines (eg. anthropology, environmental studies, public history, museum and heritage studies), but some activities are suitable for advanced secondary students and adaptable for public audiences as well. The primary sources are mainly drawn from the Toxic Heritage open access book, but could be paired with other sources such as the rich body of relevant documentaries, websites, and published literature, as well as local resources.