Core Curriculum

The EarthRights School Mekong's curriculum can vary from year to year, but the following core courses are taught most years.

• Team Building & Cross-Cultural Communication
• EarthRights Protection and Promotion
• Origins of Nationalism, Reconciliation
• Development-Induced Displacement
• Alternative Energy
• Introduction to International Financial Institutions
• Human Rights, International Law, and Business
• Understanding the ADB: Building a Case, Running a Campaign
• Understanding the World Bank: Building a Case, Running a Campaign
• Extractive Industries: the Natural Resource Curse
• International Advocacy and Campaigning, Media Messaging
• Law as a Tool: Environmental Justice and Human Rights
• Strategic Campaign Planning
• Grant writing

Field Work

Central to the seven month ERSM curriculum is a two month field work practicum, which takes place in the students' home countries and culminates in a written report from the field. The practicum is preceded by courses in Thai-Baan Research Methods, Participatory Research Methods, Field Work Planning and Project Planning. After the completion of their field research, the students come back together to reflect and share experiences, then prepare presentations on their findings.

Supplementary Coursework

• Cross-border Environmental Conflict: the Se San River Dam
• Hydropower Dams and Global Warming
• Mainstream Mekong Dams
• Indigenous People and the Right to Citizenship
• Plantations and Bio-Fuel
• Case Study: Klamath Falls Dams
• Case Study: Map Ta Phut
• Corporate Greenwashing
• Export Credit Agencies: Financing Destructive Development

Field Trips

Field visits vary from year to year, but have included the following destinations and topics:

• Salween Dams
• Mae Moh Coal Power Plant
• Udon Thani Potash Mine, Pak Mun Dam and Huay Ra Ha
• Campaigning Case Study: Kaeng Sua Ten
• Campaigning Case Study: Community Forest
• Mekong Media Forum