About this course
“This is the new normal.” This repeated refrain points to a world where once isolated and rare severe environmental events have become commonplace. But how did we get here, and how are people and land affected by these conditions?
This course takes our moment as an entry point to investigate the connections between contemporary and historical economic, environmental, political, and technological systems and the landscapes, from cities to coastlines, they help shape.
In this moment it is essential to study the historical contexts that have influenced our landscapes and their transformations from floods and fire to deindustrialization. This course will explore examples from multiple parts of the world across the 19th to 21st centuries.
This course will draw on readings, topics, and methods from an interdisciplinary set of fields including anthropology, art history, geography, sociology, literary studies, environmental history, and urban studies.
4 credit hours