CSP 69 Acts of God: A History of Natural Disasters

By studying responses to "natural disasters," this course helps students understand the politics of environmental change. We will explore the religious, economic, and social contexts for individual and institutional responses to natural and catastrophic events, such as volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and fires. The course will develop a conceptual vocabulary drawn from the interdisciplinary field of "disaster studies" to consider the social geography of risk, the politics of disaster response, and the ability of communities to be resilient and adapt. We will also consider how disasters are woven into the historical memories of various communities and used as reference points to understand both the past and the future.