GEOG 40.02 Catastrophe and Human Survival

Climate change, terrorist attacks, genocides, contagious outbreaks, and economic collapse preoccupy narratives about human survival. As a result, we are told that our lives are increasingly unstable and precarious—our futures, uncertain. Examining historical evocations of catastrophic events, and how future calamities therefore become imagined, this course examines the relationship between thinking about the future as a yet undetermined sequence of events, and the ways that humans attempt to secure their own survival, or become more resilient to the inevitable. Drawing texts from geography, international relations, literature, political philosophy, and ethics, this course surrounds the phenomena of catastrophe and human survival to ask: What does it mean to live in an age of extreme instability?

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:SOC

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