Special Topics in the Humanities (370-6-50)
Topic
Disturbance, Disaster, Perspectives on Abrupt Chan
Instructors
Gregory Donald Manuel
Meeting Info
AM Swift Krause Studio 103: Thurs 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
Disturbance, Disaster, Event: Perspectives on Abrupt Change
This course will track tactics and methods through which humans and nonhumans navigate quick moments of drastic social and environmental change. We will experiment with what it means to research and create amid conditions of unsteadiness and flux, placing theories of ecological disturbance in conversation with writings on events in the social sciences and humanities. How do plants, animals, state actors, corporations, and activists variously navigate opportunities and hazards proffered by social-environmental upheavals? And how have scholars and artists worked with objects and scenes that morph more quickly than typical methods can reliably capture? The course will examine scholarly and aesthetic works addressing abrupt crises and disruptions across a range of scales, including networked protests, fires, storms, infrastructural breakdowns, and, especially, global climate change. Students will hone close reading and listening skills through analyzing multiple kinds of media, including fiction, performance, photography, and video, and, through writing experiments, will gain practice communicating about events and places drawn from their own areas of interest. The course will culminate in a research paper or creative project on a topic of students' choosing.
Class Materials (Required)
Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower. ISBN: 9781538732182.
Class Attributes
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area