(Un)natural Disasters

(1 Credit Hour) · Undergraduate

What does "disaster" mean? In this class, we seek to question, challenge, and comprehend the socio-historical, economic, cultural, spatial, and geopolitical components of "natural" disasters. How are some events deemed a disaster? How do communities recover and reconstruct after events of disaster? As disasters become more frequent and devastating due to global climate change, growing economic precarity and political instability, it is imperative to understand the multifaceted socio-ecological nature of disasters. First, we seek to examine how certain communities are more disaster-prone than others, and how these vulnerabilities to risk, hazard, and exposure have historical, political, and social underpinnings. These same underpinnings impact how people live through disaster, as well as the aftermath that follows the "event"; so much so that oftentimes, it is more accurate to speak of disaster "processes" rather than finite events. This one-credit module will unpack many of these questions alongside critical case studies, drawing from an interdisciplinary array of approaches, ranging from history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, geography, and urban planning. These approaches cover a broad range of methodologies and theoretical approaches that will inform and enrich our critical thought toolbox and, I hope, will prove to be useful even outside the classroom.