HIST 797: Research Seminar in History
HIST 797-001: Disasters in History
(Fall 2025)
07:20 PM to 10:00 PM M
Innovation Hall 328
Section Information for Fall 2025
What constitutes a “disaster”? What do changing explanations of the causes and costs of disasters, and differing responses to them, tell us about the larger contours of history? This readings-based seminar will examine disasters, in the U.S. and elsewhere, as lived experiences and cultural constructions from the medieval plagues to the hurricanes, wild fires, and industrial disasters of the modern era.
Our discussions will proceed from three assumptions informed by the inter-disciplinary field of Disaster Studies: that even so-called natural disasters are never entirely “natural;” that storms, flood, volcanic eruptions and other unfortunate events become “disasters” only when they intersect with human lives; and that case studies of disasters provide compelling insights into their larger cultural and social contexts.
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Course Information from the University Catalog
Credits: 3
Enrollment limited to students with a class of Advanced to Candidacy, Graduate, Non-Degree or Senior Plus.
Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Cultural Studies, Education (Community College) or History.
Students in a Non-Degree Undergraduate degree may not enroll.
This course is graded on the Graduate Regular scale.
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