Understandings of human-environment relationships have been forged in moments of crisis: natural and human-made disasters, technological failures, political disputes, scientific controversies. This course addresses science, technology, and the environment in historical perspective through focused studies of environmental crises. We will learn to sort out the complex dynamics of nature, knowledge, ethics, and power wrapped up in environmental crises, the scientific and political stakes of past arguments over what is and isn't a crisis, and how understandings of environmental crisis both shape and are shaped by specific social, cultural, and political contexts (including our own).
History