FYSP 067 - The Climate of History: From Asia to the Anthropocene

FC SSCI WINT

4 credits
Have historians contributed to our cultural inability to contemplate climate changeby portraying humans as autonomous from nature? What role do the humanitieshave now that humans have become a major geophysical force, and what mustchange about how we narrate our story? This first-year seminar will invite studentsto contemplate these questions with a particular focus on the environmental historiesof Asia. Students will engage cutting-edge scholarship on topics from ancient anthropogenic landscapes of the Yellow River Valley to plastic in modern dayBeijing, and work to re-imagine the role of the humanities in the ageof climatechange through intensive writing and discussion. Off-campus field trips required.