Description: In the contemporary world, disaster is commonplace. And yet, as the social importance of natural disaster becomes selfevident, the act of studying disaster as a social phenomenon has proven complex. What qualifies as a disaster, and is it “natural?†Does disaster reveal social truths, and if so to whom? In this course, we will explore a number of so-called natural
disasters through close readings of ethnographic texts. Our purview will include Hurricane Katrina, nuclear disasters in Japan and the Soviet Union, earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, and of course the current pandemic.
Prerequisite(s): See the current course schedule for registration restrictions.
For up-to-date information on current course offerings and details, please refer to the Pitzer class schedule on MyCampus2 Portal .
