Unit name | Histories of Extreme Environments |
---|---|
Unit code | HISTM0090 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Adrian Howkins |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit is founded on the premise that deviations from the supposed norm implied by environmental extremes offer excellent opportunities for historical analysis. The central aim of the unit is to use histories of extreme environments to gain insights into broader social power structures, cultural beliefs, and underlying material conditions. Environmental extremes can take many forms. Prolonged periods of unusually hot or cold weather such as the medieval warm period or the little ice age constitute a form of environmental extreme, as do shorter periods of drought or crop failure. Natural disasters such as earthquakes and flooding can suddenly turn safely familiar environments into something a lot more unpredictable and dangerous; so too can the presence of dangerous animals. Environments such as mountains, caves, deserts, oceans, the polar regions and outer space might be classified as ‘extreme’ by definition. Anthropogenic environmental change such as that caused nuclear accidents, military activity, or rapid deforestation can create environmental extremes out of previously ‘normal’ landscapes. The suggested geological epoch of the Anthropocene might imply that we are now living in a permanent environmental extreme that has deviated from a previously sustainable norm. Through critical analysis of a wide range of scholarship this unit aims to equip students with the ideas and tools needed to write an extended research essay on a topic of their choice related to extreme environments.
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:
One 2-hour weekly seminar.
One 5000-word essay [ILOs 1-4]
Kate Brown, Manual for Survival: An Environmental History of the Chernobyl Disaster (2020)
Paul Warde, The Invention of Sustainability: Nature and Destiny c.1500-1870 (2018)
Nancy Langston, Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES (2010)
Adrian Howkins, The Polar Regions: An Environmental History (2016)
Marianna Dudley, An Environmental History of the UK Defence Estate (2012)
Bathsheba Demuth, Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait (2019)