At the end of the course, the students will be able to analyse how societies used to cope with extreme natural events, through resilience or accommodation. The students, by actively participating in the lectures, will be able to discuss the main thematic and historiographical approaches of the subject, placing them in time and space and reflecting on the relationships between them. The analysis of sources and literature carried out in the classroom enables the students to reflect on the relationship between humans and the environment in the long run, with particular emphasis on the moments of 'friction' or 'crisis"
Course Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of pre-modern, modern and contemporary history
Teaching Methods
Students are warmly invited to attend and actively participate in all lectures, also reading and discussing literature and relevant primary sources, which will be made available.
Assessment Methods
Students will write a short essay. Theme, structure and any additional bibliography will be provided during the lectures.
Texts
• van Bavel, Bas; Curtis, Dan; Dijkman, Jessica; Hanaford, Matthew; De Keyzer, Maïka; Van Onacker, Eline; Soens, Tim, Disasters and history: the vulnerability and resilience of past societies, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press – 2020, 232 p. • Soens, Tim, “Resilient societies, vulnerable people. Coping with North Sea Floods before 1800” Past and Present, 241/1, 2018, pp. 143-177 (https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gty018) • Lee Mordechai, John Haldon, Resilience in Environmental History Discourse: Past, Present, and Future?, The American Historical Review, Volume 129, Issue 4, December 2024, Pages 1420–1451, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhae377 • Bonan, G. [edit]; et al. [edit], Environment and infrastructure challenges, knowledge and innovation from the early modern period to the present / ISBN 978-3-11-110064-7 - De Gruyter Oldenbourg - 2023
Contents
There is no such thing as a 'natural' disaster. Exploring the history of disasters helps to understand how societies can cope with extreme natural events, and why these events turned into disasters in some contexts, but not in others. By historicizing the crucial concepts of disaster, resilience, vulnerability and accommodation, specific events (from flood over famines to epidemics) and case studies from different parts of the world will be examined during the lessons, which cover the past 1000 years (from the later Middle Ages until the Anthropocene). We unravel the mechanisms which made societies (as well as households and individuals) vulnerable or protected them from harm. These mechanisms can involve institutional arrangements, but also infrastructures, solidarity and even cultural memory.
