2020-21 Academic Catalog

Did an earthquake in the 1740s cause an anti-colonial uprising in Peru? Did a hurricane in Puerto Rico help justify U.S. colonization in 1899? Did the Sandinistas provide better disaster relief than the Nicaraguan state in 1976? In this class we will explore the relationship between natural disasters and social change in Latin America, paying attention to how environmental historians and social historians answer these questions differently. Along the way we will ask, what is a “natural” disaster? How does a society account for drastic change that is beyond human control?