737334 Society, culture, and politics in historical transformations

Type
Lecture and seminar
Semester hours
2
Lecturer (assistant)
Schmid, Martin
Organisation
Offered in
Sommersemester 2025
Languages of instruction
Englisch
Content

In human history there has never been anything comparable to the current climate crisis. But there have been transformations that profoundly changed societies, cultures and their relation to nature. In European history one might think of the end of the Roman Empire in late antiquity or of the devastating wars, crises and pandemics in Europe and the colonized territories of the Americas between around 1500, but also of the innovations in science, religion and Renaissance art in the same period. Of particular interest for us is the beginning of industrialization, in Europe roughly in the decades around 1800. This is when modern, liberal democracies emerge in violent revolutions and social conflicts, but this is also where the climate and other current crises have their roots. What were the constitutive elements and driving forces of such historical transformations? How did contemporaries perceive and explain them, what futures did they imagine? What agency did different actors have in this transformation? And above all: what can we learn from these histories for the current societal transformation?
Previous knowledge expected

Basic knowledge of (environmental) history and socio-ecology is advantageous and desirable; a strong interest in wanting to learn from the past is indispensable.
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

Students will know major approaches to environmental and climate history (particularly cultural, political and intellectual environmental history). They will have an overview over important methods of these research approaches including source critique, oral history, content analysis, and appropriate source types, including image databases, digital newspaper archives etc.).

Students will gain competence in positioning academic texts in these fields of environmental history, in developing small research projects in environmental and climate history and in relevant methods, including critique of historical sources (including handwritten and printed texts as well as images).

Students will have skills in critical reading, presenting and discussing; in media and information literacy; in developing small projects that use suitable material and methods to address particular questions.

Students will advance their engagement with diverse perspectives, critical thinking, respectful social interaction across disciplinary boundaries, finding of creative solutions.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.