EH5008 Environmental Disasters: Crisis, Catastrophe, and Risk in the Modern World (1755 to Present)

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 1

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 11

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Planned timetable

To be arranged.

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr J F M Clark

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr J Clark

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

In the early twenty-first century, the fate of 'civilisation' seems caught between the inevitability of progress and the unavoidability of collapse. Increasingly, this fate has been tied to human interaction with the non-human natural world. This module offers helpful historical insight into the existential crises precipitated by human interaction with the natural world. But both history and evolution can be characterised as combinations of gradual and sudden change. Through the study of past environmental disasters, this module seeks to understand historical continuities and discontinuities. Bookended by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and Hurricane Katrina of 2005, the module explores the nature of 'natural' disasters; and the social and cultural factors that shaped and framed them. Moreover, it considers the ways in which an increasingly industrial, urban, and 'global' world may have generated distinctly 'modern' risks.

Relationship to other modules

Anti-requisites

YOU CANNOT TAKE THIS MODULE IF YOU TAKE EH5105

Assessment pattern

100% coursework

Re-assessment

100% coursework

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

2-hour seminar

Scheduled learning hours

22

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

278

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

EH5008 Environmental Disasters: Crisis, Catastrophe, and Risk in the Modern World (1755 to Present)

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 11

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Planned timetable

To be arranged.

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr J F M Clark

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr J Clark

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

In the early twenty-first century, the fate of 'civilisation' seems caught between the inevitability of progress and the unavoidability of collapse. Increasingly, this fate has been tied to human interaction with the non-human natural world. This module offers helpful historical insight into the existential crises precipitated by human interaction with the natural world. But both history and evolution can be characterised as combinations of gradual and sudden change. Through the study of past environmental disasters, this module seeks to understand historical continuities and discontinuities. Bookended by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and Hurricane Katrina of 2005, the module explores the nature of 'natural' disasters; and the social and cultural factors that shaped and framed them. Moreover, it considers the ways in which an increasingly industrial, urban, and 'global' world may have generated distinctly 'modern' risks.

Relationship to other modules

Anti-requisites

YOU CANNOT TAKE THIS MODULE IF YOU TAKE EH5105

Assessment pattern

100% coursework

Re-assessment

100% coursework

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

2-hour seminar

Scheduled learning hours

22

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

278

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.