Winter 2023
Histories of Climate Disaster: Indian Ocean Perspectives (Chaterji)
This course surveys the history of the Indian Ocean world with focus on the intertwined relationship between human societies and the waters that connect us. Examining the impact of colonialism on the livelihoods of local communities and their landscapes, this course considers how alterations to the environment – namely agricultural development and resource extraction – continue to produce economic and health disparities in postcolonial imaginations of the nation and regional identity. Together, we will engage with novels and films to explore ideas of power, race, and violence within environmental crises discourse across the Indian Ocean world.
Disease, Environment, and Colonialism in Southeast Asia (Romadhon)
This seminar will examine medicine and environment in Southeast Asia as colonial contact zones where knowledge, representation, culture, and technology meet and collide. Exploring issues from the promotion of colonial medicine and modern biosecurity to the negotiation of cultural knowledge on forest, animals, and biodiversity to cultural changes resulted from massive palm plantation projects, students will be invited to look at the past and current politics related to health, environment, and conservation from scholarly and literary perspectives and to engage in creative projects to disseminate their research. Workshops on Southeast Asian history and on creative academic works (comic, film, photo) will also be provided.
Spring 2023
The Art of Resistance: Southeast Asian Responses to Climate Change (Chaterji)
In this course, we examine the range of possibilities generated by performing artists in Southeast Asia in response to the increasing threats of climate change. Drawing from traditional, Islamic, and modern performance traditions, we consider how the arts function as a tool for activism and change as well as a means through which grief may be expressed and possible reconciliation imagined.
HOME 101 – Nature, Culture, and Belonging (Romadhon)
What’s behind our claim to earth (and universe) as our home? This course concerns everyday relations between humans, animals, nature, and landscape that shape the current age of the Anthropocene. This course is structured into two parts: lectures and workshops. Students will be introduced to photovoice method and required to participate in a photovoice exhibition project.