Admission requirements
BSA norm and a pass for both first year Themacolleges
Description
In the last decades, an abundant and interdisciplinary scholarship has contributed to shedding new light on the scale and nature of the wide variety of (imperial) practices that have determined the transformation of the United States into a global power and have marked the evolution of American global ascendancy. In so doing, historians have been able to re-assess the role that the US has played in the world and have disentangled the multifaceted relationships between the US and the world. At times, they ended up by interpreting the US as the world. Only recently, however, such a scholarship is starting to gauge the overall impact that the US – with its overwhelming economic power, its military-industrial predominance, and its increasing cultural hegemony – has had on the world, in the sense of the global environment. This course invites students to engage with this growing discussion, which fully embraces the so-called planetary turn, in creative and innovative ways.
This course wants to reconnect American history with studies on the Anthropocene and, more specifically, on the so-called “great acceleration,” a seemingly irreversible, unprecedented, and, as a matter of fact, largely US-shaped process of sweeping changes that from the 1970s onward has completely altered the socio-economic and biophysical spheres of the Earth. This course will invite students to explore the intersections between such changes and the trajectory of contemporary American history. What have, thus, the building of the US as a modern nation and the irresistible projection of its power abroad meant for the global environment? How have both these processes contributed to reshuffling human geographies and landscapes? How has the US affected the consumption, depletion, and exploitation or, by converse, the conservation, restoration and preservation of natural resources and raw materials throughout the globe? How has American power impinged on world’s waters? How has the US adapted and forced adaptation to energy crises and transitions? Which kind of socio-ecological developments has the US fostered on a global scale? What has been the role of the US in our current climate crises?
Firmly rooted in historical analysis and research, this course will allow students to gain a better understanding of US and global environmental history. It will also enable them to engage with timely issues and contemporary debates about climate crises and ecological injustice. Given its interdisciplinary nature, the course is reading-intensive and requires students’ preparation and active participation at any class. Classes will have the structure of seminars where, with the help of the instructor, students will explore the arguments of a series of readings, will elaborate on them, and will provide original solutions to present-day environmental challenges that confront the United States. By the end of the course, students will present on a series of case-studies, grounded on collaborative teamwork.
Course objectives
General learning objectives
The student can:
- carry out a common assignment
- devise and conduct research of limited scope, including
a. searching, selecting and ordering relevant literature:
b. organising and using relatively large amounts of information:
c. an analysis of a scholarly debate:
d. placing the research within the context of a scholarly debate. - reflect on the primary sources on which the scholarly literature is based;
- write a problem solving essay and give an oral presentation after the format defined in the first year Themacolleges, including
a. using a realistic schedule of work;
b. formulating a research question and subquestions;
c. formulating a well-argued conclusion;
d. giving and receiving feedback;
e. responding to instructions of the lecturer. - participate in discussions during class.
Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialization
- The student has knowledge of a specialisation, more specifically of:
- in the specialisation General History : the place of European history from 1500 in a worldwide perspective; with a focus on the development and role of political institutions;
- in the track American History: American exceptionalism; the US as a multicultural society and the consequences of that for historiography; the intellectual interaction between the US and Europe;
- Knowledge and insight in the main concepts, the research methods and techniques of the specialisation, more specifically of
- in the specialisation General History: the study of primary sources and the context specificity of nationally defined histories;
- in the track American History: exceptionalism; analysis of historiografical and intellectual debates.
Learning objectives, pertaining to this specific seminar
The student can:
- understand the historical emergence of climate change as a scientific, societal, and political phenomenon, and explore the role of the US in it;
- contextualize climate change both geographically and historically;
- analyze climate change and climate injustice academically and from a transatlantic point of view;
- explore the roots of our contemporary climate crises in the US and beyond.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar (attendance required)
This means that students have to attend every session of the course. If you are not able to attend, you are required to notify the teacher beforehand. The teacher will determine if and how the missed session can be compensated by an additional assignment. If specific restrictions apply to a particular course, the teacher will notify the students at the beginning of the semester. If you do not comply with the aforementioned requirements, you will be excluded from the seminar.
Assessment method
By the end of the course students will have to write a paper based on historiography on a concrete case-study. Throughout the course students will work in groups on a project dealing with one of the following broad areas:
Climate change and US politics
Climate change and US culture
Climate change and US society
Climate change and US economy
The students will present the result of their teamwork collectively during an end-of-the-course conference.
Assessment
Written paper (5000-6000 words, based on historiography, excluding title page, table of contents, footnotes and bibliography)
measured learning objectives: 2-4, 8-11Oral presentation, based on teamwork
measured learning objectives: 1, 3-4, 6-11Participation
measured learning objectives: 5
Weighing
Written paper: 60%
Oral presentation: 30%
Participation: 10%
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average with the additional requirement that the written paper must always be sufficient.
Resit
The written paper can be revised, when marked insufficient. Revision should be carried out within the given deadline, as published in the corresponding Brightspace course.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organised.
Reading list
John R. McNeill, Peter Engelke, The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene Since 1945 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015)
Mark Fiege, The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States (Seattle, Washington University Press, 2013)
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
If there is insufficient interest, seminars may be canceled and students will make an alternative choice in consultation with their study advisor.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga.
Remarks
N/A