Spring 2016: Discourse of Disaster
Convener: Valerie Loichot
TA: Josh Jayasundara
Friday 1-4pm
Discourse of Disaster offers an interdisciplinary perspective on representations of disaster, methods of understanding disaster, and practical responses to disaster. We will address the distinction between “natural” and “human-made” disasters; the disaster forcing the disruption of a community; the disaster overwhelming available resources; the vulnerability of the planet; the ethics of disaster; human rights; the position of the witness, survivor, reader and spectator. Guest speakers include professors, professionals, artists, and activists from the fields of literature, film studies, history, African studies, physics, law, theology, medicine, and Public health.