Learning Outcomes:
On completion of the module, students should be able to:
1. Show a general understanding of how environmental sciences developed through colonial and imperial history;
2. Examine in detail the social and environmental context of science in various world regions;
3. Demonstrate a critical awareness of the social impact and legacy of colonial science and landscape transformation;
4. Engage critically with a range of primary and secondary sources;
5. Write scholarly essays and contribute meaningfully to seminar discussion to the standard of a level 3 history student.
Indicative Module Content:
1. History of the science: origins and new approaches
2. The history of science meets environmental history
3. Islands and shorelines: colonial encounters, climate change
4. Coast and continents: settler sciences invade interiors
5. Underlands: mineral resources from silver to fossil fuels
6. Uplands: mountain frontiers and observatory sciences
7. Ice and arctic: Indigenous knowledge and glaciology
8. Arid lands: irrigation projects, climate “restoration”
9. Waterscapes: Atlantic slavery, water infrastructures
10. Fields and plantation: capitalism and “Plantationocene”
11. Histories for future: interview with AP Climate News Editor