Instructors: Nick Bloom and Hannah Cole
Meeting time: Thursday, 3:00-5:30 pm
Canvas Site
Popular culture, religious movements, and newspaper articles alike have warned throughout North American history of the threat of the end of the world. Yet apocalyptic events have already occurred throughout American history - the genocide of Indigenous peoples, the horrors of chattel slavery, and the disastrous impacts of nuclear explosions, to name a few. In this class, we will consider the material histories of several major catastrophic events and the way that people have thought about, critiqued, and sought to survive “the apocalypse.” Moreover, this course will bring the histories, theories, and literatures of past apocalypses to bear upon the apocalyptic anxieties–and perhaps, conditions–of our own moment.
